8 Months

Riley Jean is 8 months old and is just a delight! Sleep has been a little rough but honestly when you’re this adorable you get away with pretty much everything. And I mostly forget how tired I am when she scrunches her little face up into the sweetest smile. Once again I missed a month and I’ve just decided every other month is probably all I can manage but I’m going to keep trying nevertheless. 

Stats: Based on my at home scale she appears to be about 18.8 lbs and I don’t have a height but she sure looks extra tall when her brother tries to hold her all by himself.

Likes: She is on the move and that is definitely a favorite activity. She likes to crawl around, pull up on anything and everything, climb all over my, try to walk with her walker, still loves to chew on all the things, wave toys around  and bang them loudly on the ground, watch her brother do anything and everything, snack on puffs and look out the window and make big smiley faces at her daddy. 

I mean have you seen a cuter bonnet?!

Dislikes: Sleeping through the night, eating if anything else even remotely interesting is going on around her, not being able to walk by herself, getting stuck when trying to move around. 

Eat, Sleep, Play: As I mentioned earlier, sleep has been tough. On the bright side when I was looking at my last milestone post I had written she didn’t nap longer than 40 minutes and that is DONE! She does usually still take a shorter morning nap but then takes a good long afternoon nap. This is ideal because that is also when JB naps so many days I now get a chunk of time with both kiddos asleep. There are still a few odd days that she does 3 shorter naps but for the most part we’re on a 2 nap schedule with one being a shorter (often on the go) morning nap and another longer afternoon one. This means she is in bed anywhere from 6-7:30 for bedtime just depending on when that last nap ends. I prefer the 7-7:30 bedtime for her but we make it work whenever she needs to go down. Overnight we are seeing anywhere from 1- I lost count in terms of amount of wake-ups but we’re being patient and just know that all babies sleep through the night eventually so she’ll get there. She only eats once overnight and the other wakeups she just gets her paci and goes back down really quick which is good. Often in the early morning around 5:30/6 if she’s waking or restless I’ll bring her into our bed and let her snuggle and often she’ll sleep a little longer and I don’t mind the early wake for some extra cuddles! 

She is eating solids now which is fun! While I still feel some nerves like I did with JB I am much more relaxed and less tense at meal times when she’s trying foods. She has liked most things she’s tried so far which is great. She hasn’t had as big of an appetite for solids as JB did at this age, she often will just take a few bites and be done but I’m noticing that start to increase so hopefully she’ll be eating more soon. But in the meantime we’re just enjoying trying all the things. She’s already tried over 50 foods! She is a big fan of meat (especially pot roast and meatballs) and also loves fruit and broccoli just like her brother.

Favorite Moments: So many fun moments from the last 2 months! We went the the beach and her first beach trip is definitely a highlight, she loved it! She was a big fan of the beach nap (and so was I). But she also started crawling, pulling to stand and even taking steps with support this month so that’s definitely up there as well. 

She remains the smiliest baby there ever was. People are always commenting to me about her big smile because as soon as anyone smiles at her she gives them a big grin showing off her tiny little teeth and melting everyone’s heart. She is squishy and precious and happy and busy and all around a delight. Looking forward to the next month- and all the ones after!