Well, needless to say, I am behind on blogging my sweet baby's weekly pictures. I've also been bad because I missed two weeks while we were gone/traveling to New Zealand!
Camden turned 35 Weeks on January 3rd, the same day he turned 8 months old! I can't believe he's that old already, and even as I say that...he's almost 9 months old now. UGH! While we were away in New Zealand, Camden became a lot more mobile and curious. We were with his older cousins Ben (4) and Andrew(2), so I think he wanted to keep up with them! While he was standing up before, he didn't move around as much (walk along couches, go from standing to sitting, go from laying down to sitting up, etc). But while we were there, he really mastered these skills! He also ate a LOT more solid foods while we were there. It was summer in New Zealand, so there was SO many fruits and vegetables in season. He would bite chunks off strawberries, suck on slices of plums, power through cut up spinach, and crush half a banana like it was nothing.
For those of you wondering how he did with Jet Lag, he did great....going to NZ. The best way to beat jet lag for anyone is to stay awake and adapt to the local time. We arrived in NZ at 11am local time (5:00pm the day before) and took 3 naps during the day and went to bed at 8:00pm local time. Everyone slept really great that night. He woke up at 11pm for a dream feed, but went right back to sleep. The remaining nights were fine and he did not take a dream feed, but instead woke up at 1 or 2:00am wanting to eat. Since I wasn't sure exactly when he was hungry, I just took this as a sign, fed him and he went right back to sleep until 7am. He continued this pattern the whole time we were there. I also tended to demand-feed him (instead of parent-led feeding where I determine when he eats) since I wasn't sure when he'd be hungry, but tried to remain on a schedule of eating every 3 hours or so. (For those interested, we try to keep to the
Baby Wise methods of eating and sleeping)
Coming home was not the best. Camden slept SO well on the plane rides. We arrived back in Baltimore at 3:00am local time (9:00pm NZ time) and drove back to Southern Maryland... Bobby had to work that day. We got home and all slept until 11:00am. Camden napped twice, but when it came to bed time, things changed a bit. I put him to sleep for the night at 8:00pm. He woke up at 10:00pm, which is the time I normally give him a dream feed. But after his feeding, the boy wanted to PLAY. Thinking I was never going to get caught up on sleep, I looked up how to help babies with Jet Lag, it was suggested that you let them play for an hour when they wake up, then put them back to bed. Over the course of a few nights, you reduce the amount of time you let them play and gradually, they will just stay asleep for the night. I followed this pattern and after about 3 nights, he just stayed asleep after his dream feed.
BUT. Now he gets up at 2:00am and 5:00am crying. I have been letting him cry it out for 20 minutes or so and he's put himself back to sleep a couple of times. Sometimes if I go in and lay him back down, he'll go back to sleep. I've tried nursing him, changing his diaper, seeing if he has another tooth coming in, etc, but nothing I do seems to help aid these middle-of-the-night wake up times!!! I have read that around 8 months old, babies sleep routines will be disrupted for some reason or another, but for a baby who has slept well and through the night since he was 2 months old.... this is getting a little frustrating. Although, I hardly think this is jet lag. We've been home for almost 2 weeks now and he naps like a champ during the day.
Patience and prayer. That's all I can do.
So, now that we're home, Camden turned 37 weeks last week (January 17th) and we had Baby Jack and Aunt Christina with us! We had a good time putting the babies together. Now that they're older, they're interacting MUCH more and it's so fun to watch! We put them on the scales and Jack has officially outweighed Camden. Jack was around 19 pounds and Camden was at 18 pounds with a cloth diaper on (so he probably weighs a little less than that). Crazy! But it's been so fun to watch them grow together :)
You can see his two teeth really well here! He's also got 4 more up on top that you can't see here.
This boy's hair is so long on top! We borrowed some of Daddy's hair gel to give him a little mohawk!
Oh, these boys kill me. They were both squealing at Aunt Christina here. It was so cute!
Since our boys are only 6 weeks apart, we find ourselves buying them the same clothes (not on purpose) since there's not a lot of variety in boys clothes (or maybe I'm just too picky). Jack always seems to be in Blue and Camden is usually in brown.
Stuffed animals to match their stripes :)
Jack-Jack! His belly is most delightfully pudgy. It's so cute.
Camden George, my sweet monkey who gets into everything but his big, brown eyes make me melt.
