I am quite behind on this post, as Clara is now 8.5 months old. We've had a tough winter with the flu and colds. Poor Clara has caught just about every winter bug.
Where to start? This month has been filled with incredible development and change. Everyone says the baby stage goes quickly. Life has become so busy with the two girls, that Clara has grown and changed at a pace wayyy beyond what I remember with Nora. That being said, while I mourn her growing up too quickly, I continue to love every stage even more and am sooo excited to learn what Clara will be like. Her personality is really beginning to shine through.
Personality traits so far: Loving, very cuddly, very social (smiling at strangers) but always wants "her people" within eye sight, not easy going (likes routine), playful and energetic.
D E V E L O P M E N T
Clara is CRAWLING (as of March 3rd). While my parents were in town visiting, Nora was able to move herself forward about three movements and was scooting herself backwards (unintentionally). a few days after they left, she figured it out and took off. She is now a professional with serious skill and can keep up with the family pretty well. She has also become more adventurous, exploring the house solo. Anyone who knows Clara knows she is pretty attached to "her people." So, this is a BIG change. My absolute favorite to watch is when she crawls on a slippery surface. She drags her right leg underneath her for extra stability
She has also started pulling up on EVERYTHING. Initially, she was pulling up on her Fisher Price Bright Beats toy (which has progressive standing levels). Now, she can pull up on just about anything. We are quickly putting things away that she manages to pull down on herself and child proofing even more. Pretty soon, I'm pretty sure our house is going to look empty.
This girl has peek-a-boo down. She has started pulling things over her face herself and proudly plays the game with out much help. We are working on "Clara is SO big..." at the moment.
S L E E P
Sleep is still a significant work in progress for this little lady (and her parents). Clara usually naps well during the day. She sleeps from 9 am-10:30/11 am and 2 pm to 3:30/4 pm. There is some variability in this and sometimes she takes three shorter naps instead. She is usually up by 6:30 am and wakes up happy and babbling. However, with the time change and a bad cold, things have gotten interesting.
Clara will only nap in her bed. Nora would always sleep on the go in her car seat. Clara will NOT sleep unless it is completely quiet and according to her sleep routine. Nap time has been somewhat of a challenge because we have to work it around Nora's preschool schedule. I think Clara would do better with a three short daytime nap schedule, but it won't work on Nora's school days.
Clara usually loves bedtime. We still give her a bath every night with lavender soap, quick infant massage and rock her for a few minutes. She is usually so tired, she doesn't fight sleep at all and goes to bed quickly. However, during the night she continues to wake up every 2-4 hours. Sometimes she goes back to sleep very easily and other times she requires some rocking and cuddling for longer. Luckily (knock on wood), she has not been waking up alert and ready to play during the night.
Because sleep has been such an issue for us (waking up 1-4+ times per night), I attended a sleep seminar at Nora's preschool given by a sleep-expert RN from one of the largest sleep centers nationally. She had some great words of wisdom... yet to be implemented on our end. Clara has been sick with a cold and teething badly, which is not ideal time for sleep training (which can mean many different things).
Nancy (the sleep RN) explained that parents fail sleep training for a myriad of reasons. Primary reasons are:
1) Not having a concrete plan that both parents are comfortable with. Do we go in the room? At what kind of intervals? How long are we comfortable with her crying? How do we comfort when we go in the room?
2) Inconsistency. Daytime and night time methods MUST be the same. Babies do not know the difference. Sleep is sleep. The difficult part of this for me is feeding. I can't feed Clara at any of the wakings overnight for the training to work. Otherwise, she would see this as a "slot machine." "If I keep waking, eventually I'll get fed."
Hopefully, by next month I'll be able to report we developed a sleep training plan that fits our family....and it worked!
E A T S
Clara now has two teeth. They arrived February 15th and 26th (the bottom middle ones). They are finally in enough that you can see them peek through in her smile.
While purees still go down the best, we have adventured to a variety of textures. We try to give her most things we eat (in much smaller pieces). With being so sick, she has gagged on more textures than typical.
Favorites include oat cereal, a puree of sunbutter, blueberry, apple banana and chia seeds, bread, tortellini, brown rice, quinoa, and cheerios.
Whatever she eats, this girl is a MESS. My mom would say..."It's karma."
T H E S C H E D U L E
6:30 am wake-up (+ BF)
7:30 am breakfast
9:00 am Nap (+ BF)
11:30 am lunch
1:30 Nap (+ BF)
4:00 BF
5:30 pm Dinner
6:15 Bathtime
7:00 Bedtime (+ BF)
BF 1-3x overnight
F A V O R I T E S
- Still obsessed with bath time. It doesn't matter how fussy she is- baths calm her right down. She will splash and play till the cows come home. She has made me really nervous this month crawling back and forth in the tub and trying to put her face under the water. She still shrieks when bath time is over.
- Loves to stand. She pulls up on EVERYTHING, with a great big smile.
- Loves to cuddle. She will crawl up and lay her head down on your leg or snuggle right in if you are laying on the floor. She still loves being rocked before bed (and complains loudly when you put her down). While she loves to crawl, she would rather be on your hip.
- Clara loves her sister. She watches Nora intently and will follow her around the house. Nora is usually not so keen on this, but loves giving Clara kisses before bed. This is the sweetest thing because Clara's face just lights up when Nora kisses her.
- Her favorite toys are anything of Noras, her B. activity cube (Nora's first birthday present), the Fisher Price Bright Beats light up toy, keys and B. Blocks.
- She LOVES to crawl under chairs, tables, beds and is constantly bonking her head.
- She can find any outlet, cord, left over crumb. I'm constantly on the lookout to make sure shes not into something. I think shes going to be our little mischief maker.
- She loves to crawl in Nora's teepee. She plays peekaboo or will just sit in there with Nora and play. We are thinking she will need a teepee (or play house) also for her second birthday or next Christmas.
T H E S T A T S
We didn't have a doctors visit this month, but per our home scale she was 14.6 lb (5th%). She is still recovering from being so sick with the flu and the repeated colds. Hopefully she takes off from here!
Pictures:
Xo!
Caity
