I remember reading on a friend's facebook status a few months ago that her son was 8 months old and it was her least favorite month. She remembered how much she disliked that month with her daughter too.
My reply to her post was a baffled, "what are you talking about, 8 months is the best!" Because it was. We absolutely loved 8 months. Aside from a few nights of teething hell, it was so much fun. Q was sitting up and becoming a real little person, so interested in everything around him. Play time was becoming more and more fun.
Now Q has hit the 10 month mark, and I think I know what she was talking about. So far, 10 months has been really hard.
He's still adorable, laughs all the time and squeals with joy when he see's us. But he's in this mobility rut. Sitting he's got down, and he loves to pull up on your hands and walk around the house in his walker, or holding onto your fingers. But no crawling, no cruising, definitely no walking on his own. If you put him on his belly, he scoots backwards, away from whatever he was trying to get closer to.
You can see the frustration on his face. He wants so badly to be moving, to be able to get to the toy that's just out of reach. To chase Cleo around the house, to walk just like all the big kids in the nursery.
But what we've learned about our little boy is that everything has to happen when he's ready and in his own way. All of a sudden he'll just start to do things. So I know we shouldn't be worried that he's a bit slower at gaining these milestones, even if it gives my heart a little pang every time I see other babies his age already walking!
The other part that's been so hard is all the teething/illness. His top teeth have been working their way down for about 2 weeks now, and all through that time we've also been fighting off a residual ear infection, cold and stomach bug.
He's been cranky. Cranky with pain, cranky with frustration, cranky going to sleep, and it's made for a hard month so far. Lots of naps and nights spent rocking him to sleep over and over again. The boy that has been going to sleep on his own for the last 5 months. And to make matters even more complicated, he's deciding at 3am most mornings to roll over onto his belly, but he hasn't figured out how to soothe himself back to sleep.
I feel like we're in a hump month. Not the hardest we've been through so far in his life. But things have been so easy for so long that we lost our sleepless parent armor. We forgot what it was like to get up several times in the night and still have to go to work the next day like a zombie.
We had so much to do last weekend getting ready for the moving company to come survey all our belongings, that we actually gave our baby away for pretty much an entire weekend to friends that were so happy to have him. And you know what, it was awesome! Seriously, if you haven't given your baby away for a bit of a break, I highly recommend it. Just the act of being able to go to sleep for a night secure in the knowledge that you will not need to be woken up is delicious, like sinking your teeth into a grilled cheese sandwich.
It's a good reminder I guess, of how parenting and life really are. There are easy times and there are hard times. And in the end, we'll make it through. But sometimes we need a helping hand to get over the hump.
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My reply to her post was a baffled, "what are you talking about, 8 months is the best!" Because it was. We absolutely loved 8 months. Aside from a few nights of teething hell, it was so much fun. Q was sitting up and becoming a real little person, so interested in everything around him. Play time was becoming more and more fun.
Now Q has hit the 10 month mark, and I think I know what she was talking about. So far, 10 months has been really hard.
He's still adorable, laughs all the time and squeals with joy when he see's us. But he's in this mobility rut. Sitting he's got down, and he loves to pull up on your hands and walk around the house in his walker, or holding onto your fingers. But no crawling, no cruising, definitely no walking on his own. If you put him on his belly, he scoots backwards, away from whatever he was trying to get closer to.
You can see the frustration on his face. He wants so badly to be moving, to be able to get to the toy that's just out of reach. To chase Cleo around the house, to walk just like all the big kids in the nursery.
But what we've learned about our little boy is that everything has to happen when he's ready and in his own way. All of a sudden he'll just start to do things. So I know we shouldn't be worried that he's a bit slower at gaining these milestones, even if it gives my heart a little pang every time I see other babies his age already walking!
The other part that's been so hard is all the teething/illness. His top teeth have been working their way down for about 2 weeks now, and all through that time we've also been fighting off a residual ear infection, cold and stomach bug.
He's been cranky. Cranky with pain, cranky with frustration, cranky going to sleep, and it's made for a hard month so far. Lots of naps and nights spent rocking him to sleep over and over again. The boy that has been going to sleep on his own for the last 5 months. And to make matters even more complicated, he's deciding at 3am most mornings to roll over onto his belly, but he hasn't figured out how to soothe himself back to sleep.
I feel like we're in a hump month. Not the hardest we've been through so far in his life. But things have been so easy for so long that we lost our sleepless parent armor. We forgot what it was like to get up several times in the night and still have to go to work the next day like a zombie.
We had so much to do last weekend getting ready for the moving company to come survey all our belongings, that we actually gave our baby away for pretty much an entire weekend to friends that were so happy to have him. And you know what, it was awesome! Seriously, if you haven't given your baby away for a bit of a break, I highly recommend it. Just the act of being able to go to sleep for a night secure in the knowledge that you will not need to be woken up is delicious, like sinking your teeth into a grilled cheese sandwich.
It's a good reminder I guess, of how parenting and life really are. There are easy times and there are hard times. And in the end, we'll make it through. But sometimes we need a helping hand to get over the hump.
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