Luke Details...

I thought I would do a blog with Luke updates since I really haven’t gone into much detail about his development over the past few months. Let’s see, where to begin…he’s 35 weeks old now (the only reason I know it in weeks is because I keep his pictures in folders separated by weeks...one of the few areas in life where I’m actually organized!) In months, he’s a week shy of being 8 months old. We finally found the bathroom scales and my measuring tape, so we’ve been able to weigh and measure him. He weighs in at approx 20 pounds and around 29 inches long.

He has quite the vocabulary now – while he doesn’t really say words, he has plenty to say – “Ah da da”, “Ah la la” “la la da” “laaa” “Ah la”, “Ah ba ba ba ba ba” ect. He has different volumes and inflections now too. Ah da DA DA! Or “Ah BA DA ehhh ehhh” He’ll screech like an owl, and if he’s really tired make throaty “ehhhhh” noises or funny high pitched noises or he’ll cry.

He is crawling around like it’s his job and he pulls himself up like it’s his other job. He can walk along while holding on to the couch or his baby gate (or anything that can give him some support). He likes to play with his toys and books – and he’s able to pick up about anything – small to big. He can hold two separate toys at one time and pass one toy from one hand to the other. He likes to take a book and open it and shut it, open it and shut it, open it and shut it, and so on and so forth. He likes to hit things. He’ll flap his arm on top of a toy, a book, the couch, the cat, the table, his booster seat, the air, the water when he’s taking a bath, on top of anything! He loves to see how it feels and what sound it makes when he hits whatever it is. He’ll do the same with a toy in his hand for added sound. It’s so cute!

He’s eating three times a day now and we’re still breastfeeding for snacks and bedtime. I’ve given him some rice puff finger foods (made for babies), but it makes me nervous because I’m so afraid he’ll choke. He likes most everything we give him. He did go through a stage where he only ate pears, but now he’ll eat fruit, veggies, and the icky meat they puree for babies…yuck! He gets tastes of mommy and daddy’s food as well. He’ll finally drink from a bottle or a sippy cup and he LOVES to drink from a regular cup, but he needs lots of help with that. He is a HUGE fan of water, so we just put water in his bottle or sippy and he’s a happy camper. He’s also taking his pacifier again – after refusing it for the last 5 months or so. I know I probably shouldn’t have reintroduced it, but I was hoping it would help with his bedtime soothing needs.

Naptime and Bedtime have been an uphill battle. He just doesn’t want to sleep. He’s a very active, very curious little boy, so sleeping is no fun when there are things to see and do! We had to start a routine – even if it’s not rigid, it’s a must for Mr. Luke. Sometimes he goes to sleep without a fight, other times it takes up to 45 minutes to finally get him to go to sleep. This whole process has been an evolving one…we’ve tried many things to find the right way. As of now, for naps I’ll lay him down in the crib with his pacifier, give him his little blankie and leave the room. Usually he’ll roll back up and play with the little fish on his mobile for awhile. Now his next reaction depends on his mood. Sometimes he’ll go to sleep with a little bit of playing (a rare but fantastic day, he’ll go to sleep right away!) most times he’ll play for awhile, but then get really fussy. So I’ll give it a few seconds to see if he’ll fuss himself out. If he doesn’t, I’ll go and lay him back down, put the pacifier in his mouth and give him his blankie and leave the room. Then I’ll repeat that last step until he remains lying down. He’s caught on to the routine and I usually only have to lay him back down after his initial play time in the crib only a few times. My goal is to get him to take 2-3 naps lasting 1 to 1 1/2 hours each, which is pretty funny because he only likes to nap between 10-30 minutes…which would be fine except he never gets enough rest when he takes such short naps and he’s grouchy as all get out after he wakes up. So, that’s the next step we’re working on…longer naps.

Bedtime is a bit different – he usually goes to bed between 7-9pm. We’ve started giving him a bath before bed most nights to soothe him and calm him down. I’ll breastfeed him, put him down in his crib with his pacifier and little blankie and usually he’ll go right to sleep. This is a HUGE blessing because bedtime used to be a BIG nightmare. He would scream at the top of his lungs and cling to the rungs of the crib. We finally found the right routine, but it took a lot of patience to get there. Now we just need to get him to sleep through the night. Sigh…I don’t think I’ve slept a good night’s sleep since I was 4 weeks pregnant! Some nights he’ll wake up every 2 or so hours, others he’ll go 3 or so hours. Usually the only way to get him back to sleep is to breastfeed him. I don’t think he’s hungry so much as it’s become a habit and he wants to be soothed back to sleep…which much to my disappointment, the pacifier won’t do the job for nighttime soothing. So that’s the next step in this process…sleeping through the night.

Bath time is so fun for Luke now! We’ve been bathing him in the sink because his tub seat was in a box somewhere. When Chris carries him over the sink and he sees the running water and bubble filled sink, he starts kicking his legs excitedly. Once in the water, he LOVES to splash. Usually there’s only 1/3 of the water left in the sink after he’s done splashing. He also loves to put his hands under the running water. His new thing is to try to grab the faucet and stick it in his mouth…yuck! I’m so afraid he’ll drown himself since the water is still running, but he thinks it’s hilarious. So far we’ve been able to get the faucet out of his mouth quickly. Silly boy!

So far no teeth, BUT I think its right around the corner. Lately he’s been extremely grouchy, crabby and clingy. He’s had a runny nose and at times I think he has a very low fever. Every time he gets like this I think he’s going to teethe – since he’s been like 4 months old – but surely it’s the real thing this time?! =)

Some random things - He loves the animals. Nothing will make him giggle faster then seeing Riley, Tiger or Little One. We’re trying to show him that he has to be gentle with them. He likes to grab their tails or a thatch of fur though! He still likes to grab your hair, although not quite as much as he did a few months ago. It still hurts like the dickens though! He knows his name very well now. We tell him the names of different things…”ball,” “red ball,” “bear,” “train,” etc. He doesn’t seem to care, but I’ve read that they can recognize words before they can say them. He’s VERY squirmy. He refuses to cuddle – even if he’s tired! He used to love to be held close and rocked – but now if you try to cuddle him he squirms and wiggles away. He’s going to be independent and stubborn…I wonder who he got those traits from!? =) He’s got the curiosity of a cat and isn’t scared of much of anything. He always goes for the things he’s not supposed to have and has a speed crawl to get to it. He’s a mischievous one, but still very sweet at the same time. He has a hat full of expressions – ranging from his heart melting smile to his mischievous little smirk, to his awe struck open mouth wonder, to his crumpled up “I’m going to cry now” face. All of them are so precious and I wish I could capture each of them on film – but even when I try he’s moved on to another expression before I can capture the first one.

Wow, this has been really long! I guess I should stop for now. Thank Chris for taking care of Luke this morning so I could write this blog. I haven’t had much time on the computer this week because of Luke’s new crabbiness and clinginess.

Since Chris is home today and can keep an eye on Luke, I’m hoping to get the rest of the apartment unpacked and cleaned. Then hopefully we’ll have time to take some things to the storage unit, pick up a few much needed items at Baby’s R’ Us and Pet Smart (with Riley of course – she doesn’t get much excitement these days, so we try to take her out for a treat once a week.) But before I start that, I’m going to savor a cup of coffee. =)

I hope all is going well for everyone!

Here’s a video (hope it works) of Luke! This was taken the second week of December when we were at my parents house for Christmas. It's short because we wanted to test out how hard/easy it is to upload. Let us know if you have problems viewing it!