9 Month Update

On July 8 our little Bug turned 9 months old.
I feel like this last month she's changed the most. She has so much personality and she is just so much fun.
This month we got a third tooth, that caused a lot of tears and pain, but it finally came out, and it's a little fang. Almost as soon as the tooth popped she started grinding and that is a terrible sounds. She does it all the time and I cannot handle it.
She also started dancing. Any kind of music can come on and she'll start bouncing. It's so dang cute.
This month we went on vacation with my side of the family. I was so nervous how she'd do with sleeping, but I was surprised that her naps improved and her sleeping through the night was pretty much the same. She'd fall asleep great and then wake up once. She woke  up every morning around 6 and then she'd take a nap in the morning and afternoon, at least an hour each time. I figured we just played so hard it wore her out. Made me feel like she's just bored at home.
The vacation was so much fun and her cousins loved her. She was always surrounded with friends and constantly entertained. She was so happy the whole time, I don't even think she ever cried, unless she was ready for a nap or bed. We even went to Wet N Wild one day, it was 115 degrees and we were outside for about 5 hours, she was so hot but she didn't get upset at all. It was so fun to spend a solid week with  my family and can hardly wait until 2018 when we do it again. I was proud of myself that she came home just about as white as she was when we left. Yahoo for sunscreen.
She is crawling all over the place, and always pulls herself up to stand, She's great at monkey walking from couch to table to chair back to couch. She isn't quite ready to walk on her own yet, but that might be soon.
I feel like she is finally at an age where we can play with her and she'll play back. She talks all the time (in her own little language). My favorite thing is she laughs at herself, she'll be babbling to herself in the carseat and then she'll start laughing. It sounds like she's telling some funny stories. Oh how I wish I could understand her.

We went to the pediatrician today and I'm shocked at her stats.
 Height 29 inches (95th Percentile)
Weight 20 pounds 11 ounces (85th percentile)
Head (can't remember how big) 92nd percentile.
We do NOT know where she got her height, I keep expecting it to go down, but it keeps going up.

Last month I sleep trained her and I remember being so sad that I was losing my time with her when I'd give her a bottle and rock her to sleep. Turns out, putting her to bed is even better now. Matt will change her and get her in her PJ's then I'll hold her, he'll turn off the light and turn on the sleep machine and immediately she'll put her head on my shoulder. I'll sing her some songs, (Que Sera, I know Heavenly Father Loves Me, A Child's Prayer, Lord Are You There, I Love To See The Temple... to name a few, not all in a night, but those are the regulars) and then I'll lay her down in the crib and she'll babble a bit and go to sleep. With teething, she'll have some nights where it's not that easy, but for the  most part, that's the routine.

Since we got home from vacation she's been sleeping pretty well. She goes to bed at 8, if she wakes up in the night it's only for about 10 minutes, and then she'll wake up around 7:30. She's been taking at least one good nap during the day, but it switches off between morning and afternoon.
She's just becoming a real person and I feel like she is so aware of everything going on. She is such a light in our home and we feel so blessed to be her parents.

Likes
Baths
Eating
Car rides
Other kids
Music
Shoes (to eat)
any kind of string (draw strings, shoe laces, cords, hair...)
Anything that we don't want her to play with
Otter pops
biting mom's shoulder

Dislikes
Getting in jammies
when mom leaves the room
getting dressed after a bath
when you take the otter pop away from her

 Swim party with the Halls

 Always standing

 First time sitting in the cart like a big girl

 Father's day

 Definitely a morning person

 How she stares at me when I'm eating and not sharing

 She's a dare devil, we always have to keep a hand on her.

 Exploring the hotel on vacation

 First Movie, Finding Dori. She did great.

 She started out as trying to see what was under the fridge, then it turned into eating the ground

 On our way back from Wet N Wild, so thirsty

 Love that swim suit

 Day after Wet N Wild, we were SOOO tired and just wanted her to take a nap so we could.

 I'm practically just corn on the cob for her.

 Independence Baby in Leila's old clothes. Leila wore this when she was 15 months old

 We now have to strap her down in the high chair

 She followed me to the door one day. Matt took this picture after I left. Breaks my heart.

 Snuggling with Momma's leg

Our baby girl is 9 months old!!!

8 Month Update

Internet issues makes this post super late, but I still want to update. I'll try not to merge with the last month.
On June 8, Sawyer turned 8 months old. I feel like in this month she would start something new and just when we'd get used to it, she'd be done. For instance, she would have these quick bursts of yelling and she'd do it over and over, "Yah! Ah! Ah!". She'd tense up her whole body every time she'd shout. We'd do it back and it was just this little game. It seemed like that lasted only about two days. Then we'd do  it and she'd look at us like we were weirdos.
Her crawling is a lot more steady these days. I feel bad that there isn't a lot of room for her to crawl around our house. Our bedroom is the only place with carpet and the rest of the house is stone floors. She's not completely steady and those floors are too hard if she were to fall. SO the only place she can crawl is in our bedroom, or back and forth on the couch. I feel like if she had more space, she might be walking already. She pulls herself up to standing all the time, and sometimes she'll let go of whatever she's holding and just stand there, all by herself.
She has so much energy. She will just sit there and flail her arms over and over so she looks like she's drumming, or she'll sit in her high chair and just kick her legs for like 10 minutes. She doesn't like to sit still (we learned that well on the flight to and from Utah). Someone will want to hold her and she's so fidgety trying to get out of their arms, they think she wants me, but really she just wants to be put down so she can explore. She does the same thing if Matt or I hold her.
Sleeping has been a challenge. This girl will not nap for longer than 30 minutes. No matter what I do. I'll wake her up earlier, I'll wait a bit longer before I put her down, or I won't wait as long... no matter what she wakes up thirty minutes later. I can practically time it. The good thing is, she doesn't seem tired or ornery when she's awake, she wakes up happy and stays happy until it's time to eat or sleep again.
Night time was more frustrating, I had to feed her to sleep, and if she didn't fall asleep while eating her bottle she would just scream until she tired herself out enough to zonk out. More often than not if she DID fall asleep while eating she would wake up again an hour later and then scream until she fell asleep again AND she would wake up at least once in the middle of the night.
I was at my wits end. Again, I had tried everything other than "sleep training" and I was just dreading that, but it was time.
The first night trying the "cry it out" method I was a wreck. Matt was working late that night so I was home alone. Thankfully my sister-in-law Autumn knew I'd be trying it that night and was texting me the whole time. The method is, you do a routine, sing to them, bathe them, what have you, and then you lovingly lay them down, kiss them goodnight and leave the room. They'll cry, you wait two minutes then go back in, don't pick them up, but rub their back, tell them you love them, be in there no longer than a minute, and then leave again, then you wait five minutes. Go back in... then wait ten minutes. Then 15, you never wait longer than 15 minutes to go back in, you want them to know you're there, you'll always come back.
The first night I would do each time twice, 2 minutes, then 2 minutes, 5 then 5, then 10...
I was sobbing. The first time I did 10 minutes, she fell asleep at minute 9, and then she slept through the night. I hated that she cried until she fell asleep, that I wasn't actually there when she fell asleep, but she slept through the night.
The next night she fell asleep within 10 minutes, the night after that, Matt put her down and she went right to sleep.
Now, every night, we go upstairs, put her in jammies, (she screams throughout that process) then I take her, turn on her sleep sheep, turn off the lights and she immediately lays her head on my shoulder and I'll sing some songs to her. That is the only time she'll lay her head on my shoulder and just snuggle, but as soon as the lights turn off she does it, every time. I'll lay her in her crib, sometimes she'll be awake and just babble to herself, but she'll go to sleep without crying every time. Makes me wonder why I didn't do that earlier. I love our night time routine.
Still doesn't nap though and that method didn't really work out for that.

That was probably the biggest milestone this month. I feel like she is changing a lot, even in just what she likes and what she doesn't. She no longer likes having her diaper changed, when that used to be something that would STOP her from crying. Now she likes being in her car seat and will fall asleep almost immediately, when she used to scream the whole time. She loves baby food and is showing strong interested in eating real people food. She will stare at Matt and me the entire time we are eating, I'll possibly introduce her to the real stuff next month.


She is such a chunk and she is just so much fun. Every time Matt gets home from work she gets so excited. She'll stiffen her legs and flail her arms and just reach out for him until he comes over and gets her.
She won't have another appointment until 9 months, so I'm not totally sure of her stats, but I'd guess she is around 18.5 pounds (given how she has gained weight in the past)
She still just has the two bottom teeth, but I think her little fangs are going to make an appearance soon.
She is just a happy baby, (when she's not teething), she makes us laugh all the time. I love listening to her babble and can't wait for those to be real words.
I cannot believe she is 8 months old already. Time is flying by.

 Waiting for our flight back to Arizona

 Summer ready

 I just love the way she's sitting in this picture. Playing with Daddy

 Not a toy in the world is more fun than a strap

 I can't remember if this was late at night or early in the morning, just one of the times she didn't want to sleep.

D'awwwww 

 Putting out the vibe

 Second hiking attempt, she slept both ways. 

 Pretty much the norm while bottle feeding.

Love this.

 She's so happy WAAAY too early in the morning

 8 months old!