8 months

Rachel just turned 8 months old.  A few days ago we held a friend's new 5 day old.  Wow!  What a difference in these two little beings.  The little newborn, just over 7 lbs, was the teensiest little thing and Rachel seemed like a giant in comparison.  Everyone told us it would happen... but babies do grow!

So what is new with Rachel?  She's getting harder to take good pictures of, since she's always on the move.  Here are the things going on in her world.

Sleep - about a month ago we started sleep training and for about 3 weeks Rachel has slept from 7pm-5am straight without getting up.  We even put tinfoil over her windows to keep it dark in her room, hoping she would sleep a little longer in the morning.  On a great day she'll sleep until 6:30am.  On 'bad days' she'll wake at 4:30am and we'll try to encourage her to keep sleeping.  Two months ago we would have laughed at the thought of a 'bad day' being over 9 hours without waking!

Naps - Project Nap was the next thing to work on when night times improved.  Rachel has never been a good napper.  Even as a newborn she never slept like other babies.  Until recently, she was the queen of 30 minute cat naps here and there.  But she was getting crabby and needy toward the late afternoon... so we decided to make naps a bigger priority.  This hasn't been easy for us.  It means being home every morning and every afternoon for crib time.  It means we aren't as good at being able to run around and do anything we like at any time.  But Rachel will sleep for 60-90 min every morning and every afternoon, and will go down without nearly as much fuss.  She will still sometimes sleep in her car seat or stroller if we're going on a trip or a long run.  We're getting to be those scheduled parents we never really wanted to be.  But it does make for a happier little girl and better rested parents.

Rachel eats rice cakes

Eating / drinking - This is a fun time in the world of eating and drinking.  Rachel can hold a cup with a little water in it and safely drink the water by herself.  She can hold her own milk bottle to drink it, too.  Today, she ate the following foods over her 3 meals: cereal, breastmilk, pears, strawberries, applesauce, yogurt, banana, sweet potato, chicken, carrot, squash, Cheerios, toast, rice cakes, turkey, tofu, green beans, black beans, cauliflower and strawberries. Phew!  The only food she has outright rejected has been pasta.  Imagine that!  We both LOVE pasta and she can't stand it.  She's also not a fan of green beans unless they are pureed.  She's having less and less puree and more and more solid food which really just means more MESS!!!

Playing (Mommy almost wrote "motor skills" here) - No major milestone has been reached since she could sit well on her own (5.5-6 months).  But she is getting better at moving around and is trying all sorts of new things.  She can roll across the floor to get at something.  She tries to do little pushes like crawling but gets frustrated and can't keep herself up on her hands and knees for very long.  She can move from sitting to lying on her side and is close to pushing herself back up to sitting.  She can pull herself up to stand, but isn't very good at this yet.  She does enjoy playing in standing but doesn't really get how it works yet.  She frequently lets go with her hands to play with a toy and falls over. 

Language - At this point, I don't think we'd put money on Rachel being a linguist.  She's a pretty quiet (I know, whose child is this?!) and laid back gal.  She doesn't make too many sounds and isn't doing the "da-da-da" or "ga-ga-ga" sounds you'd expect of an infant her age.  No teeth yet, either!

We love our little girl and hope you enjoy these little tidbits of her world.