Another month down! Can’t believe only 4 months until baby will be a year old. It’s going to fly by.
Sleep – Wow this has been rough lately. I’m not sure what’s going on with baby but she went back to 2 night feedings most nights when we were down to 1 and the last two nights she’s been up for 1-2 hours in the middle of the night and will only go back to sleep after another nursing session and being held. It’s so hard to tell with babies what might be wrong. I’ve been thinking her top two teeth are coming in for the past week but nothing’s broken the skin. Then she’s had some congestion so we thought maybe she couldn’t breathe and then she’s also had some tummy issues. We’re trying to help her in all these areas but there’s only so much we can do. It’s been pretty stressful when almost every time I try to put her to bed she screams the house down. We’re out of town this week and to make sure she gets the sleep she needs, I’ve been nursing her before naps (when I’d usually nurse upon wake up) and have been holding her to sleep a lot more. She knows how to fall asleep independently but she just doesn’t want to right now. If this is still going on when we get back, we might have to come up with some kind of strategy to get her to start falling asleep without our help again. Poor thing has been a mess!
Breastfeeding – Everything is going really well here. She really likes her milk and she knows what the word “milk” means along with the sign for milk. No bottles lately but we haven’t really needed to try. I think we might just be off the bottle train which honestly, not having to pump has been pretty nice. And the last time we had a date night, we just went out after she was in bed for the night, making it really smooth for us and the babysitter.
Milestones – Crawling up a storm and can also sit independently now though she does still topple over occasionally. She’s not quite pulling up to stand but she loves climbing on things, especially me, Enzo or Joe if we lay on the ground with her.
Teething – Maybe getting her top two front teeth but who knows at this point. They have looked swollen for the past week or so but she doesn’t really let me look so it’s hard to tell.
Exercise – I think I finally have to go get my wrist checked out by a doctor because it’s not healing. I’ve tried not using it, wearing a wrist brace, soaking in epsom salt, icing it, chiropractor, arnica and acupuncture with no real relief. It’s not a constant pain but anytime I try to lift or grip something with that hand, it’s pretty painful. And it’s hard not using my right hand so I end up hurting it at least a few times a day. It’s made working out pretty difficult but I’m still managing as much as possible. I actually did a free trial for 2 weeks at beachbodyondemand.com and loved it. I joined an accountability group and there’s a private app where you can log your workouts and check in with others in your group. It really did help me be more accountable with my workouts. I feel like eating well has become fairly easy for me, but I’m good at finding excuses for not working out. There is a set of workouts on there that are only 30 minutes and they are hard so you feel really worked at the end! Unfortunately, it’s not in our budget for me to get a paid membership but I’m hoping I can hang on to the momentum I started.
Food – For the most part, Emilia loves to eat. She has her moments and will definitely let you know when she’s done. Some of her favs or things I know she’ll eat include roasted sweet potatoes, avocado, cooked apples with cinnamon, toast sticks with hummus, roasted butternut squash, short cut pasta (like penne or rotini) with tomato sauce, oatmeal (I usually add pumpkin or some kind of mashed fruit in there) and food pouches/smoothies. We’re working on getting that pincher grasp developed so I can start giving her smaller things as opposed to large pieces that she picks up with her fist. Want to start introducing beans, berries, peas, etc. instead of making her separate food. She did enjoy some sweet potato chickpea stew the other night too!