This past month I have caught myself a lot watching Austin and thinking, "You shouldn't be doing that yet." In reality... I think Austin really should be doing all that he is doing, he just has grown up so fast that in my mind he should only be 5 months old still. I sometimes feel like I'm missing it all! Austin is now 17 lbs 6 ounces and 26 3/4 inches tall. He is right in the middle of Jacob and Ida for height. He is wearing 6 month clothes and size 3 diapers.
I feel like Austin's personality has started to come out. He really loves trying to involve himself when Dad is playing with Jacob or Ida. Especially rough housing. Austin really enjoys rough housing. There have been many times when I think Jacob is being to rough with Austin but he is just laughing and laughing and laughing so I just let him keep doing it. Ida has also started playing with Austin more as well and she can get him to laugh probably the best of anyone. I don't know what it is. But she knows how to get him laughing hard. It is so fun to watch! Austin really loves company. He does not like being left in any room by himself. He also likes being held and will crawl to mom or dad so we will pick him up. He does NOT like being in any kind of pain and he is a drama king. He is so full of drama. Way more than my other two. When he gets hurt you have to wait a minute or two to see if he's actually hurt or if he is just being dramatic. Because initially they both sound the same.
Austin started crawling a few days after turning 7 months and it took him about a week after that before he was crawling all over the house. You will often times see him one leg crawling. With one leg walking and the other crawling. He has also been getting better at the Moglie crawl on all fours. Also the week following him turning 7 months he learned to walk while holding onto someones hands, sit on his knees and walk forward in the walker. It was a really busy couple weeks for him then. Shortly after he learned how to pull himself up next to the furniture and stand in his crib. Then about a week before turning 8 months he taught himself how to gracefully get down from standing. I was sitting next to him while he was playing next to his activity table when I noticed he kept getting down then standing back up over and over. He did it like 10 times in a row. He can now get down from standing without falling. He also got his first tooth about a week ago (bottom right)! So this month has been full of fun new learning things!
Austin has joined the rest of his siblings with screaming. His is probably the worst of all though. It is the definition of an ear splitting scream. High pitched and all. He does it when he is really really upset or really frustrated. Sometimes when he is playing with one of his toys he will just randomly let one out. Probably from frustration. Also when he is really upset he will start hitting and swinging his head around. You want to make sure you are out of the way. Some other things he's doing right now are chewing on his thumb when he is bored, slapping the table while he is eating and covering his eyes when you are trying to feed him. He randomly decided he likes baths now, with his siblings and all. But doesn't like getting his clothes changed or diaper changed. Sometimes if he is really upset it's like impossible to change his diaper. Other times he will sit nicely. So it really is just kind of hit and miss.
Austin had a first this month, moving to a new house. I feel like he adjusted normally. Pretty fussy the first couple weeks but have adjusted pretty well now. He likes being in his walker now and having a huge tile floor to walk all around now. He also still likes being in the jumper and I'll put him in there usually when I'm cooking dinner. He also still really likes being tickled. :) Austin first tried to venture out on the stairs a few weeks ago but I really don't think he likes them. He isn't very good at doing them and has fallen on the bottom one or two steps a couple times which I think has scared him of them. So he pretty much avoids them for the most part, but every once in awhile will try them out again and go up a step or two. He also is starting to learn how to walk along the furniture although I don't think he realizes he is doing it when he does it.
Once we got moved out here to Springville I started eating everything I had cut from my diet and Austin seems to be doing great with it. I also really started him on food but pretty much went straight into table foods. Besides the fact that I don't really like purees at all, neither does Austin. And he really struggles to eat them. He just can't figure it out. haha.
It is actually quite funny to watch him try. He does really really well with regular food and likes them much more. So that's what we do. Or I'll dice up fruits and veggies for him. He will hardly eat anything that's been pureed but will eat pretty much anything if it is diced or mashed. So that is what we do. He can also self feed and we break up food for him to feed himself. But beware. He will not eat anything that he doesn't like and if you try to feed him something he doesn't like he will quickly and suddenly hit the spoon with his hands so before he even know what happened the spoon and food are all over the wall and floor. He will take the feeder with purees in it so I will sometimes bring that with me for something easy. I just have to feed it to him like I'm giving him a bottle. :) He pretty much nurses just whenever he wants to. So anywhere from a hour and a half to 3 hours.
Austin's sleeping has pretty much been the struggle of our whole life. After getting to Springville I also decided I really had to get his sleeping better. 8 months is just about 3 to 4 months to long fore me to be getting up every 1 to 2 hours with him every single night. So I really focused on not letting him eat unless it had been 4 hours. Sometimes if he woke up I'd just let him cry himself back to sleep. Other times I would go in and try to pat his stomach. But let me tell you. Trying to teach an 8 month old to go to sleep on their own is hard. Trying to teach an 8 month old to go to sleep on their own who can stand up in their crib is nearly impossible. So after he started standing up I would go in and
hold him down so he couldn't roll over to get up and stroke his head. The good news is it only took a few days for him to stop waking up every hour till 1 or 2 in the morning. The bad news is he pretty much stopped going to sleep at all unless I nursing him. The day after he turned 8 months old I was I was so frustrated and so over it all. I sat next to his crib where he couldn't see him and watched him stand up. I then watched him get down on his own and that's when I decided it was time that I just left him in there to scream and I went to the computer and pulled up "Crying it out". As I read and researched how to let your baby cry it out Austin lay in the other room screaming. He cried for 25 minutes before he went to sleep. Not bad. For once I felt like Austin was following the same pattern that most babies follow. The second night was not so easy. I was not frustrated and Austin was super happy and smiley. When I lay him down he started screaming. I was so sad to make his sad after being so happy. The screaming continued for 40 minutes. It. Was. The. Worst! I was so sad! Most cry it out methods say 3 days. 3 days for the baby to figure it out. On the third day I didn't want to lay him down. I didn't want to know that he was up in his room screaming. But! He only cried, not screamed, for 3 minutes, fussed off and on for another 7. Then was asleep. I was so HAPPY!!!!! Now for the first time in his life I feel like he is on some kind of regular pattern for sleeping! He has been going to bed between 8:30 and 10. Getting up to eat at 2 and 5. Then getting up for the day between 7:30 and 8:30. I am finally getting more then a two hour stretch of sleep and it feels great! And he is finally getting more than a two hour stretch which is great for him! He will go anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. I just really hope it sticks. I think it will. Especially if we are firm. I know find him all over the crib when I check on him and in all different kinds of positions. He still isn't overly attached to his pacifier at night and will often go to sleep without it.
Sibling Love
