Life has been a bit hectic these past two weeks, hence the "two weeks in one" post! It's is flying by. My baby boy turned 8 months old during what is almost 2 weeks ago, now. How crazy is that!? Here's a recap:
FEEDING
Levi has been eating like crazy these days! I'm not sure if you could call it a growth spurt, but he definitely is beginning to need more food. Up until this point, I had still only been offering him breakfast and lunch everyday--every few days I would manage to feed him solids for dinner. It's just really difficult to figure out how to manage cooking Brian and I dinner & also feeding and getting Levi ready for bed. So I've been putting off the whole "dinner" thing. But one day last week, little man downed an ounce of a veggie, an ounce of a fruit, plus two bowls of rice cereal AND some more applesauce for dinner--so I knew I needed to make it a priority to start feeding him dinner instead of just nursing him. Obviously, he needs it! I felt extremely bad once I came to that realization. I really hoped he hadn't gone to bed hungry every night!
Nursing is still continuing on. Some days I feel that my milk supply is getting lower, so I've been trying to maintain it by drinking lots of fluids and pumping every night before bed. Levi clearly still wants to nurse--he completely refuses to eat any solids until he gets his milk. Plus, I can tell he feels comforted by nursing. But some days I feel like it is a struggle to keep him focused. He is so easily distracted--loving everything going on around him! I think we'll be taking this on a week by week basis from now on. It saddens me to think about weaning him now (something I'd NEVER thought I'd say), but it is what it is! A couple of months of formula won't kill him if that's what it comes down to.
Levi did try asparagus for the first time during week 34! He really wanted more finger foods that week (probably because of his incoming teeth) and we found that he LOVED asparagus. Maybe because it was effortless for him to pick up?
Now that Levi HAS to have three square meals a day, I've been trying to be more consistent with what I give him. Here is his "menu" each day:
Breakfast- 3 ounces (6 Tbsp) rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp applesauce
Lunch- 1 ounce (2 Tbsp) orange veggie + 1 ounce fruit + 1 ounce plain yogurt mixed with a pinch of cinnamon + finger foods (if I have something on hand)
Dinner- 1 ounce green veggie + 1 ounce fruit + 1 ounce rice cereal mixed with applesauce + finger foods (usually something from our dinner, if he is able to eat it)
NAPS
Luckily, Levi's napping has greatly improved during the past two weeks. He is now back to napping for 1-2 hours every morning, usually about 2 hours in the mid-afternoon and 45-60 minutes in the early evening.
WAKE TIME
Still basically the same as previous weeks! If he takes a shorter nap preceding his wake time, his limit is usually 1 hr and 30 minutes. If he takes a 2+ hour nap, he can stay up for 2 hours following with no problem. His favorite activity is still jumping in his Jumperoo! Boy, he loves that thing! He is also very content sitting on his quilt next to his floor gym or sitting on the rug in his room. It's been super fun to introduce him to a new toy every couple of days that he has never seen before! He loves to snuggle with and pet his Billy the Buffalo pillow pet as well.
NIGHTTIME
We had a few good nights this week where Levi slept from 7 PM - 7:30 AM without a peep! And then there was one night that he woke 7 times--literally, I counted. Early in week 34, his second tooth was cutting through, so he was in a ton of pain. I don't blame him for waking up several times in the night. Nothing I could do would console him :( This past week, however, his sleep has still been pretty sporadic and I'm not exactly sure why. I feel he has chunked up a bit in the past few days, so maybe it's been a growth spurt. We are taking things one night at a time these days!
TEETHING
Speaking of teething, Levi definitely has two teeth! They are about halfway through his gum now and they are so stinkin' cute! It's weird--it seems that his second one hurt much worse than the first. He cried in serious pain for a few days and kept holding his mouth with his hand. I felt so bad for him, but I could only give him Tylenol to help. He started making the funniest teething face and he started putting only one finger in his mouth at a time to feel his new chompers.
OUTINGS/EVENTS
Like I mentioned above, 8 months old. 8 months ago our life changed forever, mostly for the better. Sometimes for the difficult ;) It's really a joy to be this little guy's mom, even on the hard days. Brian and I always talk about how we couldn't imagine life without him now! I mean, what did we do with all that free time and all that sleep at night?!
Levi is truly getting more and more expressive and inquisitive and loving as the days go on. His favorite "toys" are plastic straws and paper tags on anything. He will literally examine any object and find a tag to chew somewhere on it! Oh, and he'll spot a plastic straw from across the room--this often happens when Brian brings home drinks after work. Levi will stare at it on the table until we finish the drink and give it to him! At least he is easily entertained, I suppose. Here are some [way too many] photos from his 8 month "photoshoot":
Another highlight of these past two weeks was our friend Kelly coming to visit us! Kelly has been living in Russia for the past two years. The last time we saw her was right before we moved to Louisville (and she moved to Russia)! She was so excited to meet Levi and we enjoyed a nice summer day with her. We went to Taco Punk for lunch (one of our favorites), Please & Thank You for coffee, and then walked to Indiana on the pedestrian bridge downtown! It was a really nice day and we enjoyed our time with her.
Last, but not least, Levi's 35th week was mostly spent hanging out with our best friends, The Crowders, as they packed up their apartment and prepared to move back to our home state of Florida. Ethan got a job as a youth pastor in Lake City and found out just a few weeks ago that they would be moving. It was a bittersweet week as we reflected on our last two years together at SBTS and made sure to get in all those last minute "to-do's" while the five [six, including Norah] of us were still together in Louisville. We ate a lot of meals together since the Crowder's didn't have much food in their apartment, we gave them some gifts, we sat around and did nothing, and we packed up their belongings. Levi will certainly miss his Aunt Anna and Uncle Ethan very much--as will Brian and I. We are so thankful that God has blessed us with their friendship!
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