The Ginger{bred} House: October 2013

Kimber is changing on a daily basis. Some days when I wake her up in the morning - she seems to have grown overnight! I love watching her discover new things - playing with her feet, "talking" and making sounds with her tongue. It seems like everyday she is doing something new. This month has been so much fun!

I don't think a baby could be more smiley than Kimber is at this stage. From the minute he opens her eyes in the morning - she has a smile on her face. And she smiles with her entire face - her eyes just light up!

Weight: 16 pounds, 13 ounces {76.0%}

Height: 25.5 inches

Diaper Size: Size 2.

Clothing Size: 3-6 month. OMG - I am LOVING layering her clothes for fall. There's something about putting a sweater on Kimber that melts my heart! She just seems like such a little person in real outfits! I've moved away from buying the matchy-matchy outfits to buying separates. It's easier to mix & match outfits than having pants/shirt sets that go together & not being able to wear them with other items.

Sleeping: We have good nights & bad nights! October was rough as far as sleep goes. Kimber went thru a couple big transitions. We moved her from the RNP to the crib. We decided to stop swaddling her at 4 months {we now use a sleep sack}. And we cut out middle of the night feedings. All at the same time! What were we thinking?!? The first couple of nights were draining! She would sleep from 8pm - 2am {or so} and then be up on & off until 6am when we woke her up. We'd give her the paci and sometimes she'd go back to sleep for an hour or two. Other times, she was crying by time we got back in bed. I slept on the nursery floor for several hours a night just so I didn't have to walk back down the hallway to put the paci in her mouth. When I got too exhausted and needed sleep - I'd tap Nick in for his turn! Just when she adjusted to this new schedule - we went out of town for my sister's wedding, she had an ear infection during October and I took her out of town for a work trip. Needless to say, after getting out of her normal routine, her sleeping wasn't great and I started doing middle of the night feedings again. There were a couple of nights she'd sleep thru the night, but overall there were more bad nights than good ones during the month. I think we'll be starting over on the sleep training in November!

She tends to sleep on her side. Nothing cuter than when we go to check on her in her crib and she's laying on her side sleeping. It's so adorable & I could watch her sleep for hours!

Kimber takes 3-5 naps a day. She usually sleeps on the way to and from daycare {about a 15 minute drive}. She takes a short nap in the morning and one after her 9:00am bottle. Her afternoon nap is typically longer - anywhere from 1-2.5 hours. After we get home from daycare, she is awake the rest of the night until we put her down for bed.

Food: After 5 months of being exclusively on breast milk, we started her on rice cereal. I really wanted to go 6 months on breast milk and Nick wanted to start her on solids at 4 months. We compromised and started her at 5 months. She's only had it one time so far. She wasn't too sure about it the first couple of bites, but once she got used to it - I couldn't put it in her mouth fast enough!!

On October 8, we changed her schedule from 5oz every 3 hours to 6oz every 4 hours. She took a 6oz bottle at 6am, 10am and 2pm. I nurse her at 6pm and a little snack nurse at 8pm before bed. After about 2 weeks, we discovered this schedule didn't work out the best - so we moved her back to 5oz every 3 hours. She's getting the same amount of food with both schedules, but her naps are better with eating every 3 hours and overall it just works better for her.

Health: Our pediatrician said to expect Kimber to be sick at least 8 times between October and April. And it has started! Kimber has had a cough for most of the month of October. It started the weekend we went dress shopping with Paige and is still lingering around. She also had her first ear infection in October. It wasn't really a full fledged ear infection - she's had some fluid in her ears since her 4 month appointment and the doctor didn't think it was enough to be bothering her. But she wasn't sleeping as well and was alittle fussy - so we decided to give her medicine so it didn't get worse. She took the medicine like a champ! Mom, on the other hand, almost gagged every time she gave it to her. Bubblegum flavored medicine?! Seriously. How gross is that??

Nicknames: Kimbee Cole. Kimber Sue. Sissy {by mom}, Monkey {by dad}

Likes: {new} Playing with her feed!! {can you tell my the pictures?!?} Jenny Jumper/Jumperoo. Baby Bjorn. Sitting up. Crab Apple.

{same as last month}: Swing. TV. Ziggy.Watching the ceiling fan. Activity Gym.

She found her feet the week of October 21 and they have been inseparable ever since!!

We started using the Jenny Jumper & Jumperoo over the last month and she really enjoys both of them. I think they are going to replace the Activity Gym {mat} as one of her favorite places to hang out pretty fast. She'd rather be upright and see what is going on around her. She hasn't quite got the hang of the jumping part - but she's getting better every time we put her in them!

I've been using the Baby Bjorn more & more - at Target, the grocery store, on walks or to ride in the combine. She likes to face out & see what is going on {can you see a theme here?!?}.

We've been practicing pulling her up into a sitting position and she really likes it. She gets frustrated after a while since she can't quite hold herself up and I think her rolly polly belly gets in the way sometimes!

While at Kohl's, I picked up a Lamaze Grab Apple {link here} and it is one of Kimber's favorite toys right now. Actually, she likes several of the Lamaze brand toys. She also likes Freddie the Firefly {link here}

Disikes: Dirty diapers. Not to see what's going on.

If Kimber has a dirty diaper - you'll know it! She does not like to sit in a dirty diaper! Usually isn't not hard to tell when she needs to be changed because she's pretty loud when she goes #2!!! Imagine the middle of church when we're in the middle of a prayer and she lets it all out! Yep - that's our little princess!!

As I've mentioned with several of her likes - Kimber wants to know what is going on. She doesn't like it when someone leaves the room or when she is not sitting up & being able to see everything around her.

Things to note:
We attended Nancy's wedding at the beginning of the month. It was a long weekend and Kimber did great being tossed from person to person. Luckily, we took a family picture before the ceremony started because she had a huge blowout during the ceremony! It went up her back & got all over Nick - good thing I had a change of outfit for both of them!

The following weekend, we went wedding dress shopping with Aunt Paige. It was another long day, but she did great!! Kimber is a flower girl in the wedding and I can't wait to see her walk down the aisle next summer!

Harvest is in full effect. Nick has been in the fields every day for the last 1.5 months. He typically gets home after Kimber goes to bed at night. So there's been a lot of Mommy & Kimber time! It can be draining at times, but I try to break it up. I go up to the farm once during the week and once on the weekend - that way I'm not sitting home alone every night.

Kimber has rolled over once at home and once at daycare - on September 30. And has not rolled over since. She is so chill. We can lay her on the floor without toys and she'll just look around and hang out. She's not worried about rolling over.

Kimber had been lifting her legs up for a couple weeks, but never reached out to grab her feet. During the week of October 21 - she found her feet. And can't get enough of them now!

I had to travel to our corporate headquarters in Sioux Falls for work in October. Luckily for me, my sister lives there so I was able to take Kimber with me. She does in home daycare, so she was able to watch Kimber while I was at work. It worked out perfectly!