8 months old

Simon turns 8 months old tomorrow, Monday the 26th. So much has changed this month...the most wonderful, rewarding and exciting change has been the improvement to his sleep! As of about 3 weeks ago he was going down fighting and waking up between 8-14 times a night asking for a paci, some rocking, whatever. And since this "phase" lasted for about 2 months, we were beyond exhausted and feeling pretty hopeless. So we made a few changes: we stopped putting him to sleep in his sleepsuit, as it limited his mobility and he wasn't able to get his pacifier back in his mouth. We also helped the paci cause by putting bumpers in the crib for the first time and giving him 5 (yes, five) pacifiers every night in his crib--one in his mouth and two extras by each hand.

It took about 3 weeks for him to get used to the new sleepsack (AKA wearable blanket), and during that time he also got really adept at finding a paci and replugging on his own when needed. And then at some point he also stopped fighting being put down at night. Lastly, with his new range of motion at night he is turning over and sleeping on his side and stomach a lot, which he really seems to enjoy.

Long story short, we now read him a book in the rocker and then put him down fully awake...sing the lullaby and walk out. He plays around a bit and falls asleep between 5-15 minutes later. And best of all, he can put himself back to sleep when he wakes up at night, so we are finally getting some real sleep. He goes down around 6:30 PM and sleeps until around 6-7 the next morning. Pure bliss.

That's our big development for the month...enjoy his 8-month picture with his new favorite blocks and, of course, Peeks the Puppy.