Changes

When Carter was really little, I used to make the comment all the time that just as I figured something out with him and got comfortable with doing something one way, he'd change and I'd have to figure out something new.

It seems though that I've been almost too comfortable with him the last few months. I've gotten almost scared to change things or try new things. He's still been changing a lot (crawling, getting into everything, etc) but adapting to those changes have been easy. Carter's actually A LOT easier now that he's mobile. He hates being stuck in one place and gets bored so easily that being able to explore has made him so happy (and thus makes me a lot happier!).

Changing Carter's naps to his crib was one of those things that really scared me but it has been going well. If we're home all day, he's usually taking three naps in his crib that are at least 30 minutes. Some days one of the naps is for an hour.

The next change that scares me right now is transitioning to more solid food. It's been easy to give Carter a single pureed fruit or vegetable a couple of times a day. But figuring out adding in more foods like meats and pasta is intimidating me right now. I'm not sure how much to feed him and how to mix foods together. I'm sure I'll figure it out - I have with everything else. I just want to make sure I'm giving Carter enough food and a good variety of food.

For the past couple of months, Carter's feeding schedule has basically followed this schedule:

6:30 am (or whenever Carter wakes up) - Breastfeed
7:30 am-ish - Oatmeal or Rice Cereal
10:00 am - Breastfeed
1:00 pm - Pureed Fruit & Breastfeed
4:30 pm - Pureed Vegetable & Breastfeed
7:30 pm - Breastfeed
Sometime between 1 am and 4am - Breastfeed

I can't wait until Carter starts sleeping through the night. I could probably force him into skipping his night time feeding but he still seems to want it. Plus he's still a tiny kid so I want to make sure he's getting enough nutrition to keep growing.

Yogurt

Today's new food was yogurt.


Carter thought it was very yummy! He ate all 4 oz right up!



I love this face!

Carter vs Chair

Here's a funny crawling video from today. Carter isn't letting anything get in his way!

Chicken

Carter FINALLY tried a new food today - chicken. I've been really bad about introducing anything new the last few weeks. But I had pretty much given Carter everything in the 6-8 month list on the website I've been using (www.wholesomebabyfood.com).

I took some cold chicken I had poached the other day and chopped it up in the food processor. Then I added some water to it to make it SORT OF creamy.


Carter ate it willingly at first but he was a little out of it because he'd just woken up from a short nap (notice the fist print on his forehead).


He ate 10-15 bites and then didn't want any more.


Carter wouldn't eat any applesauce once he was done with the chicken so I think he was just tired of eating and didn't necessarily decide he didn't like the chicken.


Carter and I went to the pool after lunch. We were the only ones there until right before we were leaving. It was really nice to have the huge pool all to ourselves!

Growing

Carter is getting so long. Lots of people have been telling me that he's grown so much since they last saw him just a few weeks ago. Sarah pointed out to me today that his feet are now reaching the edge of his Maclaren stroller seat. A growth spurt would explain a lot. Carter's been waking up a lot at night this past week and I've been feeding him a couple times a night because he seems hungry.

Napping went okay today. Carter took two 30 minute naps in his crib today with a long nap in his stroller in between the short naps while we walked with Sarah and Mary Grace after Books and Blooms.

Carter is doing great with his pincer grasp all of a sudden! Both Sarah and Brian noticed today that he's good at grabbing Cheerios. He likes to put them in his mouth between is upper and lower front teeth and chomp down on them.

8 Months Old

Carter is 8 months old today.


And he said "mama"! I had him in the jogging stroller this morning and I was sitting in front of him tying my shoes. He stretched his hand out towards me, looked at me, and said "mama". He's said it a few more times today but not necessarily to me. But I'm claiming that he said his first word today and it was mama!


I've been really working on getting Carter to take naps in his crib this week (finally, I know). Yesterday was a complete disaster and the only time he slept was on me after nursing (and during his run with Brian about an hour before bedtime). Today, however, has been a complete success. He took 3 naps in his crib! They were for 1 hour, 25 minutes, and 35 minutes. I've been rocking him in the glider in his room for just a couple of minutes before putting him down. He has been almost asleep when I put him in the crib. I'm going to tackle putting him in his crib fully awake soon but I want him to get used to naps in there first. I seriously doubt tomorrow will be anywhere near as good as today, but at least it's a start!

Next I need to tackle putting him to bed at night awake instead of letting him fall asleep on me when he's nursing and then putting him in his bed after holding him upright for 15 minutes. He's still spitting up if he moves too much right after eating or gets real upset. That's why I've still been putting it off.


Carter had his first taste of Charlotte's food today. Charlotte tends to take one piece of food out of her bowl and eat it in a different part of the house. Sometimes she'll drop it and forget to eat it. Carter crawled into the dining room this afternoon and I followed him in about 5 seconds later and noticed that he looked like he was chewing. I put a finger in his mouth and pulled out a piece of Charlotte's food. What scares me is that he could choke on it. I've been trying to be careful to pick up any stray food and also not let Carter get to Charlotte's food bowl. We may have to find a new location for her food or make her start eating it all at once instead of grazing all day like she does now.


I weighed myself this morning for the first time in awhile. I am now at 124.5 lbs. So that is 2.5 lbs less than when I got pregnant. I have 7.5 lbs to go to get to my target "happy" weight.

Cheerios

I find Cheerios in all sorts of places when Carter finishes a snack. There are usually several in his romper or onesie.

I noticed today that Carter has added the "ma" sound to his vocabulary. He's had "da" for awhile. He hasn't said an isolated "dada" or "mama" yet - he usually mixes "da" and "ma" up with other sounds. If I work with him some and keep repeating "dada" and "mama", I bet he'll be able to say them soon!

Look what I can do ...

Carter crawled onto the base of his Exersaucer twice today. The first time I had to help him out but he pulled himself out the second time.

He's getting better at crawling. He's still mainly using his arms but is getting better at using his feet to push himself forward. He keeps getting himself stuck though under chairs and other places where he can't turn around because he hasn't figured out how to crawl backwards yet.

Carter is getting up on his knees a little bit and will rock back and forth so he may be getting closer to figuring out a normal crawl.

Carter is starting to grind his top and bottom front teeth all the time. It's driving me nuts - it sounds awful! I haven't heard him doing it in his sleep, just during the day.

I ran out of size 2 Swaddlers today so Carter is now wearing the size 3 Cruisers. He could still wear the smaller diapers for a little bit but I don't know if he'd outgrow them before we finished another giant box. I've been putting him in the bigger diapers at night since he starting sleeping on his tummy which stopped him from leaking so we already have a lot of them.

Touch a Truck

We stopped by the Touch a Truck event at Chick-fil-A today. They had lots of different types of trucks there - a dump truck, garbage truck, National Guard Hummer, fire truck, ambulance, the Ice Bears bus, school buses, a fork lift, and more - and it was free! Carter will definitely enjoy it next year - he was a bit too young to get much out of it. Though he did like looking at all the people.






Later in the afternoon my mom took Carter and me shopping for some new toys. She had a gift card for Target and decided to spend it on Carter - thanks!

Carter rode in the cart for the first time. He didn't really like it too much.


Carter got some cool new toys!


Hopefully Carter will like these keys as much my keys!


He also got this bubble maker. He liked watching the bubbles blow away.


My mom had also brought along this toy for Carter. He's a little small for it right now, but I'm sure it won't be long before he's pushing it around and then riding it!

Spruce Flats Falls

My mom and I took Carter hiking in the Smokies today. We just did a short hike up to Spruce Flats Falls (2 miles round trip) since there was a pretty good chance of afternoon thunderstorms. It's not too difficult of a hike but there are a lot of rocky sections that take a lot more care to climb over when I have Carter on my back.





There was only two other people at the falls when we got there but we saw a bunch of large groups heading up as we hiked back to the car. There's not much of a pool at the base of the falls but most people were dressed to go swimming.

My mom tried to go swimming! She slipped on some rocks at the falls and both of her feet were completely under water. She squished a lot hiking back to the car but wasn't hurt.

Carter seems like he may be starting to get over his cold but mine is getting worse. I wish I could take some cold medicine so I could breathe at night and sleep better but it effects my milk supply too much. I'm thinking of trying to sleep in a recliner tonight so I may be able to breathe some. Hopefully we'll both be better soon!