Teagan is 8 months old now!!! She is such a little joy to be around (as long as she isn't teething.. more on that later) and watch grow and discover the world! I'm not sure what her stats are at the moment because we don't have another appointment until next month (9 month checkup). But I know she's growing and putting on weight.. either that or her clothes are shrinking and I'm getting weaker... I'm going to go with the first thought haha.
Heres a little fun pic I did when Teagan reached her 33 week post gestation:
Teagan now says mama and dada ALL the time.. Dada when she's happy and MAAAMMMMMAAAAAAAAA!! when she's not so happy... example: I give her food: "Hi dada!! MMMMMM DADA!!!!"... nap time: mmmMMMAAAAAAMMMAAAAA (insert whiny whine here) mmmmaaaAAAAAMMMAAAAaaaa ... wakes up from a nap or in general wakes up "dada!! HIIII DDAAADDDAAA!!! dadadadada.... but who goes and gets her? ME... wet diaper: MMMAAAAAMMMMMAAAAA.. you get the idea haha
Speaking of diapering, yes we still cloth diaper and the struggle now is NOT buying more... there are SO MANY cute prints out and I have to keep telling myself we don't need anymore.. the reason we cloth is so we SAVE money. haha the only thing I have to do with the diapers now is replace some of the elastic in them (want a post on how to do that?) because they are getting stretched out so..... MOM I know you read this... next time you visit I have a project for you to help me with!! **hint hint**
Teeth: Teagan now has FOUR teeth!!! FOUR!!! AND she uses them... in a way I feel like she's a puppy with all the bite marks on me hehe but with the teething comes a crabby baby. I tried orajel and that didn't work really well... AND sleep didn't go so well either with her, my baby who was previously sleeping through the night, went back to a newborn schedule of 3ish hours. BUT I have AMAZING neighbors (who have been parents way longer then me) and they gave me some teething tablets (how did I not know about these little magic chewy things!?) and they did the trick until her tooth finally cut through!!
So with her sleep (minus the two weeks it took to cut the last tooth) Teagan has been sleeping about 8-9.5 hours a night before wanting a diaper change then she sleeps another 2-3 hours before her day starts. Then she takes 2-3 naps a day lasting about an hour and 20 min (yes she's that specific) I've recently moved her bed time up from 9-10 7:30 to 8:30 and she's transitioned pretty well with it :) On the note of transitions: I'm going to do a post soon on how I transitioned Teagan from the saddle (the ones I used to do so) AND how she now sleeps in HER room!
Mobility: Teagan is SUPER mobile now! she still army crawls with the best of them (SO FAST!!) she REFUSES to even try a four legged crawl (aint nobody got time for that) BUT she's working really hard on walking! she can walk really well with support, weather it be from me or the hubby or using her walker thing. She also creeps across pretty much anything she can pull herself up on. ie the baby gate, couch, storage thing for her toys (she tried climbing up her teepee... learned about gravity real fast) So I've got a good feeling that she may walk before she "properly" crawls.
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| "Don't just sit there and laugh at me! Let me in!" |
Food: Teagan still gets her main nutrition from breast milk but as many of you know we have been doing baby led weaning and have had a lot of success with it! We started off with the recommended fruits and vegetables for her age month and have slowly added new foods and textures as she has gotten more teeth and mastered a food. So, Teagan now can eat pretty much all foods (except honey and strait cows milk) in baby sized form. And since she has teeth she LOVES to eat (or nibble and share the rest with the dogs... they are best friends when this happens). Some of her favorites: watermelon, chicken, pasta, and most recently cottage cheese. She also loves pretty much any fruit that I put in front of her: banana, apple, mango, pear, peaches, nectarines, plums (ok, not plums so much but I think the one I gave her wasn't quite ready yet) blueberries, and most recently she's been "nomming" (her quote) down strawberries. I have to admit that more recently I've kinda slacked on veggies but she for sure does enjoy avocado, steamed broccoli, carrots, corn (the dogs really like when she has corn because she discovered she has a pretty good throwing arm with this one) lettuce (she makes some great faces with this one) and cooked bell pepper. Some of the grains she's had is oats, toast, different kinds of rice, pasta... well anyway you get the point. Pretty much at this time she has a mini version of what we eat and she (and the dogs) loves meal time.
A little update on me since I haven't done one in a while: I'm still pre pregnancy weight, but not the shape, which as you moms out there know is frustrating when 8 months out you still are wearing the pregnancy clothes. But I've been picking up my exercise and in doing that I've also been getting physical therapy for my knee pain. At this point (almost 3 months) of therapy my legs are getting super toned again.. but my knee still hurts. So, at my next doctors appointment I'm going to get a referral for an MRI so we can get an idea of something is torn or not. Part of me feels that if something IS torn it's super frustrating to continue spending money (co pays add up when they make you go two times a week for two months!) on physical therapy trying to fix an issue that only surgery can. However IF something is torn, I do see the benefit from physical therapy strengthening the surrounding muscles to make recovery from a possible surgery that much quicker. Anyway I digress and will continue to update you all on that area of fun.
Teagan starting to eat real food and get teeth has been an interesting transition for me. As I stated before, she still breastfeeds, but now it's like a game of Russian roulette: is she going to bite me this time? How hard? how often? She does feed less often now and for a shorter amount of time (but that's totally normal). I recently worked through a bad clogged duct so I wouldn't get mastitis (all mom's out there know this one!) so that was fun... not. With all this "fun" I have found myself reminding myself that I've committed to a year (at least) of breast feeding and that even through the not so fun pain, I'm providing her with the super nutrition that's kept her really healthy and no sickness (knock on wood) yet. But on the especially bite-full days.... I tell her she's getting closer and closer to getting cut off (these threats do nothing... but make me feel better at the moment haha).
Other then those struggles I've enjoyed watching Teagan get bigger and discover more and more of her world each day. Which brings me to how we have been working on keeping her engaged and her little mind working! We have basically now dedicated our entry room of our house to her playroom:
This is kinda what we started with (up until a couple weeks ago) to the right of this picture we used to have a table and four chairs (now upstairs in our loft) but ever since Teagan got mobile she started climbing all over it and trying to climb up the chairs so we took that baby danger out of the equation.
My neighbors graciously gave me their old entertainment center (I believe you can get this at IKEA?) when they got a new one and its worked out great as a spot to store all Teagan's toys, supplies and diapers! to the left is where the dirty diapers go and on the right is a dry erase magnet board that we are hoping to get MANY years of use out of as she gets older with school and such.
The animal wall is wall stickers we got from Hobby Lobby and I think they are so CUTE. (her favorite sticker is the lion)
For those wondering about the cat tree, no she doesn't climb on it and the cats are pretty content (when they aren't in the Teepee) to hang out on the top and watch Teagan from up there.
Once we moved the table upstairs, we added a teepee and it's also opened up room for her to "walk" around or torture the dogs.
She loves to pull herself up on the big block (top left) and play with the trinkets on top of it.. she will stand there FOREVER squealing and "dadadadadadaing" The walker zebra thing has become a new favorite because is has given her "freedom" and it lights up and makes noise. And in front is the little gym that her daddy made and she still plays with it.. she's even tried standing and pushing it around haha.
Here is the most recent addition that I forced.. I mean encouraged the hubby to make. I've always liked the idea of a little reading nook or quiet spot for Teagan and have loved all those cute teepees that are super popular. But they can be really expensive. I'm proud to say the hubby and I constructed this for less then $15!! (YAY us!) So far Teagan doesn't really play in it much but the cats LOVE it! But I'm sure as she gets older she'll come to really like this little spot.
So, coming up in our family? Teagan has her 9 month check up next month so we'll see how much more giant she's gotten. AND we've also been planning our first family vacation that we will be going on in a few short months! (And we're bringing the dogs!!... cats are going to my parents for a vacation from Teagan haha)
So... until next time!
Bre and Teagan!
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