C is now exactly 8 months and 3 days and since I failed to write about his 7^th month’s developments, I decided to compile the two months in this post.

Between 6 to 7 months, C starting to pull himself to a sitting position. Sometimes he managed to do it but he was not really able sit up straight until he was 7 month old. During this time, he also learned to master crawling and crawling fast! He crawled to wherever his curiosity led him and unfortunately, that meant a lot of banging his head against furniture and falling from edges. So I was always on my feet ready to save him from getting hurt and getting stuck under furniture. Most of the time, I was successful but there were also some instances when I was too late—poor guy.

During this time, his upper two teeth cut through. I think that brought him a bit of discomfort—nothing alarming. I am glad that until now, he is handling teething very well. I hope it continues like that.

Since he became mobile, we started letting him sleep in his crib and it was not easy, I tell you.

We hoped that, other than learning how to sleep in his crib, he’ll also learn how to sleep though the night. I do feed him a meal before bedtime and I still breastfeed him before he sleeps but he still wakes up 2-3 times during the night to feed.

It is difficult because C is used to sleeping beside me. And he falls asleep while breastfeeding. He does not use pacifiers and he also does not thumb suck.

I want him to learn all those but I decided to do it one by one. First I had to teach him how to sleep without him being latch on to my breast. So for the first few nights, I breastfed him in his room while sitting on the chair (not while lying in bed anymore). I was careful not to let him fall asleep by talking softly to him and singing songs to him. After I am sure he had enough of milk, I pull away slowly. A few times he complained but he was quick to pick up on it.

The next thing was to let him fall asleep in his crib on his own and until now, this has not really worked yet. After breastfeeding, I put him in his crib. Most of the time, he cries so I take him out of his crib and calm him down by rocking him before I put him back in again. The first night was horrible because I needed to take him in and out of his crib MANY times before I finally gave up and let him sleep in my arms before I put him down in his crib.

I don’t like to let him cry it out. I am too softie for that. They say it’s the most effective way to teach a baby to sleep on his own and to sleep through the night but I just couldn’t do that to my little guy.

The following nights were not much different—I put him in his crib, he cries, I pick him up, I calm him down, put him down in his crib again, and the cycle continues. But each night, it gets a little bit easier.

Falling asleep in his crib on his own is still something we are working on right now. Right after he has mastered this, we can move on to teaching him how to sleep through the night.

At 8 months, C became more active. Peek-a-boo is a game I’ve been playing with him since the beginning but at 8 months, he already learned how to be the one making a peek and then, instead of saying boo, he squeals.  He’s such a lovely boy! He also already plays catch with us. He’ll crawl as fast as he could soon as he realizes that one of us is right behind him. He loves playtime. Laughing, squealing, jumping, crawling, reaching up, bagging things together, pulling, pushing, clapping, waving bye-bye. He loves doing all those things. He also likes emptying drawers, boxes, and bags—he likes making a mess!

At about 7 and a half months, C already learned how to pull himself up while holding on to me or to furniture and at 8 months, he started attempting to cruise while holding on to furniture. Not yet very successful but almost. He can also already hold a standing position for a few seconds. My baby is developing quite well and quite fast. My guess is…he’ll be walking in a month or two. That would be a very huge milestone and we are all excited for it to happen!

With eating, he is also more independent. He now hates being spoon-fed—imagine the mess! He can already drink from his sippy-cups well. He still doesn’t know how to use the spoon, but I don’t think he is eager to learn it because he seems to enjoy eating with his hands. And he eats E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.

C at 7 months and 3 weeks

C is a joy and everyday, he enriches our lives in so many ways. We love him very much and he is so much a part of us that we can’t imagine living life without him anymore. Everyday, we thank God for giving us such a wonderful blessing.

As of this writing, my baby is exactly 7 months old but I will not continue blogging here without ever mentioning about his developments at six months so here it goes.

C at exactly 6 months

I think that between 5 to 6 months, C not only went through a major growth spurt but he also went through a rapid motor and cognitive development. Sometime between these months, he learned simple hand gestures like close-open, hello & bye-bye , and broom-broom (gesture showing that he is driving a motorbike).  He also learned how to clap and to give-a-five. These are all simple hand, wrist, finger movements but the fact that he can already associate it with spoken language is just plain cool.

It’s really super cool whenever I ask him to “give me five” and he does it and giggles at me.

According to my list, he also knows how to shook his head when he ate enough already. He can also already transfer objects from one hand to another. Still according to my list, he got his first fever a few days before he turned 6 months.

Between 5 and 6 months, he can also already be on all fours and rock his body. Some babies can already do this at 4 months but C is just so heavy that sometimes I have the feeling that he can’t carry his own weight. LOL. Anyway, he can already crawl (commando style—just his arms pulling his complete body) but crawling on fours is just an emerging skill for him at this time.

He also babbles and scream non-stop. He can say, um-mama, papapa, bababa, tata, jejejeje but these babbles are still without meaning. However, his grandma taught him to say tick-tock… so every time his grandma shows him her watch, C says “tih-tah”. Adorable!

C is already eating solids. My plan was, he’d start with solid food as soon as he reached six months but as it turned out, we had to start earlier. Reason to this was because he showed signs that breast milk alone is not enough for him anymore. Demanding to nurse more frequent, being a bit lifeless during the day, waking frequently at night seemingly uncomfortable, watching us intently while we eat, and reaching out for food were some of the signs C showed me that signaled me to give him solids. Also, at 4 months, he was already able to hold his head up, and to sit in his highchair without a problem. So at 4 months and 2 weeks old, I didn’t hesitate to start feeding him solids. Take note, my motherly instinct is telling me that it’s the right time. No one pushed me to make that decision.

We started slow and simple. Just one solid meal each day. And his meal consisted of one kind of vegetable that is boiled, pureed, and mixed with breast milk. His first solid food was pureed carrot. It’s been about three weeks since he started and here is his vegetable list so far: carrots, zucchinis, pumpkins, aubergines, and spinach. A few days ago, I started giving him pureed fruits and here is his fruit list so far: apple, banana, pear, and avocado.  C is a good eater. I hope he remains that way. He also drinks water (boiled and cooled) now, by the way.

C's first solid meal: boiled then pureed carrot with breast milk

C is now 5 months and 1 week and he changed a lot since I last talked about his developments. He now weighs 10 kgs and he is 76 cm tall. A lot of his clothes do not fit him anymore and some of them are clothes he hasn’t worn yet. If only I could tell friends and family to give C the money instead of giving him expensive clothes he’ll grow out of in just a matter of weeks, C would already have his fortune now. OK, I am exaggerating. The thing is, it pains me to set aside a lot of his stuff that are barely used. Sayang talaga.

C at 4 months

Back to his development, he can now roll over without a problem. When he was three months old, he started rolling over but had stop from one day to another. That made me a bit worried but looking at him now, I know he was just not into it. LOL. Now, he rolls over like it’s the most normal thing to do—no effort, no sweat.

our little "Kaiser" at 5 months

C is a very active boy. He is always up to something. He likes grabbing things as much as he likes tossing them away the moment they lost his interest. He shoves every thing in his mouth. Every. Single. Thing. And he bites them too. He likes to jump when we hold him up and he likes to bump his head against ours.

5 months old C having fun during his playtime

By the way, C just got his first tooth and I would love to post a photo of it but I just can’t get him to open his mouth so I can take a proper photo of it. One thing I am thankful of is that he seems to be dealing well with teething. No fever. No diarrhea. No extensive whining. Yet. I hope he’ll never go through any of those.

First off, I would like to take a moment to apologize to my friends, Lamielle and Ruthi, who never fail to send me their cards and gifts. I really meant to send them each a birth announcement card of my baby but I don’t know what happened—I just completely forgot about it.

My baby's unsent birth announcement cards

You see, I started designing C’s birth announcement card a few weeks before giving birth then continued working on it right after my husband and I agreed on what photo we’ll use. My father-in-law had it printed out for us, and my mom in-law helped me addressed most of the cards because most of the receivers are friends from their side of the family. I told her I’ll address the rest (for friends from my side of the family) on my own because that time, we were kind of in a hurry (I don’t exactly remember why) so I said I’ll do the other set of cards another time.

Guess what, I never addressed the second set of cards. Not because I didn’t have the time. Looking back, I think I would have had time for it if I had remembered about it. Darn!

I simply forgot.

And today while, decluttering our bookshelves, I found them. And while they always said, it is better late than never… I feel really awkward sending these out now. I mean, C is almost 5 months and I pretty much announced everything on FB already. It’s not like my set of friends missed some details about C’s birth because I blatantly announced everything on FB. So I decided not to send them out.

But here’s to Lamielle, Ruthi, Evelyn, my family, and my high school and college friends:

As our closest friends, we would like to share with you the joy brought to us by the birth of our healthy baby boy.

We thank you for all your gifts, nice greetings, well wishes, and warm welcome to the new member of our family.

When I was pregnant with C, I was so inspired to do things the DIY way. I wanted to paint his room and decorate it myself. I want to sew his beddings and embroider on some of his clothes. I was so eager to do such things but somehow I didn’t manage to do most of them. I decorated his room but I didn’t bother repainting it with special colors because I realized that in two years time, we will be redecorating his room for his toddler years. I also didn’t sew his beddings because believe it or not, it is much cheaper to buy a bedding set than to buy cloth and yarns.  I also was not able to embroider anything until now because as it turns out…I am too lazy for it. LOL.

But there are some things I did for my baby myself and here are my two favorites:

BABY CARRIER:

I sew this baby carrier for C during my third trimester.

I got it from Chelo. I actually discovered her blog when I was searching for tutorials on how to sew a baby carrier. Since then I got addicted to her blog. Not because she has a lot of DIY sort of stuff but because she’s cool and she has a rockin’ About page. LOL. But seriously, her blog is one of the few blogs that I follow because it gives me the feeling that behind the blog is a real person.

He still fits in his baby carrier but whenever I put him in this, he wriggles as if to say that he doesn't like to be carried this way anymore

Anyway, back to the baby carrier, it is really a helpful thing especially when C was still a tiny baby. Now, C and I still use it but not that frequent anymore because C doesn’t like to be carried that way anymore.

BABY HAMMOCK (DUYAN):

C loves his duyan very much!

All the babies I know in the Philippines have a “duyan”. Back home, we put a baby in a duyan to put him/her to sleep or to pacify him/her. It is a very practical thing to have when a there’s a baby so I insisted my husband to get one. Unfortunately, duyan is not so popular in Europe so it is not like we can just buy it from a local department store. I saw a duyan on the Baby Waltz’ catalog but it is not present in their store. We have to order it and wait weeks before we can have it. It was a no-go for me because it was a bit pricey for what it is and then we still have to wait for it. I told my husband that we should just create it ourselves so that’s what we did. Hubby made the wood part of C’s duyan and I sewed the cloth.

C at 3 months is almost too heavy and to long for his duyan.

C loves his duyan very much and he uses it until now for his daily power naps (a short nap in the morning, usually between 9am-11am). We thought he can use his duyan until he’s at least 5 months old, but he is a bit more than 8 kgs now (@3 months) so he’ll be saying goodbye to his duyan earlier than what we predicted.

My baby turned three months old today. How time flies! I can hardly believe it’s been three months since I first cradled my son in my arms. He really changed a lot since then.

I don’t know if this is common to mommies, but I tell you, I am very much excited about each of my baby’s development and I am always looking forward to his next one BUT I also feel kind of sad that he is growing up so fast. I honestly miss his “new born” days, and that is not because he slept most of the time. LOL. It’s really hard to explain why—but I guess it’s because each day is a day toward his independence.  Each passing day means he’ll need me less and this is what’s making it heartbreaking.  Every mom wants her child to develop fast and be independent and I want that for my baby too but a part of me wants him to stay as he is. Quite contradictory. Oh well, he’ll always be my baby no matter how old he gets. LOL.

Back to his developments, he now weighs a bit over 8kgs. He’s gaining height and weight so fast and his motor skills are also advancing fast. Two days ago he was able to roll from his tummy to his back. That was his first roll and it is quite funny how it was. It was during one of our tummy time. I helped him roll to his tummy and watched him. For a while he was content but at some point, he got tired lying on his tummy and started to complain. I didn’t help him right away. I just continued watching him. When I saw that he started to try to roll to his back (normally, he just kicks, screams, and rest his cheeks on the bed/couch/floor until I help him), I waited and encouraged him.  It was so quick. He threw his head to his right shoulder, lifted his left shoulder, kicked his left leg—and viola! He was able to roll to his tummy. He was so surprised he did it. LOL. It was a very rough landing but he didn’t cry. He just lay there looking so surprised.

After that, he also started rolling to his tummy and he’s now able to do that too but it is still very difficult for him to do it that sometimes, he gets frustrated and just give up. Sometimes he’s successful and sometimes he’s not. He still can’t do it smoothly and quickly but he can already do it without any help. Also, he only does it on soft surfaces like beds and his diaper changing table (danger).

He laughs a lot now. I can’t really tell when he started to laugh but I guess it was a little bit after he learned to smile. Now he laughs at every thing and every time he laughs, my heart rejoices. I will surely treasure these times.

Seeing him happy gives me a feeling of great joy.

He also started to grab and bring things to his mouth. As of writing, he can already pull blankets and clothes he has on.  He will not grab a ball yet even if you present it to him. For some reason, he just grabs things that will fold in his grip—like his bib, towels, some toys with cloth, and mama’s shirt,

What else? Hmmm… His voice—it’s low and defined. The sounds he makes (crying, cooing, screaming, etc.) are louder and more distinguishable. I can hear him cry even if he is in his room on the second floor and I am in the basement of our house, so the baby monitor is not really that necessary now. LOL.

There are still more, smaller developments but I won’t bore you with it further…for now. LOL. There will be more post like this. :p

Please understand that I am one hell of a proud mommy.

My baby, like a lot of babies, has a very strong sucking reflex. Actually, he was even caught thumb sucking while he was still in my womb. A few days after he was born, I gave him a pacifier to satisfy his need to suck. I didn’t know I was making a huge mistake.

my baby sucking a pacifier @ 6 days old

You see, I was just starting to breastfeed, so my nipples were really sore. I refused to let him latch on to any of my breast unless he is hungry. But then, he started to suck his thumb whenever he wants to suck for comfort. He was just a few days old but he already learned how to suck his thumb. And because I was afraid that he’ll develop thumb sucking as a habit until toddlerhood (or until God knows when), I gave him a pacifier. He learned how to suck a pacifier pretty quickly and I was glad that he accepted it right away.

Happy ending right?

Wrong.

I didn’t know that there’s such thing as nipple confusion until my baby experienced it. I didn’t know that sucking milk from a breast is completely different from sucking a pacifier for comfort and sucking milk from feeding bottles. So what happened was, my baby forgot to latch on to my breast properly. He would suck, but he would do it as he would with pacifier, and that made  my nipples even more painful. There were also times when he gets frustrated because he just can’t get the milk out right.

So I researched about it and found out that I shouldn’t have introduced a pacifier until breastfeeding is really established. I should’ve waited a bit longer. Stupid me. So after reading that, I stopped letting him use his pacifiers and his feeding bottles (for expressed milk). I wanted to let him learn how to latch on to my breast properly again. That caused a lot of severe nipple pains but I am thankful that my baby eventually re-learned it.

Now that I am completely sure that breastfeeding is 100% established, I am giving him the pacifier again but he refuses it every time. I am not yet giving up though. I’ll give it another week or so before succumbing to letting him suck his thumb. But the funny thing is, I think that, after re-learning how to latch on to me, he just didn’t forget how to suck a pacifier but he also forgot how to suck his thumb. I mean, he can put his thumb in his mouth with no effort but he does not really know how to suck it so he just sort or lick it.

C is just about 2 weeks old in this photo. He can clearly stare at people's faces and objects presented to him at a distance. In this photo, he's obviously staring at the camera.

My baby is already two months and a week old. How time flies! It’s incredible how much development he went through during his first two months. His first few weeks were not easy on him because he frequently had stomachache.

He still get tummyaches until now but they are not as terrible as before anymore. I consider his being able to manage his tummyache as a milestone. They said the tummyache will come again later when he starts eating solid food, but I am still glad he is over the first stage of baby flatulence and stomachache.

At 4 weeks, he was able to hold his head without a problem and he started to smile consciously.

My favorite milestone was when, at 4 weeks old, he started to smile consciously. It is such a wonderful feeling to see my baby smile because it is a clear indication that my baby is feeling happy and well. His motor skills are also developing fast. At 4 weeks, he was already able to hold and turn his head from side to side. Also, he started to follow things with his eyes and he started to make cooing sounds.

At 8 weeks, he's more alert and active. He likes tummy time and he likes looking at things in the room.

He is also gaining weight fast. At 2 months, he weighed 7kg. That’s a big leap from being 3.91kg (his weight at birth). Around 6 weeks, he was already able to raise his head and his chest when I let him lay on his tummy. At 8 weeks, he can do those things really well already and he can do them for a longer period of time.

Now at 9 weeks, he still likes tummy time and started to reach out for things presented to him. Colorful pictures also seem to hold his interest.

These are nothing extraordinary. But as a first time mom, I am really excited about each of my baby’s development. I help him reach his milestones by doing exercises with him and by talking to him a lot. Also, no matter how busy I am, I make sure that I am always there for my baby. I don’t just go to him when he cries. The time he’s awake is spent on playing together, doing exercises together, and talking to each other. There are other moms who believe that they’re doing their baby good by leaving their babies to explore things on their own even during the first few months. They are just there to feed, bath, and put their babies to sleep (the basics). I am not saying they are wrong. I am just saying that I am not like them because clearly, their approach is very different to mine.

I am thankful that my baby does not cry a lot. He is not a fussy baby, and I hope that he stays that way. Of course there are times when he cries and whenever he does, I immediately run to his side because knowing him, I know that there’s really something bothering him.

He just whimpers when he’s hungry or tired. He makes some jerky movements when he is bored. He makes some sounds when he is lonely. And when he needs a diaper change, he does not fuss  about it at all. But when it comes to having a stomachache, he’ll scream and cry with tears. He would turn deep red from trying to push the air out and I would fuss about helping him ease his tummy pain by giving him baby massages, hot compress, and anti-flat drops.

Other than his digestive system being immature, I think my breast milk also had something to do with his tummyaches. At the beginning, I was producing so much foremilk and this was causing him to have violent, green, and painful stools. According to experts, foremilk is more difficult for the baby’s immature stomach to digest. Foremilk is rich in proteins and other elements the baby need for his growth and developement but it is more difficult to the baby’s stomach to digest it. The hindmilk is the one giving the baby a feeling of being full and it is easily digestible by a baby’s young stomach. He was literally projectile pooping because of my foremilk/hindmilk imbalance,  but after awhile, and with some tips from the hospital’s lactating expert, I was able to sort of train my breasts to produce a balance of foremilk and hindmilk.

The frequent stomachahes is a thing of the past now. Slowly, my baby’s digestive system is doing its work properly. He still gets tummy pain every now and then but he is better at managing it that sometimes, he does not need my help anymore.