Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Jude is 8 Months Old!

Sweet Jude is 8 months old today. It's amazing how fast the months go by. I feel like I was just writing his 7 month post. Jude gets sweeter and sweeter every month, and our love for him and delight over him continues to grow. We are all completely smitten with him, and I think he is pretty fond of us, too :-) We have had another good month with our little man, and here is what he's been up to:

-He is sleeping better and better. We definitely still have rough night and napless days, but things are really getting better. He is sleeping in his own bed in his room all the time now, which has really helped. He usually takes a good morning nap (about an hour long) and a decent afternoon nap (less than an hour). The afternoon nap is definitely the most up in the air. Sometimes he skips it and just ends up taking a cat nap at some point. At night, I feed him and put him to bed between 8:30 and 9. He almost always goes to sleep very easily and sleeps until somewhere between 1 and 3, at which point one of us goes into his room and gives him his paci. We usually have to go in there a couple of times, but he's been going back to sleep and sleeping until the early morning (5-7) without eating. It's been nice! I'm really looking forward to the day when he stops waking up at all and we can get a FULL night of solid sleep, but this is ok for now :-)

-He loves his solids! He still gets 2 solid meals a day - breakfast and dinner. So far, there isn't anything that he just won't eat. Peas aren't his favorite, but he will tolerate them. (Incidentally, Aubrey didn't like peas either. I also happen to HATE peas.) We recently introduced yogurt, and he really likes that. He still nurses every 4 hours or so during the day. He nurses great, but he is very easily distracted. The world around him is just SO interesting! He is also a super fast eater just like Aubrey was. He eats in about 5-10 minutes. I know I totally take this for granted, but I'm reminded of how nice this is when I hear women talking about nursing for an hour or more. I don't know how I would do that with Aubrey running around, so I'm thankful that he eats quickly!

-He doesn't have any teeth yet. It seems like he might follow in his big sister's foot steps and be a late teether. She was a year old before she got her first tooth! ;-)

-He sits up really well. He likes to spend time sitting on the floor playing with toys. He just seems like such a big boy sitting up all by himself! He's not mobile at this point, and that is TOTALLY fine with me. Life is going to get a bit more hectic when I have two mobile children going in opposite directions, I'm sure! Jude really doesn't spend a lot of time on the floor, so it's not surprising that he hasn't started to crawl or scoot around. It occurred to me the other day that I should probably be putting him on the floor more. I'm just worried about him getting trampled, honestly. Ha!

-He still loves his exersaucer. He will play in there for as long as I'll let him. He also likes his jumperoo. We never really put him in his swing anymore. I need to see if he still likes it or just take it down. I can't believe we're already taking "baby stuff" down! It's too soon for that!

-He wears a size 9 or 12 months in clothes. He's a size 2 shoes and still a size 3 diaper. We'll probably be going up a size soon.

-He can put his pacifier in his mouth all by himself when we hand it to him. He can even switch it around to get it pointing in the right direction. He passes toys or the pacifier back and forth from one hand to the other.

-He babbles a little bit. He says "Da Da Da." He laughs and squeals all the time and is constantly smiling.

-He is really happy and easy going. Everyone who keeps him in the nursery tells me what a sweet baby he is. He is pretty much happy with anyone holding him, but I think he does prefer me. At least David says he does, and I believe him because it makes me feel good :-) Jude gets really excited and kicks his little legs when I walk into the room, and I just love that!

-He is starting to get more hair! He still doesn't have a lot (which is TOTALLY fine with me - I think bald babies are the cutest, and I always have!), but the hair that he has seems to be coming in dark. I think he might have brown hair unlike his blonde big sis. His eyes are SO blue, and I'm really hoping they stay blue. Aubrey's eyes have changed over time, and I love her eye color too, but I hope Jude's stay blue like his daddy's :-) Jude also has the longest eyelashes, and I just think his eyes are beautiful.

I'm really trying to enjoy Jude while he still seems like a baby. I know in the next few months, he will learn to crawl, and then walk, and then talk, and my little baby will be replaced with a toddler before I can even blink. This is bittersweet. I'm so excited to see Jude learn to do new things and interact more and more with Aubrey, but I'm also sad that he can't just be my little baby forever. He is absolutely precious, and I know I'll love him more and more in every stage that he enters. I can't imagine loving him more than I do right now, but I know that I will because a mother's love just keeps growing! :-) Happy 8 months, sweet little man! Thank the Lord for such a precious GIFT!

2 comments:

Paige said...

love the naked picture!!! he is getting so big!

Jennifer said...

Carrie, He is so cute and makes me so excited about having my own little boy. It took Evie awhile to sleep through the night too. She did great until we moved to Nashville and then she did not sleep through the night again until almost 11 months.