Alaina at 8 Months Old

Dear Alaina,

What a sweet, darling 8 month old you are! You really are such a happy, pleasant baby and having you around just makes our family so much better :) Not a lot has changed over the past month. You're growing like crazy, you're a good eater, and you're a good sleeper. Mommy couldn't ask for anything more!

You have a nice little schedule. I've always just fed you on demand, but you've developed a schedule that works well for all of us. You wake up between 5:30 and 6AM, and I feed you and put you right back to bed. You then sleep until about 8, when you wake up for the day. I nurse you around 8:30, and then we have play time for a while. You love playing in your exersaucer, but your new favorite thing is to sit and play with toys on the floor. You're such a big girl! Aubrey and Jude like to play with you on the floor, too. I just have to make sure there are no small objects in the vicinity when I put you down because everything goes in your mouth :) Around 10, I put you down for your morning nap. You are usually very easy to put down. I rock you for just a minute, and sometimes you pass out and I transfer you to your bed asleep, but a lot of the time I put you down awake and you go to sleep on your own. Sometimes you fuss for a minute, but you almost always go to sleep easily. Your morning nap is about an hour long. I nurse you again around 11:30, and then you eat solids for lunch at about 12:30. The timing of your afternoon nap depends on whether we're picking Aubrey up from school or not, but I nurse you before this nap, and it's between 1:30 and 2:30. You usually sleep for 2 or more hours. Once you're up from that nap, you don't sleep again until bedtime. I nurse you at 5:30, and then you have solids for dinner at about 6:30. I nurse you again before bed between 8 and 8:30.

As of right now, you're only having 2 solid meals a day, but I'm getting ready to add in a third. We're continuing to introduce new foods. You definitely prefer vegetables over fruits. I haven't found a fruit that you just love yet. You hated apples. You tolerate peaches and blueberries. You're NOT a fan of bananas. You know what you are a fan of, though? Broccoli! I wasn't sure if you would go for that, but you seem to love it. You like your solids served slightly warm, and you'd prefer it if they weren't too thick. But you're not high-maintenance at all ;)

As I already mentioned, you sit up great. You're very happy to sit and watch the action. You also roll over all the time now. You're still not one to roll across the room or anything, but you do roll back and forth in your bed, and I've caught you sleeping on your tummy a few times lately. You can pick the pacifier up and put it in your mouth by yourself now. You sat in a highchair at church for the first time last night! We usually just take your carseat in and feed you in that, but Daddy put you in a highchair last night, and you did great. You looked SO old to Mommy!

You now cry when I walk out of a room. You'll be playing happily in your exersaucer, but the minute I walk away, you get upset. You also turn away and lean into Mommy when someone tries to take you from me. I have to admit that I love it :) Gone are the day of being able to walk into the nursery between church and Sunday School to check on you and then walk out without you caring. If you see me, you want me. Sweet, sweet Mama's girl :)

You've been fairly well (health-wise) over the past month. After taking an antibiotic and going to see the chiropractor for an ear infection, you got completely well and stayed well for a couple of weeks. Now, you have a runny nose and cough again :( Who knows if it's a cold or allergies, but we're still doing breathing treatments for now.

You are a growing girl! You weigh around 18 pounds, and you wear a size 3 diaper, size 9 month clothes, and a size 2 shoe :)  Your hair is getting so long, and I love putting bows in your hair. Aubrey definitely didn't have as much hair as you do at this age, so the bow thing is fun :) You still don't have a single tooth. You Howie babies are just late teethers :)

Lainey, you are such a joy! I really mean it when I say that you are just happy. You're rarely fussy and you smile all the time. You just seem to have the sweetest little personality, and I really can't even express how precious I think you are. I can't express how much I love you either, but trust me, it's a LOT :)

Love,
Mommy