And just like that, another month has passed! It’s a little surreal that in a few more months, Savannah will be a year old. This month has been challenging but good overall. Savannah is growing and learning so many new things each week! We took her pictures this month on a quilt that Cici made for Travis as a baby…how special! And I had Travis’s help while taking the pictures; I snapped away while he got her attention and made her smile. It’s hard to do all that by yourself! :)
According to our scale, Savannah is about 17.5 pounds. We will get an official measurement in another month when she goes for her next checkup. She is still nursing about 5 times a day and doing well with it. She hasn’t gone through that “distracted” phase yet that a lot of older babies go through; at this point, she stays pretty focused even with all of the background noise from Big Sis. She has really improved this month with eating purees, and she will now eat just about anything I offer her. I try to feed her at least once or twice a day, and it’s usually about 2-3 oz at a time. She has tried several new foods this month–prunes, squash, zucchini, green beans, blueberries, turkey, and more that I’m probably forgetting. She is usually pretty patient while she eats, but will occasionally fuss if she’s really interested in eating. She is a pretty messy eater because she loves to stick her hands in her mouth after every bite, so the food gets all over her face, hands, bib, and tray…and a lot of times, it gets on her clothes under the bib too! Silly girl :) She tried her first and only table food so far a couple of days ago–frozen cranberry salad. She made a face when she first tasted it (I think because it was cold) but seemed to like it after that.
Savannah has been sleeping pretty good at night for the most part lately. There were 3 nights in a row before we went out of town for Christmas that she slept through the night from 8 or 8:30 to almost 7 in the morning! Those nights were SO nice. Usually though we can count on her to wake up a little earlier than that in the morning and come sleep for a little while in our bed until Brooklyn wakes up and wakes her up too ;) She is an incredibly light sleeper though! She slept in her crib in our room at my parents’ house, and every night when we would come in to go to bed, she would wake up crying just at the sound of us crawling into bed. That’s with the sound machine on HIGH, and we were being as quiet as humanly possible. It’s crazy! I’m glad that we don’t share a room with her on a normal basis :) We try to get her to bed by about 8 or 8:30 PM each night. She starts to get pretty fussy after about 7 PM anyway, so there’s no point in keeping her up too much later than that ;)
Savannah is taking about 3 naps per day and sometimes 4 if they are all short ones. Lately she has started to take some longer naps some of the time–about an hour or a little longer–but we are still dealing with a lot of little cat naps that are about 30-45 minutes in length too. We never know what to expect! She loves her pacifier and uses it for naps and at night too.
Savannah has learned a lot of new tricks this month! She is army crawling pretty easily now, although she isn’t going all over the house (thankfully). But, she can definitely get across the room fairly quickly if she seems something that she’s interested in. She has started getting up on her hands and knees a lot in the past few days, and she can rock back and forth and even move her hands and knees forward a few times in a row without losing her balance. She is SO close to crawling everywhere!! I’m sure any day now she will figure it out and be chasing Brooklyn all over the house. Just a few days ago, she figured out how to go from her hands and knees to a sitting position as well. And today, she pulled up to her knees for the first time ever. So a lot has happened just in the last week! It’s all happening so much faster than it did with Brooklyn, but I guess Savannah has more motivation to get mobile than Brooklyn did at her age ;)
Along with becoming increasingly mobile, Savannah has started to get into things that she shouldn’t. It begins! She is borderline obsessed with power cords and will make a beeline toward them if she spots one. She also loves garbage bags, blinds, curtains, and the cats’ food and water bowls. So, we are having to start “disciplining” her–mostly by telling her “no” and distracting her/moving her. A few times she has stopped what’s she’s doing when I tell her “no” (at least it’s getting her attention), but I’m not sure she fully understands what we’re telling her yet. This doesn’t always happen, but sometimes she will get MAD when you take something away from her. She doesn’t really have a “fussing” cry. It’s usually an all-out mad scream or she’s laughing. Typical girl, right? ;)
Overall, this has been a pretty fussy month (though you can’t tell it from all of these sweet pictures!). I’m not sure if it’s because she doesn’t nap well during the day sometimes or if it’s because she is teething (Her bottom two teeth are starting to come in! The bottom left is just above the gum and the bottom right isn’t far behind.) or if it’s just her personality, but whew. She has been pretty clingy and wants to be held a lot of the time. The main development is that she wants Mommy over anyone else. She has started crying if she sees me walk out of the room or if someone else is holding her and she notices me. I was really hoping she would be a daddy’s girl since Brooklyn has always been a mommy’s girl, so maybe this will be a short-lived stage (fingers crossed!).
Savannah had a pretty bad rash all over her body a few weeks ago, and after taking her to the doctor, we figured out that it’s probably just eczema. We didn’t deal with that with Brooklyn, so we’re having to use special body wash and lotion to treat it. The rash is gone now, and her skin is looking much better! Also on the medical front, she is STILL spitting up a lot. Sometimes it’s as bad as 6-8+ times after a single feeding. Who knows how much she would weigh if she didn’t spit up half of what she ate each time…haha!
I’m not sure if it’s just because Brooklyn talks all the time, but I feel like Savannah isn’t really a big talker just yet. She definitely has her moments where she likes to “talk” and babble, but when she’s not crying, she’s just not that verbal for the most part. Maybe she can’t get a word in because of her big sister ;) Or maybe I just don’t notice it because Brooklyn is always talking our ears off. I do know that she likes to spit and “blow bubbles” though. She also gets excited and loves to make noise when I start vacuuming or drying my hair and when she takes a bath..haha.
Likes: putting everything in her mouth, being with Mommy, sucking on her paci, splashing in the tub, getting “tossed” in the air, being tickled, playing with her sister
Dislikes: getting out of the tub, being WITHOUT Mommy, big dogs (like Bo) that get too close while she’s on the floor, not being held, getting a “toy” taken away from her
Savannah is still wearing size 3 diapers. She is wearing mainly 9 month clothes, although she is starting to fit into some 12 month stuff too. That’s a good thing because most of Brooklyn’s winter clothes are 12 month size. Her hair continues to slowly come in, although it’s still not very visible in pictures. We still have a long way to go before we can transition from headbands to hair bows though ;)
We love you, sweet Savannah! We’re looking forward to seeing what your next month has in store!
