Eight Months

I looked at Neil's baby book and I haven't updated it since I went back to work. Oops. I'm so glad I'm at least posting monthly so I can remember some things to write in there!

Eight months, here we are. Wow. Every month I can't believe how quickly time is flying and it's not stopping. What's with that? ;) And I'm sure this makes me sound like a broken record.

Neil is finally rolling but on his terms. I really think he's just showing his stubbornness. Gee, I wonder where he got that from... He definitely sits well and can stand fairly well holding onto things. I stay really close to him though. He can fall backwards to a sitting position just fine but when he falls forward he hits his head and gets pretty upset. I try not to be too protective but I hate to see him hurt himself!

I took this picture right around 6 months. This was the first time he stood holding onto something and I was able to step back. He didn't last very long, but long enough for me to take a few pictures at least.

This is the same toy at almost 8 months. Neil is much stronger at standing, still holding onto something,
 but I can actually move back and leave him there for a little bit (I sit right next to him still though). 

Neil isn't crawling and I've asked them at daycare if they think he's behind, and they say no. Even now, he can roll, but he doesn't roll all over the place. The most movement we see is in his crib at night actually. He's all over the place then.

Earlier this past month (closer to 7 months) he started shaking his head back and forth like he's saying no but I don't think it's to say no. He has been doing this for months when he's in the crib trying to fall asleep, so I think it has been a calming thing for him. But now he actually does it awake and on purpose, thinks it's funny, and laughs.

Speaking of laughing, this kid is so darn happy! I love it. He has his moments but he definitely smiles a whole lot and likes to laugh. What a great kid.

Just in the last few days Neil has also started clapping. We've been singing Bingo with him and clapping so I don't know if that helped but it's so cute to see him clap!

We're still adding to what Neil eats and he's getting good with his pincher grip and starting to feed himself. For the most part he still isn't grabbing for the spoon but I'm sure that's not far behind at this point. The only food that he's been questionable about is prunes. And even that, after a few tries, he's been fine with (I think). I still try to make homemade food/purees for him but we do mix in store bought and he's eating those puff things now.

I think Neil has some slight separation anxiety. Daycare probably helps with this (he's used to being with other people/caretakers). But when I'm around, sometimes he will cry if I just walk out of the room and he seems to only want me. I try to just do what I was going to do anyways because I don't want this to become a habit. We'll see if it works.

I will try to make a separate post but we went to visit my sister (Aunt Megan) in Savannah and Neil had a bunch of firsts, including his first time in the ocean and his first plane rides.

Sleeping at night is still going well. Although about 10 minutes after we put him in the crib he wakes up crying. I'm not sure what's going on there. And knock on wood I think we're getting this nap thing down. If we follow the routine they have at daycare it seems to work. He does cry every time we put him down for a nap but it only lasts 5-10 minutes and sometimes he sleeps for a few hours. If he takes naps at home with us, that is a huge relief! That was one of the things I was kind of stressing out about.

And again no teeth. We always say he must be about to get some teeth but nope, not yet.

Sound wise, Neil has "ma" down for sure and we're trying to figure out if he is using it to call to me. Sometimes I really think he is and other times I'm not so sure. He also definitely says ba, da, and he actually added the ffff sound every so often. He has also gotten pretty vocal so I try to pause to let him do his talking if I'm talking to him.

Daycare has also started sign language so I'm trying to use it at home. The two main words we're using right now are "more" and "milk". So we'll see how that goes. Neil definitely watches what I'm doing with my hands.

Neil also seems to understand a lot of what we're saying and doing. I downloaded a few kid's apps on my phone. One of them had a kitten on it and I asked Neil where the kitty was. He started looking for our cat, haha. I tried to explain that this was another kitty on my phone. He also does respond; I ask him to look at me and he does (when he wants to). I can ask him to do things or questions and I can tell he listens and understands to some extent. It's really really cool to see.

Work wise I'm going to be 100% honest. I'm really starting to struggle with the work thing. Financially I need to work but I miss Neil so much during the day and I have precious little time with him. I get to work about 6:15am every morning, so I pump before I leave and Dave feeds him a bottle after he wakes up and before daycare. So the only time I see him is for a few hours after we get home. It's really wearing on me and the weekends just don't seem long enough. At all. But I also know I don't have a choice so I'm working really hard to just suck it up and deal with it. But I have to admit it's probably affecting my attitude at work. If anyone has tips for how to be more positive, I'll take them!

Exercise for me... Well, with the few hours I have with Neil every evening, including spending time with him, nursing him, feeding him, and trying to make his baby food, I just have a really hard time doing anything else. Dave already helps a lot and I don't want to dump more on him with Neil. BUT I signed up for the half marathon relay in Hershey and wow it's only a few weeks away. I'm in big big trouble. I really don't know if I can do 6.7 miles faster than a 14:00 pace. What a change from when I ran the Pittsburgh half marathon before I got pregnant! So my goal is to run every other day, even if it's just a mile. We'll see how that goes. I need to somehow build up some endurance and I have slacked off too much.