How did this happen?! How could it be that this child is already seven months old?!
Time flies, as they say. But these past seven months have been so dense in experiences and memories that, yes, it is possible that it has been seven months...or even seven years.
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| So grown up now! |
Sleep is not as much of an issue this month. Camille has more or less gotten used to the whole "parents leave so I can sleep" deal. The more we think about it, the more we are assured that this was the right decision
at the right time for our family. I believe that the timing is just working out in our favor with these factors:
- Camille being 6 months old means that there are lots of developmental things that enable her to sleep through the night. Hehe, I'm realizing how vague that sounds. I just mean that I think she's sleeping deeper, less easily awakened, is mobile enough to worm herself into a comfortable position, etc.
- We recently introduced her to solids and she's been having consistently 2+ solid meals each day for the past couple of weeks. Some say that solids will help kids sleep through the night. I don't know if I completely buy that. But I definitely think that this is a factor.
- I think the biggest contributor to Camille (and us!) getting a good night sleep is the fact that we have moved her into her own room. We resisted this for a long time because (1) co-sleeping was so easy for nursing her at night, (2) we felt safer with her being in the same room with us, (3) we grew up sharing rooms with our parents, (4) we didn't want her crying to bother the neighbor sharing the 2nd bedroom's wall, (5) Camille is still not financially contributing to our rent, and (6) we didn't want to go through the effort of moving her if we were going to be moving out of this apartment anyway. Seeing that we will stay here for the foreseeable future, we decided to give Camille her own space. We miss having her in our room...but not really. She's just in the other room. We definitely don't miss (1) being woken up by her tossing & turning, (2) waking her up with our tossing & turning, (3) having to rock her to sleep when she cries so that Chin's sleep doesn't get disturbed, (4) being frustrated when she cries as we sleep train her, (5) actually sleeping in the other bedroom while she sleeps on our giant bed, and (6) not being able to sleep together sometimes because one of us is with the child (guess who?) and the other one is trying to get sleep.
We feel like it's such a night-and-day difference now that Camille has gotten into a rhythm and she's learning how to fall asleep on her own. Not only are we happier, but we have noticed that Camille is a much happier child, too!
Camille is now much more expressive and mobile. Some highlights in her development:
- Starting this month, she has been really keen on laying on her side or tummy to sleep. It was a little scary at first and I would go in to her room to flip her over (yunno, SIDS and all). But I'm just thinking that she is at an age where she can learn how to flip over if she can't breathe. Besides, a great benefit of sleeping on her tummy: her fro lays down and results in better hair!
- She sits! It's amazing what a difference a couple of weeks can make. One week, she couldn't sit on her own at all. The next week, she would be a little wobbly. And the next, she could sit on her own! Admittedly, I'm pretty sure her giant cloth diapers have been holding her back from reaching this milestone sooner. Now that she is able to sit up, we've been putting her on the potty chair. We tried doing this when she was 3 months old...and her skinny butt fell into the potty hole! Now she loves sitting on the potty chair and kind of treats it like it's her throne. :)
- Camille can play on her own for a longer period of time now that she can more or less sit on her own. I think maybe her attention span is longer, too. Who knows.
- She has started to really like chewing on her feet. I know that sounds totally gross, but I let her do it. Think, spinach : Popeye :: toe jam : Camille.
- Last month, she learned how to be Spitty Gonzales. This month, she does this thing where she pools up saliva to the back of her throat and gurgles. It's both gross and fascinating at the same time.
- She got to be very fond of pulling my glasses off. Aaaaand that is why I got Lasik surgery. Kind of an expensive remedy to this simple problem...
- Camille likes to rough house. She likes it when we run around while holding her, or toss her up high, or hold her upside down. She will laugh hysterically when we do this!
- Despite this, we have noticed that Camille is kind of a cautious child. When handed a new object, she observes it carefully first before reaching out to grab it. I think she gets this from Chin...who will spend months researching and weighing options before he buys anything! :P
- She does well with small groups of people. When we're in a large group setting (especially at night when she's going for a long time without a nap), she tends to be a little more reserved and will sometimes freak out when people laugh loudly. This doesn't happen during the day, though, because she is usually fine at church.
- She has been extending out more and contorting her body to get objects that are not within reach.
- Oh, how could I forget: she's eating solids now! We started feeding her some solids soon after she turned 6 months on the recommendation of her pediatric nurse practitioner. She didn't take to it right away. But we tried a few days later and she's been liking it ever since! It's never been a struggle for us to feed her. She may stop wanting to eat before we are done feeding her that meal, but we take that cue to mean she's done and never let it escalate to a battle.
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| Mmm...fooooood... |
- Now that we've introduced her to solids, Camille's poop is definitely more solid and smelly! She has only shown signs of being slightly constipated once. But we've definitely observed her using more effort to poop.
- Finally, Chin & I didn't think it would happen...but Camille has started a screaming phase! Or at least I hope it's just a phase. It usually happens when she's laying down. She would let out a series of alarmingly high-pitched shrieks that's just like, "Ugh! Please don't do this at a grocery store or restaurant! We don't want to be those parents associated with the screaming child."
The specs
As of March 7, 2011:
- Weight: 13 lb 13 oz - 10%ile
By the way, these percentile things are based on the CDC's growth chart. Which is only meant to be used as a reference and not as a standard. The WHO growth chart takes into account babies who are breastfed, and should be used as a standard. (For more information on this, you can read the
CDC's statement regarding these growth charts.) According to the WHO chart, Camille is in the 25%ile for weight.
Milestones & important events
February 14 - Camille's first Valentine's Day! We spent it with some uber cool people at the Boeing Ski Night.
February 15 - Went to 6-month check-up and found that Camille has not been gaining a lot of weight since the last visit. Ruh roh... PNP suggested we start her on solids.
February 16 - Fed her oatmeal cereal + breastmilk + olive oil. Too watery. Did not like it at all and she actually didn't eat any of what we fed her. (She also started out on a sour mood. That should have been our clue to not introduce food to her at this time. Hehe...rookie mistake!)
February 18 - Left Camille with Hilary, Lam, and David while I went to an eye appointment. The appointment ran a little long and Camille got hungry. So I asked Lam to feed her some mashed bananas. She ate it! Her first solid food. Thank you, Auntie Lam!
February 22 - Chin & I didn't get to go out on Valentine's Day. After a little bit of whining, I got him to get a sitter (the Grays - thank you!) and take me out to dinner. Hehe :)
February 24 - Despite the snow, Camille and I ventured into Seattle to attend a photo shoot for
Zulily. She starred in their online ads the next day!
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Um...this might be a copyright infringement.
But if it's not, this picture is staying up!
(photo courtesy of Zulily.com) |
February 26 - We transformed our office/guest bedroom into Camille's room. Yep, the kid got the boot!
March 5 - Camille got to sit up in a high chair at a restaurant (Chipotle) for the first time!
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| Eating with the grown-ups |
March 6 - I fed Camille some pho noodles. "Mmm...that's some good MSG, Mommy!"
March 8 - Camille's first International Women's Day + Shrove Tuesday. Although she didn't have any pancakes. Next year!
March 9 - I got iLasik surgery! Now I can see without corrective lenses. I was awake during the entire surgery so they gave me some [ahhhh...] Valium to relax. Because of this, I couldn't breastfeed Camille until 8pm that night. Oh boy, she was not a happy girl. She ate a whole lot of solids that day (she still refuses the bottle)!
March 13 - We put Camille in the nursery at church for the first time. She loved playing with the other kids...even though she was supposed to be napping. Oh well, she made up for it with a 3.5-hour nap later in the afternoon. :)
Favorite part...
Finally getting to sleep through the night again! This hasn't happened since my 20th week of pregnancy!
Least favorite...
There was one night that I let Camille cry-it-out for 15 minutes when she woke up in the middle of the night. In the morning when I took her to go potty, I saw that her urine was more concentrated than usual. It was yellow. Her urine has never been that yellow ever before or ever since. I felt
so bad!! But because I didn't feed her that night, she started sleeping through the night from then on. So, I guess it turned out for the best. But I still felt horrible that she was thirsty that night.
Shout outs
...To the Pangs (Keone + Ja-Hye + Keilana + Jedidiah), the Kos (Quan + Dave + Caden + Liam), and the Ngs (Chung + Alice + Anna Jane) for passing on some infant feeding stuff to Camille. Thank you so much!
...To Lam, David, and Hilary for babysitting Camille. Thanks for taking her out on a walk and even feeding her banana. You guys rule!
...To the Grays for taking care of Camille while we enjoyed our hot date. Camille always feels so comfortable with your family!
...To Kristie for spending almost a whole day with Camille while I was getting Lasik done!
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| Thank you, Auntie Kristie! |
Discoveries & reflections
...There is a huge jump in laundry items after we introduced solids. It sure is a messy endeavor, folks!
...I have learned that sleepy time parenting is
not the bottom line in child development. Neither is feeding choice. Or what kinds of games I play with Camille when she's awake. I need to pray more because God holds the key.
...My mind is always racing with thoughts of how to Tetris together the optimal schedule for Camille's day.
...I'll say it now: I hate schedules. I hate making one for my family and I hate having to abide by it.
...I always feel like I need to top off Camille's sleep tank during the week to account for the missed naps over the weekend.
...I have always loved smelling Camille's breath. I wonder if this will change once she starts solids. (Update: Yes, a little bit. But I still love smelling her breath!)
...I often wonder if Camille is going to be a drama queen or a dull kid. I would love for her to have lots of personality. But, can we handle it? :-/
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| Crankster |
...Fathers are usually very concerned about physical growth of their children. Chin routinely weighs Camille on our bath scale...which is almost never accurate.
...Every parent seems to want their kid to excel in something. That's nothing new. But what's funny is how parents want their infants to excel in things...like weight, or height, or when they are capable of rolling over, how long they sleep at night. I must admit, I am one of those parents! But it is silly, isn't it?
...I knew that I would take a lot of pictures of my children. What I didn't know was that I'd be taking 30 shots of the same thing. Where half of them are very blurry, 5 are only moderately blurry but the kid is not looking at the camera, 5 where she has completely wiggled off-screen, a few shots where I try to use flash but it just looks wrong, and finally a couple that are truly fantastic! And then I'm left with the tough decision of which picture to post on Facebook.
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| Camille loves watching the YouTube video of this laughing baby! |
..."Likes" on Facebook are weak sauce. Only comments matter.
...Chin and I are getting better at deciphering Camille's different cries. Nightmare? Gas? The I-can't-fall-back-asleep cry? Just crying because she's amused by the sound of her own voice? We can tell them apart pretty well now :)
...I crave for the day when I can listen to a sermon from beginning to end!
...I'm starting to believe people when they say, "It gets better!!"
...I have learned that no camera can capture the magic of this child.
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| Mahalo!! |
