We've been busy the past two months!
In the beginning of August we took a family vacation to the Keys for a wedding. Betsy Grace isn't a huge fan of being in the car for any extended period of time so I was quite nervous about driving down there. We upgraded her carseat to a big girl convertible carseat before the trip. After many hours of research, I decided on the Chicco Nextfit carseat (which is incredibly easy to install) so she can stay rear facing for a good long while because it is so much safer to be rearfacing *See this website for more info on this- http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html.* She did really great in the car and slept for most of the trip down to the keys. The last hour was a little rough, but overall she did great! While in the Keys, we went to Bahia Honda State Park where Betsy Grace had her first trip to the beach, went to the wedding in Marathon, and spent a day in Key West.
In the middle of August was my annual girl's week at Anna Maria Island. It's somewhat of a family tradition. We've done it every summer for as long as I've been alive. My grandma rents a house for a week and all the women on that side of the family enjoy a week at the beach. Michael came over for the weekend but then had to go back home because of work. Betsy Grace loved playing in the sand and swimming in the ocean. She really liked watching the birds and got really excited whenever she would see one. She's definitely a little beach baby!
Since my last post, we've helped set another world record. This time for breastfeeding at the Big Latch On event. We also attended our first Le Leche League meeting. The LLL meeting was interesting and would've been helpful to me when Betsy Grace was younger, but it was nice to get out and meet some other mommies.
Our issues with separation anxiety have gotten better, to an extent. She does much better when I leave her with Michael's mom twice a week while I go to the gym. She's funny though... she won't cry at all when I leave (because she's excited to have someone new to play with) but as soon as I walk back in the door and she sees me she freaks out and starts crying like OMG! You left me! Or maybe it's just that she's so excited and doesn't know how to express that other than by crying. I've tried putting her in the nursery at church but she only lasted about 10 minutes before I got called to come pick her up because she was so upset. We will keep trying though :)
She started crawling a few weeks back, although she had been trying for quite a while. For the longest time she couldn't figure out how to get her head and her bottom up at the same time so she would either scoot with her head down or do the army crawl on her tummy. Then she figured out how to get her legs underneath her which was comical because she would only tuck one leg underneath and the other would be straight out to the side. Now she's moving all over the place! She's also pulling herself up on everything!! It's time to do some serious baby proofing in my house.
For a while we were having issues where she would no longer take a bottle at all. I tried everything... tried different types of bottles, tried the sippy cup instead, but she just wasn't having it unless it was a boob! She also stopped taking a pacifier (which helped contribute to some miserable car trips). I tried again this past week and she took a bottle with no problem and she also took a sippy cup like she was an old pro.
Her sleeping patterns have been all over the place these past few months. We were doing great for a while and would get a 5 or 6 hour stretch followed by a few more 2-3 hour stretches, but the combination of traveling and trying to learn how to crawl threw everything out the window. She would wake herself up by sitting up and trying to crawl. We are starting to get back to normal now and are only waking up to nurse two or three times a night. I know to some of you who have babies who sleep through the night that two or three times a night might sound awful but since we cosleep I just latch her on and fall back to sleep. At the end of July we put her crib as a sidecar to our bed to try to transition her to sleeping in there, but it hasn't gone so well. Ever since she started pulling herself up, that is all she wants to do in the crib. If she wakes up in there, she gets a huge smile on her face, crawls over to one of the sides, and then stands up. I'm hoping that this passes quickly because it's pretty annoying (although cute). Her naps have become much more regular and she wants to nap around 10am and then again around 1pm, usually for two hours for each nap.
She's getting to be more interested in solid foods although still isn't eating much. She really likes the chew on apple slices and baby carrots, probably because it feels good on her gums. She also likes to eat peaches, cucumbers, and watermelon, and she tried a pickle once but wasn't a huge fan of that. Still no teeth either, although the bottom two look like they could pop through any minute.
She says "mama", "baba", dee dee", "dig-a dig-a", and "dada". When she's mad or upset she'll say "nee nee". She likes to sing and make these crazy grunting noises that make her sound like a little monster! She gets really focused on things and she will get very upset if she can't get/do whatever she was focused on.
That's about it for now. Hopefully, I will be a little better about keeping up to date on my blog this next month.
