The Sweet Pea Chronicles

Hello loyal Sweet Pea Chronicle viewers, Mommy here. Camille turned nine months old over the weekend and so much has changed in the past month.

Camille peeking over the end of the couch, a newly discovered fun activity.

Vocal Abilities

Camille has full-on toddler-type babbling down. As you may have seen in previous videos, she will make noises and sing to herself when she is happy and playing. The last few days the consonant ‘g’ has been added, so there has been lots of ‘gaa’, `gee’, ‘goo’ and ‘gu’ mixed in with the rest of her sounds. Mark says that Camille vocalizes more than all the other kids at his At-home Dads group that he and Camille go to every week. She has also been testing the limits of how loud she can yell.

She can also say ‘momma’, ‘omma’ (short vowel sound) and ‘mum’, which are interchangeable depending on how upset she is at the moment. We are working on Dadda, but that has been slower in coming. I am not 100% convinced she says her momma words with full comprehension and intent, but I don’t care it still makes my heart overflow to hear her sweet little voice say it.  [Daddy's take: While `omma' is one of Camille's few words, sometimes babbled or used for many things ... I'm convinced that it does mean Momma to Camille.]

Physical Abilities

She has been crawling for a while now, and is up to full speed [cross-crawling].  She can really book around the room, and when she wants to get somewhere- look out!  She also loves to push an empty box around the room, which slides nicely on the carpet, and at times goes so fast she is practically running with it.  Mark has been spending a lot of time walking with her holding her hands and then releasing her somewhat close to the couch or other object so she needs to take a couple steps to get the rest of the way.  He says she took her first steps a week ago doing this, but she has been unable to recreate this initial success since then.

Pounding on things has also become a favorite pastime.  She will pound with one hand at a time or both hands, and loves to hear herself make noise. Mark’s sister Anne gave us some of the toys her kids have outgrown, and among them was Lincoln Logs.  I loved Lincoln Logs as a kid and brought out the game a few days ago. It comes in a metal canister, the lid of which I noticed was well pockmarked.  It took Camille no time to figure out that banging on the top of the empty canister with one of the logs makes a great big noise and is loads of fun, hence all the pockmarks from previous drumming enjoyment.

Also in the last couple days Camille has discovered the joy of clapping.  We played patticake for the first time just before she started doing this and it must have made an impression.  She has been clapping a lot and it is always a very exciting experience, especially when mom and dad start clapping along with her.

Around the same time she started clapping, she started waving bye-bye.  My friend Connie came to visit over the weekend with her family.  Camille took a little while to warm up to them, due to stranger anxiety, but by the end was playing with the three older boys like they were long-time friends.  When they all went to leave, Camille waved at them with one hand and everyone erupted into excitement over her waving bye-bye.  It was thrilling for Camille, who has been waving bye-bye a lot now.  Hopefully she’ll soon understand the context of her action and everyone will get a wave bye-bye.

Mental Advances

You can tell by the looks she gets on her face that there is a lot going on inside her head.  We have been trying to get her to start using sign language for a few key concepts that would be helpful for all of us if we could understand from her.  I have been trying to show her ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ for more than a month now without success.  She always laughs when I do the signs, both of which involve the hand going towards the mouth, and she doesn’t seem to grasp the relationship to what I am doing.  Oh, well, we’ll keep plugging away.

She has reached the point in her development where she is dealing with separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.  She seems to experience the most separation anxiety around mom leaving the room, which is understandable because I leave the house for hours and hours four or five days a week. Sometimes its really bad, where she will scream bloody murder when I round the corner to the next room, or worse- take a shower.  To combat this, Mark and Camille come out to the garage to watch me drive away in the morning.  This works well, and according to Mark she seems to accept I am gone after looking in the bathroom or kitchen and not finding me there, without any crying.  The hope is that she will begin to understand that I am not actually leaving unless she sees me drive away, and the crying when I go into another room will stop.  Again, we’ll have to keep working on this.

Eating/Sleeping

She is quite the good little eater.  She will sit in her high chair and feed herself Cheerios and small pieces of banana (which she now loves).  She eats three meals a day, plus gets a bottle several times during the day and one or two times in the night.  Which brings me to the most exciting news on this blog entry, and please knock on wood for me so I don’t jinx this, she has only been waking up twice during the night to eat, and some nights only once!  She has become much more predictable and will wake up at 11:00 and 3:00 or just at 1:30.  She is down to business and eats and goes right back to sleep.  Its been a real relief to begin returning to a normal amount of sleep after nine long months.  Just in the last few days she has also begun to initiate going to sleep on her own, and has been waking up in the morning and quietly playing by herself in her crib until we come get her.  Its truly amazing.

Daddy’s Addition: One thing that Kris started working on at since Camille was only a couple months old has been the bedtime ritual, one of her specialties.  The ritual of close-time, then a bath, then putting on jammies, then a bottle, then [if needed] rocking and cuddling now gets Camille ready to sleep - and quickly going to the land of nod.  Talking to other parents, I realize that Camille’s bedtime is unusual - it is easy, short-lasting, and not a daily battle.  We’re lucky to have such a co-operative girl [at least during this] and that we got that sequence down early.  After hearing of long periods of fussiness, or no success, in trying to put little kids to bed I realized how lucky we are here.  While naps might be resisted [or diaper changes, or a litany of other things] … we can end our day with relative ease and calm, allowing us a semblance of quiet and relaxation every day after her 8 o’clock bedtime.

Well, it’s time again for a monthly update on Camille’s progress towards filling the world with drool.

 

Sleeping and Schedule:

We’ve been working a lot on Camille’s sleeping … not sure if we’re getting anywhere, but as she’s happy and healthy I guess we’ll get by fine.

She goes down every night without issue or any real fuss … a big accomplishment [way to go Mommy!].  She still wakes up a couple times a night at least for food … but as she’s eating a good amount every time, it’s hard to say no to hunger. 

Napping has fallen into a steady pattern … around 9:30 go for the first nap, around 12:30 to 1 for the second, and one more around 4 when she wears down late afternoon.  The first two [on a lucky day] can be an hour or more - but generally about 25-35 minutes is as long as a nap lasts. 

Overall she’s quite happy and contented most of the time - appears to getting the sleep she needs.  I sure would prefer longer naps at least once a day, to be productive … and both Kris and I desperately long for the day when she regularly makes it through the night.  

 

Hands and Motor Skills:

Camille has been advancing a lot with her hand and basic motor skills.  She can hold something in each hand, and passes things back and forth regularly.  Her wrist and angle-skills have advanced a lot … partly in attempts to master a toy from her Aunt Katherine which has a vibrating-chew part [triggered by pressure].  It took her a few weeks … but all of a sudden she could pick it up, orient it, and get it into the right spot.  Similarly, she’s now able to remove and replace her pacifier.  [Though once dropping it next to her, forgets completely about it].

She’s certainly grabby, when holding her she’s taken to grabbing hair wherever it’s found to hold onto.  Thankfully the kitty still keeps a little more than arms distance away.

Sitting:

Camille seemed to focus intently for a period in the last month getting sitting down. She can sit by herself for perhaps 5 minutes at a stretch and seems to be able to `fall’ to laying position in a semi-controlled fashion. She’s not yet sitting herself up - but given how much she prefers sitting to laying down it can’t be too long.

Introducing: Camille, Danger Girl

Camille now is quite a squirmer, able to roll back and forth as well as turn … the basic skills to escape from her bouncy, changing table, or any temporary spot we put her. Setting her on the bed to hang out a minute is no longer an option, and we’ve got to keep an eye on her as she rolls and explores everywhere.

Things are fairly well childproofed in the area we play the most, but that’s something we’ll be expanding to most of the main floor of our home in the next weeks. Our next mission is a gate on the stairs - set up in such a way to allow the cat to bypass it to get to the litterbox downstairs [or a Camille-free spot downstairs].

Mobility:

Camille is getting a move on. Camille is rolling a lot to move short distances, and is able to turn herself around completely when on her stomach. While not yet crawling, she does assume the hands and knees position when you set her down sometimes. She’s also able to semi-crawl backwards [feet first] … I’m not sure she sees it as a way to get around, but she can move across the room over the course of a play session.

She’s able to stand for maybe a minute when holding your hands. She’s not puliing herself up to sitting or standing yet - but enjoys being helped into such positions. It can’t be all too far away.

Drool + Teeth:

We’ve got visible bumps where her bottom teeth will show up, lots of drool and gnawing on things … but no teeth yet.  After time, thankfully I’ve come to ignore the drool as it’s the least stinky or foul liquid that I encounter daily.   

Food:

Camille has started on rice cereal, and we are now adding oatmeal cereal to the mix. It’s currently a once a day process … but as she’s getting the hang of it pretty well, we’ll likely be eating twice a day and adding baby foods shortly.

Feeding is a messy process as expected, and while she doesn’t really know how to work it right yet … I’m really suprised at how well she does. Best of all, it doesn’t seem to be a struggle [provided we put it on her feeding schedule] … seems like she considers it `fun with the mouth time’. Hopefully that continues as we add more foods, and food becomes a more important source of her nutrition.

Mental Development:

Camille has become a bit more independent in the last month, more at ease amusing herself when we’re doing something.  She certainly is more interactive, making all sorts of sounds and expressions of her opinion on things.  She’s learning to manipulate her toys which make lights/noise [not too many] and seems to `figure out’ toys fairly quickly to my eye.  Wasn’t more than a week or so on her exersaucer and she was pressing buttons to make squeaky noises, cranking the wheel to make clicking, and able to play with everything as intended.

Talking:

Compared to the prior months, the last month has not seen any major verbal developments beyond sticking her tongue out to give a `raspberry’.  That’s been a huge source of amusement [and lots of practice] for much of the month - with a preliminary mastery of that sound about a week ago.

Surely her expressions can only move up from here. 

Mood and Attachment:

Camille still is a pleasure to be around … generally ready to play and explore, and seems pretty happy about life.  She’s certainly interested in everything around her … fascinated by the cat and birds outside, falling snow, reacts happily to music, and any activity that has someone moving around where she can see.  While happy to watch us do things - she’s trying to become involved herself; whether that means grabbing at things, moving to get into what we’re working on, or agitating to take part.

After the many rapid changes in the first months … things have settled to a more slow and steady rate of new developments. Camille remains happy and healthy, and we continue to feel blessed to have such a great little girl.

Camille turned four months old last week.

We’ve been lucky to have a healthy little girl, who has been generally pretty happy most of the time. While we sure could use more sleep, and I could skip the 3:30-4 PM meltdown that sometimes happens … we’re lucky to have had few problems.

Sleeping and Schedule:

Camille’s sleep schedule seems to have some inherent variability … and just when we’re about to count on one thing, it changes up.  The last week has been full of many nightly wake-ups, minimal napping, and more fussy than usual.  Being this coincided with her being more fussy to eat, I originally assumed it was that.  Last night, when putting her down to bed - we put her in PJ’s, and then a sleep sack above it … and she slept from 8-ish until 4:30 AM.  So the new theory is that she was feeling chilly when she awoke at night, and thus had more difficulty getting back [and staying] asleep.  Of course, tonight might prove this wrong.

Overall, she will wake up once or twice a night - though once a week [or most of the last week or so] she will wake up more often.  Up to every 1.5 hours or so, which is toughest on Kris, and leaves me without the 6 hours of good sleep I require.  I prefer closer to 8, but over the last many years really haven’t seemed to need `that much’ sleep.  Having said this - Camille re-inforced the fact that I do need 6 hours uninterrupted to have a fully functioning frontal lobe.  I can manage a day every now and then without, but as winter comes on I hope she can sleep better so I can better avoid colds and other bugs that a tired body finds it hard to fight off.

As for napping, Camille will often nap for me 3 times a day.  Naps, as before, can be all of 20-30 minutes, though it seems like she’s just starting to get one of those back towards an hour.  Mostly this has been when running errands, not when I can get downtime or something done around home, but it’s something we’re working on. 

Hands and Motor Skills:

Camille has gotten quite adept on her tummy, and will take 10 minutes or more happily before getting tired out.  She’s raising a bit of her body with her arms, and looks around at everything when on the floor.  Her legs still flail somewhat uncontrolled - but now and then between her arms and legs she can lift her whole body up off the ground.  She doesn’t bend her knees yet, meaning that while she can scoot a foot or so while on her tummy, she’s not going to be getting farther than that until she’s more co-ordinated.  That said, she seems pretty far ahead of the curve with this - and given she likes 5 to 15 minutes of tummy time multiple times a day, she’s working hard at developing the muscles and co-ordination to get moving.

Camille has rolled, both back to front and front to back [more common] from time to time.  Despite having learned this a few weeks back, she doesn’t seem to be too interested in repeating it or practicing.  That’s ok, as I realize I’ll wish for days without constant rolling in another month.  But as crawling is a long process to learn, and appears frustrating to Camille; I hope she gets into rolling which is more easily mastered.

Her hands are much better at grabbing.  Hands, of course, being what exist for the purpose of sticking in one’s mouth and bringing other objects to stick in the mouth.  While she brings her hands together to allow both to grasp objects - she hasn’t passed things from one hand to another yet.  As with most babies, letting go of things seems more accidental than intentional - though grabbing is mostly intentional.  Her twisting motions to change the angle things go in the mouth appear to be just developing.  With a pacifier, she’s still mostly mystified on how to return it to her mouth once it’s come out. 

I haven’t seen her do much movement of limbs independently [only one leg moving, the other not], though when reaching for things doesn’t completely mimic the motion with the other arm as before.  It’s interesting to see how each movement and development takes time and seemingly `little’ tricks like handing things from one hand to another, moving limbs independent of each other, moving limbs in opposition with each other … all are separate lessons.  Like what I will do with a huge list of tasks to do, she splits the large tasks into smaller, achievable steps.  It’s been fun to watch her slowly get all the pieces together.  The first time she removes her pacifier and can replace it, or hands something from one hand to another, or crawls … I’m aware of how many different actions that is and how tricky to master.

Pacifier:

Until recently, she never took to a pacifier and prefered her fingers to suck on.  She still likes her fingers, but has started to take comfort in the pacifier.  We’ll probably only use it generally around naps or the fussiest times of day … especially as she’s often quite verbal without it.  She does appear to enjoy sucking on it, and when in the car or at the store, it’s useful to have something to respond to fussiness with beyond carrying her the whole rest of the trip.

Also useful to have something to encourage daytime naps, or to help her fall back asleep during an abbreviated nap.

Plus, it’s probably cleaner than fingers.

Mental Development:

Compared to last month, when Camille became `awake and aware’ pretty much full-time … there haven’t been any huge apparent leaps.  That said, she’s obviously understanding a lot more of the world around her, and really enjoys novel experiences [trips out, mostly]. 

Last week I did see her smile at herself in the mirror, a step beyond just staring.  She also responds to play with short little giggle noises when she’s in a good mood.  It’s becoming possible to play with her, often making noises and with a toy, to improve her mood when she’s upset.  Carrying and dancing around are still most preferred … but play is starting to become a pleasant distraction. 

Overnight, it seems like I hear her wake up, make sucking noises and move around a little … and drift back to sleep.  This is no guarantee, and she can go nights wanting us every wakeup; but some nights both Kris and I are aware that she is self-soothing.  We’ve been asking around for others ideas on helping her along this path, and it seems it’s a struggle for most parents.

Social Development:

Camille seems outgoing and loves to meet people, whose attention she repays with smiles and bashful looks.  She doesn’t talk much around or to people other than Kris or I [although she did a little at the Dad's group today - first time].

She is fascinated by people when we go out, and seems to really enjoy watching the other kids [mostly 6 months to 2 years] who come to the Dad’s group I go to every week.  She’s still too young for any kid-interaction … but it’s good to get her used to seeing other kids, and it seems like she’s watching the crawlers trying to figure out how they do it.

Overall, Camille seems very responsive to attention and quickly responds to Kris and I when we smile or talk to her.  I find myself providing a running commentary on everything I do, which seems to put her at ease when I’m out of view or working on something when she wants attention.  When Kris is around, I find that Camille watches me like a hawk - seeming to never get enough Daddy-watching.  It’s overwhelming at times, but also very wonderful to have her eager to smile and interact [sometimes I think I get sick of me, so I'm amazed that she doesn't seem to].

Talking:

Camille babbles, a lot.  She’s increased her vocal capabilities - having a greater range of pitches and sounds, plus shrieks and `exclamation points’.  She still makes little noise when out and around strangers, which is ok as non-parents tend to regard such sounds as fussiness and not pleasurable babbling.

We’ve heard a few short giggles when she’s excited and playing.  Today, when playing alone, she had some shrieks and near-giggles … self-induced.  She doesn’t appear ticklish yet, just responds to fun and exciting play with huge smiles and her attempts at giggling. 

Mood:

Camille still is a remarkably happy and mellow baby, of which we are thankful.  Most attention [especially being picked up, or play with a toy] is nearly immediately rewarded with happiness, smiles, or at worst a cessation of fussiness.  She still wants to be held as much as possible - making the sling and the bjorn carriers life-savers which allow some basic tasks possible [laundry, anything that doesn't require bending down repetitively].  I never paid attention to how many times I need to bend over to do most tasks - dishwasher, clothes on floor, picking up the house, recycling newspapers, cleaning, etc. 

I have noticed that often later in the afternoon, maybe an hour before sunset [sunset is around 5pm or before since Daylight Savings] is Camille’s most fussy time.  She gets hard to feed, and thus harder to make happy and more quick to get upset if things aren’t perfect.  I’ve tried to get her to nap a little before this, which seems to help; and have developed ways to carry her and move around while feeding, which encourages her to eat more.  When Kris gets home, having Mommy around plus food other than the bottle seems to get Camille back from her fussy period. 

Well, that’s the majority of what I can think of … most of it rambling.  Not sure if this is of interest or use to anyone beyond myself, and given kids are so individual and their achievements vary so much - but it’s where I see Camille at right now.  Next week … probably a whole new place, new abilities, and new suprises for Daddy.

As of yet, Camille hasn’t started to maintain a very regular schedule.  The last few days she’s demanded to be held nearly all the time, and hasn’t napped that long at any point.  It’s been wearing, but as long as I’m willing to abandon any plans or attempts to get anything at all done … all in all quite fun. 

 

It’s definitely that time of having an infant around when taking a shower is a glorious and rare opportunities, where you have to remember to regularly eat, and any attempt at napping with her leaves you more groggy after the 9 minutes of sleep you actually get.

During the day, she often sleeps in the morning and the afternoon.  If she naps early in the morning, often I’ll get a short cat-nap around noon out of her.  That’s the good, predictable days, which tend to be in the minority.  Some days she just doesn’t want/need to sleep much, one or two days a week she’ll take more normal hour or so naps twice a day, and on a few rare days she’ll sleep a good half the day.

She seems to go through patterns of more regular schedule vs. no schedule [often when she doesn't nap for long periods].  Given all the changes that we see, and advances she makes every week … it seems to go along with her development - not exactly predictable.  In the next month, I’m going to try for a more scheduled pattern … hopefully allow myself time every day to get something done at home, process and post photos, and the like.  Given her overnight sleep schedule is settling down, hopefully she’ll want her days to follow suit.

She’s started to fall asleep around 8-8:30 every night, getting more regular about it.  She’s rarely up past 9, and rarely before 8.  We’ve got all of our overnight trips out of the way, and she seems used to me being around all the time.  Hopefully this will lead to a more regular schedule past when she goes down for the night [and morning is normally around 6:30 or 7 AM].

While she slept through the night four nights in a row last week, she’s followed that by waking up every night for feeding since. 

Oddly, when we were away she slept through both nights … even though that meant being between Kris and I on a king size bed [vs. in her crib].   From about a week after coming home until two months, Camille generally slept with us … she slept so much better that way, she would get far less worked up when waking in the night and would fall right back asleep.  Perhaps having us near was comforting for her … but that said, I wake up a lot less with her in her crib.

On Wednesday, when playing with Camille we did our usual game where I will roll Camille all the way from back to front to back.  Camille seems quite entertained by this, it seems to distract and amuse her.

As a new addition, I slowed down the rolling from back to front - making sure to wait until she moved her arm down into a good position before rolling.  After three or four times, she seemed to move her arm to her side in position when I started to roll her.

Later in the day, Kris had her on her back playing when Camille rolled to her side like she has … and then rolled further, right to the edge of rolling the rest of the way to her front.  She almost had it … so close.

 

On the front to back, she seems a little further away … but it’s amazing what Camille can learn day-to-day.  And alarming, as we still need to put a gate on the stairs and are just getting into the habit of attaching the strap on the changing table, bouncy, and everything else. 

Overall, Camille seems strong and with a lot of body control; we’re excited to see progress towards rolling and crawling.  While we won’t be let down in any way if she takes a long time to master these skills - it seems like she will be doing these fairly early.  It’s exciting to watch.

I think this is the first time I’ve dressed Camille all in pink … but as she’s rapidly growing through her clothes, better now than never I guess.