11.09.2015

Baby Jack {8 Months}

Oh my word, I love this little monkey.

I find myself really soaking up all his baby cuteness. One morning while I was feeding him some baby food, my heart pretty much exploded. For a solid 5 minutes, we sat face to face and he gave me the sweetest little grins. His eyes were slightly squinched and there were no gums involved. Just a simple grin. I'd grin, then he'd grin. And every once in awhile when he was especially happy, Jack would lean his head back and give that sweet gummy smile. This might be a case where you needed to be there but believe me, it was life changingly adorable.

Jack is now eight whole months old (how did that happen?!) and is truly one of the sweetest little fellas around. He's pretty content to play but if not, just wants to be a part of whatever is going on. If we're playing with Owen, Jack wants to be right there with us. If we're sitting in the living room, he wants to sit with us. That probably won't last so we'll take it while we can. It does become an issue though when we need to put him down for whatever reason and leave the room or even just tend to Owen. Sometimes he's perfectly fine but more often than not, poor Jack just cries. We do our best to involve him in our activities but when we're changing Owen's diaper, that just isn't possible.

I do suspect teething to be one of the reasons Jack has these issues. I get it, his gums hurt! He still has just the two bottom teeth but I believe the top two will come in soon. Again, I am hopeful this will not include an ear infection. Current standing: Ear Infection - 1, None - 1.

Jack is now an official little swimmer. Crawling will be coming very soon, folks! I'm not even the least bit ready for this but once your wee one starts to swim then army crawl towards their destinations, it's all over. Help me!

We're also working on sleep training! (FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) We officially stopped feeding him in the middle of the night about three weeks ago and are now working on getting him to fall back asleep on his own when he wakes in the middle of the night. I firmly believe that Jack no longer needs a bottle in the night so one day, I was like, "Gspice, sleep training will start tonight!" Our method is to let Jack cry for 10 minutes then go and give him a paci. We repeat this method until he falls asleep. He wakes up somewhere between 3-5 a.m. and can take approximately 10-40 minutes to fall back asleep. One day we'll get there. One day. Thankfully, Jack has no issues falling asleep when we put him down for the night.

Something else I just randomly thought about and decided to follow through with almost immediately.....the boys will soon share a room! I always had in my mind that they would eventually share a room but that was going to be after Jack was sleeping through the night. And for the past several months we toyed around with moving Jack downstairs but never quite pulled that together. We're busy and don't get much done, let's be real. So, Jack remains with us in our master bedroom and will soon transition over to Owen's room. The thoughts I have now are should we move Jack's crib over to Owen's room so he can get used to the new setup before little bro moves in. We have that travel crib that Jack can use until then but I worry this won't help him sleep through the night. We should test it out first and see how that goes. Hopefully next month I will be detailing how the move went or will soon go!

Jack is also talking quite a bit now. Last week when I was able to take the boys to daycare, he talked the entire way there! I could hear him say "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba" and then even heard Owen doing the same as he started to mimic Jack. Seriously, how cute is that?

The eating/sleeping/feeding has been going well.We only made one switch to his routine that we shared last month. Instead of feeding him a bottle after his rice cereal and real food at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., we now feed him the bottle first. The only change? He drinks more so win-win! Jack now gets about 28-30 ounces a day instead of 22-26 ounces.
 
8-Month Mommy Guesses (I have no clue so these are legit guesses!)

Weight: 18 lbs 12 oz
Height: 27 in

7-Month Mommy Guesses (I have no clue so these are legit guesses!)

Weight: 18 lbs 3 oz
Height: 26.75 in

6-Month Appointment (9/8/2015)
Weight: 17 lbs 6 oz
Height: 26.5 in

5-Month Mommy Guesses

Weight: 16 lbs 1 oz
Height: 26.25 in

4-Month Appointment (7/7/2015)
Weight: 14 lbs 13 oz
Height: 25.75 in

3-Month Mommy Guesses
Weight: 13 lbs 9 oz
Height: 24.25 in

2-Month Appointment (5/8/2015)

Weight: 12 lb
Height: 23.75 in

Mommy-wants-a-weight-check-kinda-visit (5/1/2015)

Weight: 11 lb 9 oz

Add'l Doctor Visit (4/16/2015)
Weight: 11 lb 

2-Week Appointment (3/26/2015)

Weight: 9 lb 8 oz
Height: 21.5 in

Newborn (3/6/2015)                  
Weight: 8 lb 14 oz           
Height: 21.5 in