Alicias Everyday: Ella's 8 Month Update

This little lady is 8 months old and where the hell is the time going?!? Seriously. Since she is our last baby, the bigger she gets the sadder I get. Ugh. Every time I put away clothes she no longer fits in I tear up a little bit. Not just because she's growing up so fast but also because I will never have another baby to put them on. Waaaahhhhh.

If I had to guess Ella's weight, I would say maybe 17lbs. She is still pretty tiny, especially compared to Harper at 8 months old. Although she's tiny, she does have some rolls and meat on her - which I love! She's also finally growing into her head. Now that her hair is growing in more, her head doesn't seem so massive (it's because she has a big beautiful brain). I brought her head size up to the doctor last time we saw him and he did confirm that she's in the 90th percentile for her head circumference - but that shes always had a larger head since birth so he has no concerns. If her head was drastically growing over the weeks and months - that would set alarms off.

Ella and Harper continue to warm my heart with their interactions together. They seriously love each other. Ella is always trying to see what Harper is doing and Harper is always interested in what she is doing. Harper's such an amazing big sister. She just adores Ella.

Now into the updates:

Sleep: First off all...THANK GOODNESS. She is finally sleeping better and it only seems to be getting better as time goes on. I've stuck to the gentle sleep routine and I'm finally seeing results. She usually goes down at 6/6:30pm and will sleep until 10:30pm, nurse and go to sleep again until 3:30/4am and then back to sleep until 6:30/7am. There's even been nights where she has slept through the 10 o'clock feeding which is awesome. A few weeks back, the longest stretch she would do in the night was one 4 hour stretch and then would wake every 2 hours afterwards.

She's also napping better during the day, getting back to her usual nap champ self. I blame all of her sleep issues on teething as her first two teeth have done nothing but come up and down for the last 3 months. It was really driving me insane - poor baby.

Fun fact: Ella sleeps with socks on her hands. It started out as a way to keep her from scratching her head when she had bad eczema. Now, even though she longer has eczema, she still prefers to sleep with them on.

Eating: Ella still nurses the majority of the time but she is slowly eating more and more solids as the weeks go on. She has breakfast, lunch and dinner - but doesn't eat a ton. She is recently obsessed with yogurt and apple sauce. She will get fruits and yogurt/applesauce in the morning. Veggies and fruits at lunch and meat and veggies for dinner. I buy an organic brand for her baby food and combine it with homemade baby food. I noticed I don't have nearly enough time to make everything homemade like I did when Harper was small. I try not to make myself feel guilty about it, as long as I'm feeding her a brand that doesn't use preservatives and artificial colors and flavors, then I'm happy.

Milestones: She is SO close to crawling. She does this funny thing where she lifts her bum in the air, pushing up on her legs and then pushes herself forward. So she gets where she wants to go, just not technically crawling.

She loves to color on her big sisters magnetic board. The crazy thing is that she flips the pen so it actually colors and tries to erase afterwards (she's sat and watched her sister do it several times).

I'm pretty sure she says "ma-ma" and "da-da" but only when she's upset. Harper has "ma-ma" when she was 8 months old.

Teeth: None yet, but two massive lumps on her lower gums (grrrr).

Personality: She is going to be a very bossy and temperamental toddler, I can already see it. She is so LOUD and will have a tantrum if you're doing something she doesn't want to do. For instance, she's obsessed with her baths, so once you start to pull her out she will start to arch her back and scream. She hates being lotioned up afterwards as well, so she does this high pitched squeal/scream while also arching her back. She also growls and grunts at Fraser and I all of the time - which is hilarious and scary as shit all at the same time. She's a fire cracker that's for sure.