Monthly Updates

UPDATE: Month 9

Posted on April 1, 2016December 5, 2016 by Graceful Mommy

01
Apr

Happy 9 months Gracie! To me 9 months is a fun update (aren’t they all fun though), because Gracie was in my belly for 9 months and now she’s been on the “outside” for 9 months! That’s pretty cool!

Height/Weight

Gracie weighs around 18 lbs!

Routine

Gracie girl is SO easy going. I just love her personality. If I change something up, she easily adapts to the new schedule. Usually we keep things about the same each day, but some days you need to switch things up. Anyways, Gracie is usually up by 9am. She likes to play for a while, eat breakfast, and then takes a nap about an 1-2 hours later. During the day we love to do different things. I’m loving the stay at home mommy life of reading, mommy and me classes, walks through the neighborhood, playdates, shopping, visiting family, etc. So fun! I know not everyone likes staying at home, but I am truly loving it! Gracie takes an afternoon nap and then Daddy comes home! Gracie is at that age now where she know when dad comes home and her face just lights up and she gives him the biggest smile. It’s seriously the cutest. Gracie goes to bed around 830ish.

Sleeping

Gracie takes 2 naps in the day (USUALLY). One in the morning and one in the afternoon. This schedule seems to be working pretty good for us! One thing new in the sleep department is that Gracie actually has been falling asleep in the car sometimes! This is NEW. She usually cries if she’s tired in the car, but now she’ll just fall asleep. It’s amazing. But then… you run into the problem of… Do I wake her up and put her in bed? Do I keep driving? Do I take the carseat out and let her sleep in it? Usually I take her out and put her in bed and that seems to work. Sometimes she’ll just take a cat nap. And sleeping at night…. is still not happening. Well, it’s not terrible. Gracie falls asleep at 8:30pm then wakes up to eat about every two hours from that. It’s not the worst because she usually falls right back asleep (if I feed her). During this month I think I got a couple of 4 hour stretches, which was awesome. But let’s just say I am a total MOMBIE. Mom + Zombie.

Eating/Feeding

I’ve started noticing a change in Gracie’s eating! She definitely wants to feed herself lately. She has not been digging the purees like last month. She does love yogurt, which is new! And puffs!! I am still nursing and it’s still going great. I’m so blessed I don’t have any supply issues because I know so many women struggle with that. I just follow Gracie’s lead on when she wants to nurse. I am noticing that she doesn’t need to feed as frequently any more. We usually go 3-4 hours in between feedings now. I feed her solids kind of sporadically throughout the day. It usually ends up being a little something for each meal. Gracie loves food though so you can’t eat in front of her without letting her have some!!

Sizes

Gracie wears 6-9 month + 9 month clothes now! I remember before Gracie was born I was sorting all her clothes after my baby shower. I remember thinking how HUGE the 9 month clothes looked. And here we are. She fits in those. It’s just crazy.

Milestones

+Rocks on hands and knees

+Crawls backwards

+Does the downward dog! She watches mommy do yoga 🙂

+Has tried a lot more foods: mashed potatoes, turkey, chicken, cheese, sweet potato fries, yogurt, puffs, and so much more nibbles of stuff I can’t even remember!

+Waves hi and bye!

+Says mama!

+Became a brand rep (baby model) for 5 new shops (and counting…!!!)

+Had her first fever

How I feel

I love my life! For real, I’m truly blessed.
Thanks to Gramma for the cake and setting up the photo shoot!

And thanks to Crafting Pretty Things for the adorable headwrap and Little Standout for the cute diamond teether!

Happy 9 Months Gracie Girl! What a great journey it’s been so far!

UPDATE: Month 8

Posted on March 1, 2016April 2, 2016 by Graceful Mommy

01
Mar

Gracie is 8 months old today! Wow! Only 4 more months until she’s a one year old. That’s crazy. Scroll down to see the video update!

Height/Weight

Not sure how tall she is or how much she weighs! Doctors visit is next month :). She weighs enough to make my arms sore from holding her haha!

Routine

Our routine hasn’t changed too much from last month. Gracie has been waking up a little bit earlier. Most days she’s up by 8. I’m missing the days when she’d sleep until 9:30am, but it’s all good. I love taking Gracie on errands during the day. She really does love shopping (LOL- watch out dad!!!). She loves to look at the aisles and babble. So cute. I also have been loving taking her outside. Some days I’ll take her on a walk, throw a blanket down, and just play outside for a while. She loves being outside! I love how Gracie is so adaptable. If something changes in our routine, it does not usually throw her off. She kind of just goes with it. When we took her on vacation, she was super easy! I love that about her.

Sleeping

Same story, here. Gracie still likes to wake up a couple times at night. Some nights are better than others. And just when I think she’s got it down, something changes and she doesn’t sleep good. Who knows! I’m doing the more laid back approach this month. Just going with the flow. 🙂 During the day, Gracie takes two naps. Sometimes she’ll surprise us and take a mini nap around 5. But usually she takes a short nap in the morning, about an hour and a half after waking up. Then she takes another nap around 2 ish. This nap is usually longer- like 2 hours. But, again, it’s never really the same each day. I’m loving her sleeping routine though. She’s very easy to put to sleep now. I don’t have to rock and bounce her all around.

Eating/Feeding

Gracie has definitely gotten better at eating this month! She’s loving food! I’m still nursing every 2-3 hours, in addition to about 2-3 “meals” a day of solids. It’s really not meals, but I do feed her something for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner. I’m following the Kelly Mom advice for feeding solids. Kelly Mom is an awesome website that gives great advice for all things baby. She suggests feeding a maximum of 2 meals a day until baby is around 9 months. I’ve also started giving Gracie water in a cup with a straw while feeding her solids. She loves drinking with a straw. It’s adorable. But, I limit water to just a couple of sips while eating.

Sizes

Gracie is wearing size 6 month and 6-9 month clothes. A few 9 month outfits fit now! It kind of depends on the brand. She is wearing size 3 diapers. It’s crazy how fast babies grow. Sometimes when Gracie wakes up, I literally think she grew overnight. She wakes up and her clothes are tighter and shorter, it’s nuts. It’s seriously like a magic trick LOL!

Milestones

+Pushes up with her arms (not quite crawling yet!)

+Can spin around on her belly!

+Has tried a lot more foods: Pancakes, prunes, apricots, spinach, strawberries, and blueberries

+Points to stuff with one finger

+PIGTAILS!!!!!

+Loves mickey mouse clubhouse

How I feel

I don’t know why I still include this category in the monthly updates. I’m so over-the-moon happy that it may be getting redundant to keep repeating? Oh well! I love being a mommy. I love seeing Dave as an incredible dad. My heart is so full that I think it may burst any second.

Thanks Gramma for the 8 month birthday cake! YUM!

Monthly Updates

UPDATE: Month 7

Posted on February 1, 2016March 4, 2016 by Graceful Mommy

01
Feb

Today, Gracie is 7 months old. WHOA. It feels like I just posted the 6 month update. We’ve been having so much fun with our precious daughter. She’s seriously the best. I made a video of her 7 month update here:

Or, if you’d rather read all about what Gracie has been up to, go for it!

Height/Weight

Gracie weighs around 17 pounds. And I’m not sure how tall she is.

Routine

Remember last month how I put Gracie on a strict schedule? Yeah… that lasted 3 days. It just didn’t mesh well with us. I like the flexibility of a routine rather than a schedule. I know it works amazing for some parents to have a time schedule with their babes, but Gracie did not respond very good. We do follow pretty much the same routine each day, which I think works really well. Gracie wakes up around 9:30 (YAY!). We usually do more calm activities in the morning like reading and playing with quiet toys while I drink much needed coffee. After about an hour and a half, Gracie gets tired for her first nap- which is usually like 45 minutes long. I shower + get ready for the day and maybe blog a little or clean. The rest of the day kind of just depends on what we have planned. But usually Gracie takes another nap around 2 ISH. Keyword ISH. She’s usually ready for bed around 7:30 but some nights its more like 10. We’re still working on that whole nighttime routine situation. 😀

Sleeping

Gracie has definitely gotten better at sleeping since last month. I think the probably last month was teething. Her bottom two teeth broke through, so she wasn’t sleeping all that great. Things have gotten better. She normally wakes up around 2 times at night. I nurse her and she falls right back asleep. She wakes up for the day around 8:30-9:30. Which I love. I’m glad she sleeps in a little bit for mommy. I used to have to bounce Gracie to sleep for every nap and bedtime. Now, I can lay next to Gracie and pat her back and she falls asleep. My arms are so happy! It usually takes her less than 5 minutes to fall asleep.

Eating/Feeding

I’m still nursing Gracie about every 2-3 hours. It’s still going great. In addition, we’ve been slowly adding fruits and veggies. So far she’s tried lots of different foods: apples, bananas, peaches, green beans, peas, butternut squash, avocado, sweet potato, oatmeal, carrots, pears… I think that may be all. She pretty much loves everything, but you can tell when she REALLY loves something. Her favorites are bananas, peaches, and green beans. I started feeding her around twice a day. Usually a few bites for lunch, and a little bit for dinner. She’s not overly eager to eat solids, but she does like to taste a little bit. Sometimes, I offer her some and she doesn’t want any. We’ve been pretty laid back about the whole solids thing. She eats when she wants-but we don’t force anything if she turns away.