8 months - BLM

Bradley has become a new person this month! I feel like we came full circle in terms of sleep. We started out the month with Bradley sleeping through the night great as he had been doing for several weeks and then after we got back from Napa he completely regressed. We had some really rough nights getting up multiple times for the pacifier and usually an early 5-6 am feeding which we had dropped last month. Eventually all of that dwindled down to just waking up for the early morning feeding, but I felt like we had completely lost all hope of him ever sleeping through the night. I tried on a couple different occasions just letting him cry for about 30 min and then giving in and feeding him. So after a few really frustrating nights, I put my foot down. One night last week, he woke up around 5 am and I let him cry for about 30 min, turned off the monitor, shut the doors, and put the ear plugs in. After a ton of screaming, I went in and rocked him for a few minutes. Every so often, he would lift his head and look back at the side table where his bottle usually is and I think he finally got the picture that the bottle wasn't coming. So, I put him back in bed after he calmed down around 5:45 and the next time I actually heard him was 7:45 am. Success! This was about 6-7 days ago. Ever since then, he has woken up probably once in the early morning and cries anywhere from 3-5 minutes and goes back to sleep until 7:30-8 am! I hope we solved the problem for good. If we did, I am going to be mad we didn't try this 2 months ago, oh well!

His sleep schedule has been about the same for the most part. He goes to bed around 7:30-7:45 pm and gets about about 7:30-8 am. Then usually he naps around 10 am for an hour to and hour and a half and then again around 1:30/2 for another hour to hour and a half. He officially dropped the third nap this month unless he's just had a really long day with bad naps.

We also transitioned him from breast milk to formula this month. When we got back from Napa, I realized my freezer supply was going quickly, so I started him on some formula and luckily he had no problem with it and didn't balk at the taste at all. I officially ran out of milk the day before he turned 8 months and he has been doing just fine on formula, thank goodness! He also decided he was really ready to eat this month. Last month, he didn't care so much for food, but now he just can't get enough. So a few Sundays ago, I spent a couple of hours making him some food and to my surprise, he absolutely despised it. He had tried a few jars of baby food and apparently, that is all he wanted. So for now, I have stock piled on the organic food pouches and he can really mow them down. It sure makes my life easier for the time being and he is probably trying a lot of different foods that I wouldn't make for him, like kale, quinoa, prunes, greek yogurt, etc.

He has turned into a really determined lil thing these past few weeks. He has always been super intense, but it has been taken to a whole new level this month. He is now army crawling which kind of scares me because I really need to go through the entire house and remove things that could be harmful to him. He can get wherever he wants by scooting around. If only he knew getting up on his knees would get him there much quicker!

Ryan also doesn't care for it too much as Bradley has been going for all of his stuff now especially at meal time. Bradley just adores Ryan. His face lights up when Ryan enters the room, he tries to put his arms out for Ryan to hold him, and is perfectly content with just staring at him for as long as Ryan will let him. So, now that B sits well on his own, I tried a little experiment the other day and put them both in Ryan's room to play which Ryan was watching a movie. Turns out, this is my new favorite babysitter. Of course the first time, I went in and checked on them like every 2 minutes, but they have gone as long as and hour and a half in there together! It definitely comes in handy around 5 pm when things start to get a little dicey around our house. I have snuck by and caught Ryan just hugging on him or kissing him and even trying to take care of him when B hit himself with a toy. I never imagined they would love each other as much as they do.

The other day, they were playing while I was getting dressed and I hear Ryan yelling at him telling him "No Bradley! Stop it!" Thinking Ryan was just getting frustrated, I came in there fully expecting to have to reprimand Ryan, when sure enough, B had ripped a page out of one of Ryan's favorite books. Tears were streaming down Ryan's face; he was so upset. I felt so sorry for him. I know it is just the start of many instances similar to this.

Bradley has been making this hilarious face lately where he scrunches up his nose, smiles with his entire face, and sometimes will open and shut his mouth as big as he possibly can while doing all of this. I have been able to capture this a few times over the past few weeks.

He loves to dance and prefers standing to just about anything else. I feel like he is close to pulling up, but has not done it unassisted as of yet. He can sort of pull up on things that are low to the ground. He is in 12 months clothes and size 3 diapers. I have no idea how big he is, but feel like he has really grown this month. He can completely feed himself his bottle now which is really helpful. He talks up a storm, but still has yet to make out a real word. He will just babble "wa wa wa wa wa" over and over.

He has really enjoyed getting in the pool this summer and is a total water baby. Maybe it is my imagination, but I feel like he tries to float and definitely loves to kick! He seems to be loving the Exersaucer more these days as well as his walker. The Jumperoo he could take it or leave it, unlike Ryan who was completely obsessed. He seems to be more interested in what Ryan is doing or what kind of trouble he can get into with things around the house than actually playing with his toys. He does seem to love this baby doll at my parent's house, however.

I took Bradley to meet my MiMi this week, which was long overdue and he absolutely loved her. He laughed and talked the whole time.

Even though we have had some rough times here and there, I love this boy more and more every day. He has brought so much joy to our family, and watching the bond between the boys grow is something I could never comprehend before now. I think I could watch the two of them interact all day long. We love you sneaky B (Ryan's nickname for him). Happy 8 months!