A miracle has happened. Austen has learned to sleep … and without a prelude of screaming. She takes naps for up to two hours with hardly a complaint; sixty minutes is her average nap length. She regularly sleeps through the night. If she wakes, she goes back to sleep on her own without much fussing. You can find her face down in her crib (she rolls over on her own) on most nights from 8 pm to 7:30 am. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, she gets up and crawls around a bit or stands holding onto the rails. But, in such cases, she usually tires herself out, finds a pacifier (we keep three clean ones lying around the crib) and plops back onto her stomach for more sleep.
Long gone are the times when baby needed to be rocked, bounced and walked around in Mommy or Daddy’s arms to help her fall asleep. Although Daddy misses having Austen sleep in his arms, he doesn’t miss the achey back and stiff neck associated with keeping Austen in the most comfy position. When Austen finds a toy she really likes, she cries more vocally now if it’s taken away. She threw a fit when Mommy wouldn’t let her have the universal remote control. Last time Austen had it, she caused a minor mix-up with all the devices, switching modes and blocking half the commands from reaching the device. Tech support (a.k.a. Daddy) was called in to quickly fix the problem. At music together class, Austen became enamored with the jingle bells and cried when the teacher took them away. This month we’ve learned just how fast Austen can crawl when she really wants to. When a kitty is in sight, she books it. But despite her best efforts, she’s no match for Nietzsche, Squirt or even Scout. That’s not to say there haven’t been a couple of close calls. Although she’s still mastering her new-found crawling skills, her main goal when crawling is to reach some (dangerous) piece of furniture to pull herself to a standing position. Austen is an expert at pulling herself to standing. She can use just about any stable item, including the legs of other moms at Gymboree, as leverage. Her legs sometimes slide open but eventually she achieves a full standing position and gets a triumphant look on her face. She doesn’t fall nearly as much as she used to and can take a step or two around her leap frog table. It’s like she’s eager to start walking now! Despite previous discussions and some basic planning, Mommy and Daddy rush out to do last minute shopping in order to babyproof the house: numerous outlet covering do-dads, cabinet locks (adhesive & screw-in type), stair guards, corner cushions, etc. Amazing Baby feats for her this month: Knowing her name and responding whole-heartedly when she hears it. Holding her own bottle for feeding. Opening drawers. Crawling on top of a big drum at Music Together class. Climbing steps. Understanding commands: Mommy says, “Clap!,” and she claps; Mommy waves the milk bottle and says “Come here!” and Austen comes barreling over. Rolling around onto her stomach and trying to crawl away during diaper changes. Shouting when Daddy opens his mouth to “eat” her. Now that Austen has her two bottom teeth out, she’s practically stopped drooling. Finally … she doesn’t have to wear a bib all the time. Austen is still a champ at eating. She has three meals a day, with bottles of milk and formula in between. She uses her teeth to do a little chomping. She feeds herself 4-5 veggie puffs while patiently waiting in her high chair for her meal to be prepared. Austen also drinks water from her sippy cup during feeding, to help wash down the food. She doesn’t quite have the hang of drinking from the sippy cup on her own but she’s getting there. While Austen still uses a pacifier for sleep, she’s not as dependent on it for soothing during daytime hours. Toys now soothe her when she’s bored or cranky. It’s getting hard to think of Austen as a baby now that she crawls, stands for long periods of time and cruises around the coffee table. She’s not the same helpless baby she used to be. She smiles and laughs and tries to communicate with people all day long, sometimes entertaining a room with her antics. “For the record” information on poopies: Austen’s a regular pooper now, often soiling two or more diapers daily. When she was just a lil’ baby who only drank milk, she would regularly go five days between poopies. The difference, of course, is when she pooped back then, it was all over the place and super messy. If we were out, it usually got on her pants and even on her shirt, leaving her pant-less for the duration of the excursion. Now her poopies are more solid and easier to clean up.