Week 39: October 7 - 13

I am sorry for being so late the last four updates. Madeleine is a bit clingy these days, and I've got a lot of work-work to do. So annoying! I don't have as much time for fun stuff. AND everyone here is sick. Hope you all are doing well! :)

Nursing

It's going much better! Still hurts at the start of each meal, but it doesn't really last. Also, as of Friday night, Madeleine might be feeling better. She wasn't so focused on eating like she has been lately. I hadn't mentioned it before, but recently, since she's been doing her 20-minute nursing sessions, NOTHING distracts her. NOTHING. But Friday night, my reading was distracting. So that is good. Haha, sorta!

Sleeping

I think (???!?!) we may have figured it out!?!? We've had 4 nights in a row (so far) of putting Madeleine to bed early. Or really, the main change has been feeding her 3 hours after she wakes from her second nap. It's been really good. It takes her a LOT less time to fall asleep, and I talked about this repeatedly for a few weeks. It took anywhere from 15-45 minutes to fall asleep, and she was rolling around, cooing and talking the whole time. These last few nights, it's been 1, 8, 13, 7, and then 7 minutes again. And most of that time was spent very still, with just an occasional little kick or arm movement. I think she was overtired before and so it took a long time to fall asleep.

As for wakeup time, we have four days of data to report. 6am, then 5:15 (boo), 5:49, and 5:40. Not close to the 7am time I want, but Madeleine is getting closer to 12 hours at night. This is GOOD. She's been happier, her naps have been consistently good, and her schedule is actually extending, getting later. I think if we continue this, she'll eventually be able to make it closer to 7pm, and hopefully be caught up on her sleep, and SLEEP til 7AM. This is our hope. Then of course, we have to deal with Daylight Savings Time. But ... we'll give this a little more time.

So. Sunday night, I fed Madeleine at 5:20, and she was in bed by 6pm. However, she didn't fall asleep until about 6:30! I just knew we were in for an early morning, but she slept until 6:27! JUST under 12 hours. She is feeling a lot better, so I suspect the poor sleeping was simply due to being sick! It needs more evidence, but that's where I am right now.

Solids/Food

Going well. Though we suspect that Madeleine has developed some kind of allergy to dairy foods. In the last two weeks, we've noticed red splotches around her mouth when she's eaten cheese. We'd noticed red splotches when she put metal in her mouth. So this week, we did some tests to see for sure. I gave her cheddar cheese alone, and she barely touched it. Then I gave her some quiche, with cheese in it, and she ate that but got splotches. On Saturday, we gave her yogurt, which she's loved in the past. She barely touched it, and got the red around her mouth. So, no more dairy, and we'll be talking to the doctor at her 9-month checkup. There haven't been any other symptoms, just the splotches and avoidance. It's just weird that it would pop up now and not at the beginning. *SHRUGS*

Madeleine loves biscuits. We've bought a few from Chick-fil-A lately, and Madeleine clearly swallows a lot of her parts of biscuit. It also seems that she's really getting into food more. She ate a lot of zucchini this week, and whenever there's food out, she wants some. A lot. :)

By the book...

According to "Your Baby's First Year, Week by Week," during this week, Madeleine:
1. Climbs (OH! She's been climbing over low obstacles for a couple of weeks!)
2. Crawls up stairs (we don't have any...)
3. Clasps hands (she has been doing this for weeks. No clapping yet, though...)
4. Follows simple instructions (kinda? She obeyed when I told her "no" this week...)
5. Is becoming afraid of heights (I wish! She still has no fear of edges of furniture.)
6. May begin to protect herself and possessions (not yet)
7. Performs for audiences; repeats act if applauded (she's been looking for approval from onlookers for a long time. Not sure if that's the same thing? Doesn't really repeat)

New Things

Madeleine has started really talking a lot. A LOT. It is SO adorable. No words, of course, but she makes word noises. "Dadadadada", "mumumumumumu" and "Dahdahdahdahdah" are favorites. I cannot really describe her little voice, but I LOVE hearing her talk. I'll try to get a video up of her talking soon. We haven't been too good with videos lately.....

She also LOVES standing. There is nothing she would rather do. She's getting so good at it, too. She stands with one hand, walks around the outside of the exersaucer, pulls up on furniture. On Friday, I put her in a big cardboard box, and she started moving around the edge of the box, going from one side to the next and so on. Box is the new basket!! At least, for Friday. The sides are taller, which helped, but when she fell, it wasn't as good as the basket. That didn't stop her, however, from wanting to GET BACK UP and KEEP STANDING AND MOVING!!

Misc

CONGESTION: Finally, as of Friday, I think she's on the mend. She's generally happier, and as I mentioned above, the nursing times are starting to go down. YAY!

CRAWLING: Madeleine still doesn't really crawl in the traditional sense. She would MUCH rather spend her time standing and practicing that. We have to work to get her to crawl because she gets unhappy if she isn't standing. LOL. However, this week, we've noticed that she's been moving with a lot more belly clearance than in previous weeks. She just has never taken off like we'd been warned. Not sure what to think.

As of Monday, Madeleine is clearly feeling better after her bout of congestion. The first evidence was the decreased nursing before bed. Only that nursing time was affected though; still ate 20 minutes every other time. For her second meal Monday, she ate only 14 minutes. She doesn't cry immediately upon being set down. Matt put her on the floor and stood up, and no tears! She crawled a whole bunch today. She played by herself for longer than she has in a while. She is happier. More alert, less fussy. YAY MY BABY IS HEALTHY AGAIN!!

On Wednesday, however, Madeleine started to have a runny nose again. *grumbles*

There are some pictures of Madeleine with Layla in the slideshow. Layla was a super sweetie one day, letting Madeleine lean against her while standing. Layla just stood there for a long time beside baby. At one point, Matt gave her a good petting, so Layla moved, but then she returned to standing just behind Madeleine--who again leaned on her. :)

Teething Update

I guess they are what they are. Probably won't do another one of these until there's more to say or show! [Click to see bigger]:




Slideshow

Video of the week!