Slate at 8 Months

Our Slate Rowan is Eight. Months. Old!

It sounds so weird saying it out loud because my mind cannot wrap around the fact that 8 months have passed since our guy came into this world. It is sad that my little baby boy is not so little any more and he does not want to be held like a baby (already!). Yet, the past few months have definitely not been easy. I feel we have had very many obstacles to overcome and still have more.  Following a stressful pregnancy and early delivery, we have had a NICU stay, physical development delays, a leukemia scare, terrible reflux, a milk protein allergy, middle of the night ER trip, and probably more that I do not even remember....  All that on top of the normal baby things like teething, waking up in the middle of the night, pumping breastmilk, shots,  napping schedules, feeding strikes, etc.

To say the least, I am happy to have that behind us and hope to be heading into less-stressful times in the coming months.  Never do I want to wish away these moments, but it is hard not to do so when you feel your baby is in pain or not happy.  This boy is COMPLETELY different from his sister as a baby. He is serious and temperamental and very opinionated!  He can be happy one minute and mad as ever the next. He loves Mom, Dad, and Saylor, but really only tolerates other people. HAHA!

It has been such a whirlwind these past few months and I have wanted to write out as many details as possible this first year so I can look back here when I (inevitably) forget these tiny details, but here I am at 8 MONTHS doing it for the first time. Mom of the Year, right?!?  Haha! I am just going to choose to give myself some grace here and know that I am doing the best I can during this season :).  (because I really don't have another choice, right?!)

Sleep

Slate has been sleeping through the night since about 3.5 months!  Sleeping 12 hours a night since then with pretty much ZERO setbacks. Teething, being sick, etc. does not seem to affect his nighttime sleep.  {Thank goodness}  He occasionally wakes up 30 minutes early but doesn't bother us at night!  He sleeps 7-7 every night.  He was sleeping on his back in the Magic Merlin sleep suit, however last week he decided to roll to his tummy (in the suit) and sleep.  We then decided to take him out of the suit and let him sleep in just his PJs and a sleep sack.  It didn't seem to bother him a bit and he sleeps just fine now without the suit, rolling all over the crib all night.  HAHA

Teeth

We got our first tooth this week(bottom right tooth) and it was a doozy!! We did ALL the "natural" remedies and nothing helped take the pain away except a Motrin and Tylenol combination.  However, the tooth is through and now the one right beside it is popping through also!

Weight

about 18 pounds! He us SO tall and skinny--taking after Dad!

Eating

We started BLW right at 6 months and have also been doing puree's. I would say just once a day we offer a solid and the rest of the day he eats veggie purees.  We have chosen NOT to offer fruit or anything sweet until sometime after he turns one.  We want to see if this will help him learn to like veggies, unlike his sister who just likes mostly fruit.  We will see... :)

We are still on Nanny Care Goat Milk formula, which is costing us a small fortune each month. $455 to be exact.  This month we tried to switch to a cheaper formula (still goat milk) and it went horribly! Slate was miserable and refused to eat the new formula after a few days on it.  Probably because he was vomiting up most of it :(.  Poor guy.  I felt terrible for even trying it just to save some money. He is back on the Nanny Care and back to eating again though.

He currently eats 4 bottles a day:  7-11-3-7 PM.  He eats 4-6 ounces for the first 3 bottles and 8 right before bed. He is pretty hard to feed a bottle these days because he wants to move around so much!

Skills

Slate just started sitting up at 7 months and is still a bit wobbly now at 8.  He can now roll both ways but he really is just chill being in one spot and not rolling around all over the place.  We go to physical therapy once  week since he is behind physically, but he has made a lot of improvement between 7 and 8 months so we are happy he is finally improving! He has low muscle tone and we are hoping that the new skills will help with that.  We plan to reassess at 9 months and see if we need to continue therapy. For now, our PT has us constantly put him in the "crawl" position to help him get a feel for that next milestone.

Personality

Slate is a very grumpy baby, but he has the BEST BIGGEST smile when he is happy!  We all try and kiss the grump out of him daily, even Saylor!  I plan to tell him about all this when he is older and has a grumpy baby of his own!  HAHA!

Waketimes

He can now stay awake for about 3 hours each time and even a bit longer before bed-- normally 3.5 or 4 hours before bed.

Schedule

What has worked best for us now is a 2-3-4 schedule since we have gone to 2 naps!

7:30- wake and bottle 1(6 ounces)

9:00- eat solids

9:30-11:00: Nap 1

11:30- Bottle 2(6 ish ounces)

1:30- eat solids

2:00-3:30: Nap 2

3:30- Bottle 3(6 ish ounces)

5:00- eat solids

7:00- Bottle(#4)and then straight down for bed (8 ounces)

Naps

Oh this guy does NOT like to nap!  I thought by now he would be napping consistently...NOPE.  We are down to two naps, but they generally are only 1 hour each and 1.5 the second one if we are lucky.  I was stressing about this since Saylor napped so well, but now I am just going to let it go and chalk it up to sleep needs.  I guess his is lower than Saylor :).  We have tried everything in the {Babywise} book and NO success.  I surrender.  LOL

Favorite Toys

He loves his jumper and his toy car right now.  He is SO crazy in his jumper!  We tried the pink car for a walk this week and he didn't seem to LOVE it, but he didn't cry....so I'll call that a win!

Loves

Sweet potatoes, music, sitting in Dad's lap while he plays piano, watching Saylor, teething crackers, baths with sister, standing up on his feet, "talking" really loud, PEANUT BUTTER, Lola, anything Mom does in a high-pitched voice, "dancing" to get our attention when we are not paying attention to him.

Other

We tried taking him off Zantac for his reflux this month and it was a complete DISASTER!  Per our pediatrician, we will try again at 9 months!