Finley at Eight Months

LIKES:

 - Peek-aboo

 - Playing in water (pool, bath, etc.)

 - Being thrown into the air

 - Drinking water

 - Sitting up

 - Fruit, especially berries and peaches

 - Toast, pancakes, and most carbs

 - Basically all food she has tried so far, haha

 - Nursing

 - "Chasing" Eloise and dancing with her

 - Playing with hair

DISLIKES:

 - Not eating like every two hours

 - Not nursing as soon as she wakes up

 - When I leave the room/her sight

 - Falling over from sitting

 - Eloise screaming

FIRSTS/SKILLS:
 - Fireworks/Fourth of July

 - Time in a swing

RANDOM NOTES:

 - Clothes: 3-6 months

 - Diaper Size: 2

 - Now has her two bottom teeth and they are growing in well! And a little sharp... She bit me a couple times this month while nursing, ouch. 

 - Hair is looking lighter all the time. It's now lighter than Lou's and close to Dustan's color. 

 - Eyes are still blue! And the most wonderful eyebrows are still above them <3

Just at the very end of this month, we got Finley switched over to two naps! This new schedule is so nice, since that evening nap had started to become a fight every day. Same as Eloise, when we first started trying to switch to two naps, those naps became so short and sporadic. But we stayed consistent, and after about a week, then naps were good 90% of the time. And though it's a little late for Lou, we keep her up so that her nap aligns with Finn's second nap.

7:30 am - Wake up, nurse

9:00 am - Breakfast
10:00 am - Nap
11:30 am - Nurse

1:00 pm - Lunch
2:30 pm - Nap
4:00 pm - Nurse, snack if needed
5:30 pm - Dinner
7:15 pm - Nurse, bedtime routine
7:30 pm - Bed

Finley is still sleeping through the night wonderfully, and only woke us up once this whole month! Unfortunately, she has had a little more trouble going to sleep. She has needed to be rocked or nursed to sleep at night a few times, which can take some time. Other than that, she has been napping really well and sleeping until past 7:00 am most mornings.

This month, Finley has become such a good eater! She eats almost everything and is always capable of eating more than I would expect. She loves fruit and carbs the most, though her absolute favorite foods are probably buttered toast, blackberries, banana pancakes, raspberries, and german pancakes. She loves breakfast foods the most--she is definitely a Kraus!

Finn has really mastered the sitting up and is improving on her pincer grasp and leaning forward to reach things from sitting. She falls occasionally but is far more steady than last month. We love how upright she sits, with a straight back and her arms usually raised haha. She doesn't seem inclined to crawl anytime soon, which I'm fine with. She does some rolling around, but not a lot. She's very content to sit and play with all the random toys Lou hands her :)

As always... She is the happiest baby around! Finn had a few grumpy moments in the afternoons, until we realized that she sometimes needs an afternoon snack to tide her over before dinner. As long as she is well fed and her teeth aren't bothering her, Finley is so happy and just loves to smile!

Lou Lately

Eloise is just over 2.5 and is such a hoot! I just needed to write this short blog recording a few of her mannerisms and things she has said lately that just make Dustan and I laugh. I never want to forget these moments!

Whenever Lou gets something abnormal put in her hair (headband, towel head turban, special braid, etc.), she exclaims, "I look so beautiful! I'm getting married!"

Similarly, Lou will gather up an armful of toys--usually stuffed animals or action figures, but I've also seen it done with play food or other random objects--and say, "They're all getting married!" We have Frozen II to thank for that one.

Eloise is very interested in all things Disney princesses lately. She loves the movies and has all the major action figures. She loves to assign songs and sayings to the princesses. So if you ask her what a princess sings, she almost always knows their main song. Like Jasmin sings "A Whole New World", Pocahontas sings "Just Around the River Bend", Moana sings "How Far I'll Go", etc. And she knows these songs pretty well. We have music running most of the day.

When Dustan got home from work the other day, he leaned over and gave me a kiss. The following dialogue ensued:
Lou: "What are you guys doing?"
Dustan: "We're kissing!"
Lou: "....Like true love?!"

Eloise will regularly tell both Finley and I that we look "so beautiful" or look "so pretty", most often when we are wearing dresses. She also to wear a dress almost every day and loves to spin in them.

Recently, Lou has started to add the phrase "a little bit" to the end of many things she says, especially when she's a little upset or concerned. For example:
 - "I'm just sad a little bit."
 - "I just want to snuggle a little bit."
 - "She's being too loud a little bit."
 - "I'm just tired a little bit."

Eloise often asks me to do her hair, and wants either an Elsa braid (one braid) or Anna braids (two braids). The other day, I just did a little braid of her bangs, and Lou called it her "baby Elsa braid" all day long.

Lou has a few little sayings that Dustan like to call "mantras" that she says all the time.
 - When we talk about taking a bath, "Don't poop in the bath!"
 - When we see a cactus or talk about them, "They're pokey! Don't touch!"

Lou has quite a good memory and can recognize quotes from a movie when she has only seen it a couple times. Lou had only seen "The Lion King" once or twice, when Dustan randomly said, "I laugh in the face of danger, ha ha ha!" and Lou responded with, "Oh! Like the lion king!" Since discovering this, Dustan and I sometimes will quiz Lou with movie quotes, which Lou loves and she has quite a good memory for haha.

We've recently been helping Lou learn to say more meaningful prayers, and she is improving. But weirdly, she will almost always end her prayer normally, then almost as an afterthought say, "Oh! And bless mama's milk!" But she'll do this every time. So odd, haha.

Eloise sings all day long, and one of her recent favorites is the "Imperial March" from Star Wars. Not sure how she knows the tune, but she sings it and knows the name and likes us to play it for her.

Finally, one of my favorites, is when Lou comes up and wraps her arms around me and says, "I like warm hugs... like Olaf." This girl is the best!!

Finley at Seven Months

LIKES:
 - Drinking water
 - Exersaucer
 - Fruit, especially berries
 - Toast, pancakes, and oatmeal
 - Cucumbers
 - Watching Eloise run around
 - Pool
 - Buzzing lips
 - Chest, rib, and neck tickles
 - Sitting up
 - Being outside
 - Nursing
 - Standing while being supported
 - Chewing on everything (but especially Lou's Disney princess figures)
 - Sneezing

DISLIKES:
 - Being out of my sight
 - Playing with the same things over and over again
 - Bottles
 - Bananas
 - Extended mat time (back and tummy time)

FIRSTS/SKILLS:
 - Rolling back to belly
 - Sleeping on her belly
 - Tooth
 - Clicking her tongue
 - Sitting up
 - Grabbing things with two fingers (pincer grasp)

RANDOM NOTES:
 - Clothes size: 3-6 months
 - Diaper Size: Two
 - Hair is really starting to thicken up and mine is really starting to fall out a LOT, it's terrifying. I'll be bald in no time.
 - Sleeps on her side or belly a majority of the time.
 - So terribly distracted while nursing, I'm a little worried it's going to mess with my supply. Still never had any formula though! (I was not nursing Lou at all by this point.)
 - Really enjoys sticking her tongue out and spitting and clicking her tongue.

SCHEDULE

7:15 am - Wake up, nurse, breakfast
9:30 am - Nap
11:00 am - Nurse, lunch
1:15 pm - Nap
2:30 pm - Nurse
5:00 pm - Nap
5:30 pm - Nurse, dinner
7:15 pm - Bedtime routine, nurse
7:45 pm - Bed

Our girl is finally sleeping through the night, and no sleep training was involved!! I was getting ready to start sleep training her so I could end that early morning feeding around 5 am. But Finley started sleeping through all on her own! I think it started when she was consistently eating a decent amount of solids for three meals a day, and that helped her not need that middle of the night milk anymore. But who knows. She will still often wake up a little earlier than I would like. Lou is usually up between 7:30 and 8:00, so closer to then is preferred. But Finley is often up around 6:30 ish. I'll take it though.

And as I just mentioned, we have started consistently giving Finley three meals a day. And this girl loves real food! We haven't given her a ton of variety yet. But she likes most things. Not a big fan of plain yogurt (unlike Lou at this age, it was her fave) and purees or eggs, but she loves most carbs and fruit especially. I usually try to feed her about an hour after she nurses. This is generally some things that I give her:

Breakfast (8:30ish) - quick oats mixed with baby oatmeal and applesauce and/or other fruit, toast with butter and/or peanut butter, banana pancakes, german pancakes
Lunch (12:30ish) - plain whole milk yogurt with peanut butter or fruit, bean and cheese quesadilla, lunch meat and cheese, toast (she really loves buttered toast), leftovers, fruit and puffs
Dinner (6:00ish) - small chunks of whatever we're eating with fruit and veggies

This month, Finn really starting hitting those gross motor skill milestones! She began consistently rolling over both directions and will roll often to get the toys that she wants. She doesn't roll across the room to get things, just one little roll. Finley is also sitting up! She isn't totally sturdy yet, so I don't feel comfortable sitting her up without surrounding her with pillows since she still falls over often. But generally, she's pretty good! Especially when she's holding some toys and not reaching for things.

Finley's first little tooth popped through at the end of this month! She was a little fussy for a couple days and didn't go down for naps and bedtime as easily, but she was good other than that. Hopefully she is a good teething baby like Eloise. Her little tooth is so cute!

Finley has also gotten more clingy to me this month. She always wants to have me in her sights and loses it a bit when I leave the room and she can't see me anymore. She is a bit nervous around other people that she doesn't recognize, though that might also be because she hasn't been around others much because of the coronavirus, haha. She's also been a little more easily bored and harder to entertain. The sitting up helps though!

As always, Finley is still just the smiliest, happiest girl usually! She loves making eye contact with people and just giving them her huge, eye crinkly, gummy smiles! She also loves to rest her forehead on yours and give quick little shy snuggles while smiling. Ah I just adore this girl!

Finley at Six Months

HAPPY HALF, MY DARLING!!

WEIGHT: 14 pounds 8 ounces (15th percentile)
HEIGHT: 26 inches (34th percentile)

LIKES:
 - "Patty Cake" with her hands
 - Standing with help
 - Mouth and cheek kisses
 - Fruit and peanut butter and toast
 - Sticking her hands in my mouth
 - Touching faces
 - Eating and touching hair
 - Teethers (especially her green alien and the blue ring with prongs)
 - Looking in mirrors
 - Water
 - Daddy (biggest smiles for Dustan whenever he looks at her)
 - Drinking from straws
 - Chewing/sucking on her toes
 - Exersaucer
 - Sneezing
 - Chewing on literally everything

DISLIKES:
 - Loud and sudden noises
 - Bumbo
 - Extended tummy time
 - Bottles
 - Doing any one activity for long (getting bored more easily with repition)

FIRSTS/SKILLS:
 - Rolling onto her side from her back
 - Sleeping on her side
 - Grabbing objects while on her belly
 - Drinking from a straw
 - Rolling from back to belly (only happened once at naptime, but she's so close!)
 - In a swing
 - Swim at the pool

RANDOM NOTES:
 - Clothes size: 3-6 months
 - Diaper Size: One
 - Appeared to have forgotten how to roll from belly to back, even though we were sure she had just learned it last month haha
 - The bald spot on the back of her head is starting to fill in a bit, and the rest of her hair is looking thicker (and maybe slightly darker than Lou's?)
 - At the end of the month, started sleeping on her side about half the time
 - Nurses usually 6 times during 24 hours and still takes about 30 minutes each time she nurses and pops on and off constantly as she is distracted by everything around her
 - Regularly sleeps on her side, probably about half the time
 - Will often tip her head forward to rest her forehead against yours if you are holding her up near your face <3
 - Nicknames: Finny, Finn, Finny-Jen, Finny-babe, wiggle bum, little bug

Lots of pictures this month... She's just so CUTE!

SCHEDULE

7:30 am - Wake up, nurse
9:30 am - Nap
11:00 am - Nurse
1:15 pm - Nap
2:30 pm - Nurse
4:45 pm - Nap
5:30 pm - Nurse
7:00 pm - Bedtime routine, nurse
7:30 pm - Bed

**Usually eats in the middle of the night sometime between 4 and 6 am and goes back to sleep until about 7:30 ish.

This is about the same schedule Finley was on last month, though these days she stays awake longer between her naps. Towards the end of this month nap, she has been struggling a bit with her third nap and often cries when we put her down. We always go in and comfort her after a little bit, but she often won't calm and go to sleep until I nurse her to sleep, which I never do (except for that middle of the night feeding). And then she wakes up within 30 minutes and is upset. So hopefully that is just a fluke from the last week and this won't continue, but we'll see!

Finley has really started to find her voice this month, and does a nice variety of screaming and yelling. She will scream for fun and be smiling, especially if Eloise or someone else is doing it back. But more often, her screaming seems to be for attention. It isn't that Finn is crying, but she is bored or wants more direct attention than she's receiving or is starting to get tired. She can really get quite loud and high pitched too, haha. Sometimes it stresses Lou out a bit, so we've had to resort to say that Finn is "being silly" every time she's screaming, and that she's not mad or upset at Lou haha.

We have finally started really introducing some food this month, though still not consistently at all. So far, Finley doesn't seem super interested in purees or baby oatmeal. She seems to prefer eating mild foods that she can chew, or small chunks of fruit. And peanut butter, she loves that haha. She has eaten oatmeal and baby food a few times, but she just doesn't eat much before acting disinterested. Whereas I have seen her eat like a third of a piece of buttered toast (which I feel like is a lot in one sitting for her size, but maybe I just don't remember how much babies eat haha). I remember that Eloise was a bit of the opposite, and really only wanted purees or yogurt and smooth textures until like eight months, I think. Maybe that was because we started her on purees right at four months though? Who knows! Now, we're going to start getting solids in Finley more regularly, doing a mixture of table food and purees, but mostly table food (I don't want to deal with all the spoon feeding if I can help it). And she still won't take a bottle! Grr.

Finn has gotten so wiggly this month! At the beginning of this "month", it seemed that she had forgotten how to roll from front to back. But just a few days ago, the talent came back! She's gotten very good at rolling onto her side and grabbing at toys above her head, but she has only once rolled all the way onto her belly and it was in her crib during nap time, so I didn't even see it! Finley is now a grabbing pro and snatches at anything within her reach, though she doesn't retain her grip the best (unless of course, it's my hair).

She is sooo smiley and just loves when people make eye contact and just smile at her--she loves to be happy right back! Finley does seem to have a slight preference towards girls, except for Dustan. She just adores him. But generally, she wants to snuggle in and rest her head and smile at girls slightly more often than boys, it seems. It's hard to tell though, since we haven't spend too much time with others with this virus shutting down the whole world. I'm a little concerned Finley is going to be a complete homebody, since we haven't gone much of anywhere the last few months haha.

As always, I'm going to end my post with a few pictures of my favorite girls, who really seem like they're starting bond a little bit this month <3

Finley at Five Months

LIKES:
 - Dramatic breathing in
 - Cheek and mouth kisses
 - Mashed banana
 - Peanut Butter
 - Silicone teethers
 - "Patty Cake" with her hands
 - Raspberries on her belly
 - Big smiles in her direction
 - Standing with help
 - Flashing lights/noises on her exersaucer
 - Diaper changes

DISLIKES:
 - Bedtime routine (mostly getting pajamas on and getting sleep sack on)
 - Drinking water
 - Loud and sudden noises
 - Loud noise while nursing
 - Car rides
 - Bottles
 - Often bath time

FIRSTS/SKILLS:
 - Taste of real food (banana, strawberry, mashed potato, peanut butter, etc.)
 - More steady with standing while holding your hands
 - Grabbing objects
 - Bringing objects to her mouth
 - Knowing how to roll from belly to back one way

RANDOM NOTES:
 - Clothes size: 0-3 and 3-6 months
 - Diaper Size: One
 - Nurses usually six times every 24 hours and a pretty regular pooper, going about twice a week.
 - We haven't officially started giving any regular purees or food or anything, just little tastes here and there.
 - Still has a bald spot on the back of her head, but the rest of her hair is coming in nicely (while mine is all falling out) and it is lighter than at birth, but maybe a little darker than Lou's?
 - Kicks her legs and slams her feet back down when she's excited and/or when she's trying to sleep.
 - Still takes about 30-40 minutes to nurse each time (except for in the middle of the night).
 - Almost always has fingers, hands, arms, etc. in her mouth and is often drooling.
 - When she has her biggest smiles (you can see them above), she crinkles her nose and we looooove it!

SCHEDULE

7:30 am - Wake up, nurse
9:10 am - Nap
11:00 am - Nurse
12:45 pm - Nap
2:30 pm - Nurse
4:20 pm - Nap
5:30 pm - Nurse
7:00 pm - Bedtime routine, nurse
7:30 pm - Bed

**Usually eats in the middle of the night sometime between 3 and 6 am.

We switched Finley over to a schedule with three naps each day and an earlier bedtime that lines up with Eloise's, and it has been so nice to have more time with just Dustan and me. I was worried that when we suddenly moved up Finley's bedtime by two hours that she would start waking up more often in the middle of the night, but it went great! It didn't eliminate her waking up in the middle of the night, but she didn't wake up any more often. Once we see how Finley's weight gain is going at her six month appointment, we will probably sleep train to get rid of that middle of the night feeding. This was about the time when I needed to start supplementing with Eloise because she wasn't gaining enough though, so I don't want to drop that feeding for Finley until I'm sure she's doing well.

Unfortunately, Finley has decided she hates bottles this month. I think she dislikes the taste of water, so when I started trying to give her sips here and there of water from a bottle, she associated the bottle with water, rather than milk. This is a bit frustrating because Finn almost exclusively took bottles the first couple months of her life, haha. We'll be working on this a lot in the next month.

Finley has learned how to roll from belly to back! She has done it loads of time since she was just a couple weeks old, but I'm sure they were all on accident. But I think she actually has learned how now, and does it regularly--though only to one side, haha. She also regularly will get on her side from her back, so perhaps rolling back to front will follow soon. And she has really started to get the hang of grabbing objects and putting them in her mouth.

Finley fits in the "Adventure Buddy" onesie we made for Lou! *heart eyes*

Finn has also gotten a little less content to just lay around this month. She needs more entertainment from us, more variety, and less laying down and kicking. She will act fussy when she's not tired, but because she is bored of whatever activity we have her doing. So she requires a little more attention these days. But she is still such a smiley little thing! I think her biggest smiles are when she sees me first thing in the morning.

Eloise has really started to get better with Finley this month. She loves to help me go get Finley from her room after naps, participate in putting her down, and will even try to entertain Finn when she's upset. I'm so proud of my girls!