Madelyn - 8 months

Madelyn is eight months old! For some reason, this new number feels so much bigger than all the other numbers she's been. This one feels so much closer to a year than five months or six months or seven. 

Maddie continues to be a mostly happy baby. She's easy going and loves to smile and laugh. She knows what she wants and puts up a fuss if she doesn't get it but overall, she's not too hard to keep happy. 

Maddie is still most comfortable with family, and perhaps more so now than even a month ago. She has been having a lot more separation anxiety and often cries if she is held by someone else, is left alone in a room with someone else, or even if new people walk into our house. She calms down very quickly in my arms and will just stare down the new people/person, watching them to become familiar with them...and probably to make sure they don't make any moves to get too friendly with her!

Maddie got her first two teeth this month! Her first one poked through on Kayden's birthday, February 4 and the next one followed just three days later. I'm not sure if the next two are on their way or not. Some days her cheeks are red and her gums seem swollen but other days I don't see anything at all. She's a pretty good teether so I have nothing to complain about. She has just come through her first big cold though, and that has not been as easy. One night at my parents' place, she woke at 10:15pm and was awake and crying until 1:45am. That was a tough night. 

Madelyn weighs about 16 lbs (complete guess!) and is wearing mostly 9-12 month clothes. She loves solid foods. I had been giving her a night snack of baby oatmeal mixed with a fruit purée (hoping to get longer sleeps) but that just plugged her up so now I'm skipping the oatmeal and just giving her fruit at night and whatever I'm eating during the day. So far it seems to be going better -though she did seem to love the oatmeal!

I made the mistake of taking pictures at nap time today. I just wanted to get them out of the way in the morning before she went to bed but that produced more tears than there would have been otherwise. Speaking of naps, Madelyn usually takes two naps that are 60-90 minutes each. Her first nap is usually around 10am and the next is around 2:30pm. She goes down for the night around 8pm and wakes for the day at around 8am. No, she is not sleeping straight through the night yet. She gave me a total of three sleep-throughs (sleep til 6:30-7, nurse, then finish the night...I'll count it as sleeping through!) this month. I have no idea what was different those nights. They give me hope that perhaps one day soon we will be sleeping through on a regular basis! She usually wakes twice in a night to eat and goes right back down. Swaddling is still a sleep cue for her but she usually comes unswaddled in the night and sleeps fine without her arms confined. She just seems to need that tight wrap to fall asleep initially. I've been trying to gently wean her from the swaddle but I don't see it as an issue so I'm not pushing it. Whatever works. 

Madelyn has become a much better traveller. She used to cry long and hard in the van while driving and now she will ride happily for hours, as long as she isn't hungry or tired. This month we went to Hudson Bay to visit my parents for a few days. She was happy the whole way there and most of the way home. So.nice.

Maddie has started saying a few words this month! I'm happy to report that her first word was "ma/mum/mama!" Yay! She also says "uh-oh," which seems to be her favourite today. She has also started with a "ta/da" sound so I'm sure "dada" is right around the corner! This is such a fun stage! 

Madelyn has learned the fun of games this month. Peek-a-boo or "Where's Maddie/Madelyn??" is a favourite. She will cover her face with a blanket (or just life something above her head) and I'll say, "Where's Madelyn??" and she will bring her arms down and grin while I say "There she is!" She will also bang something on the floor, I'll say "bang!" and she will grin and do it again. And again. And again. She's obviously starting to learn some cause and effect. Again I say, what a GREAT age! 

Maddie is starting to look like she wants to crawl. She will raise herself to hands and knees sometimes or tip from sitting to hands and bun/knees. She also likes pulling herself up while hanging onto my hands for help. When I put my hands out to help her, she gets so excited that she can't even grab them right away! Her little arms just flap so hard that she has to calm down a little bit before she can actually reach for my hands and pull herself up. When she's excited, she will flap her arms, make squealing noises (inhale squeal) or growl. I don't remember either of the other two kids growling, or at least not as much as Maddie does! That's just her noise. She does it when she's happy, she does it when she's frustrated. It's so cute! 

Happy 8 months, Madelyn Amia! We love you so much!