Always & Forever: Madeline and Molly: Ten Months

Madeline and Molly,
You are TEN MONTHS old today! Double digits! What FUN we are having these days as y'all are all smiles, laughs, hugs and kisses. Everyone who meets you comments about how happy y'all are and asks what my secret is. No secret, y'all just are the sweetest babies on the planet and I'm the luckiest mama in the world.

We are following the same 4-hour schedule from last month with the big difference being that I am no longer tandem nursing you. Y'all got so big and busy that it just turned into pulling each others hair, fingers in each others faces, and me acting as referee. At first I was annoyed that it would take longer (and thus be longer to keep Carter entertained) but it has turned into the very best decision. Molly is so very busy and hates to stay still long enough to nurse, so me being able to give her all my attention helps keep her nursing longer. And sweet Madeline just closes her eyes and rubs my back the entire time. I love getting to hold each of you in my arms, versus laying you on a pillow I had to awkwardly hunch down over. And it gives me one-on-one time with each of you that I wasn't getting while y'all were tandem nursing. Whoever wakes up first from their nap gets nursed first and whoever is more tired at night goes to bed first.

Y'all are still great eaters and sleepers, thank goodness. We have yet to find anything y'all flat out refuse to eat. Bananas still are not a favorite, surprisingly. We are going through blueberries and grapes by the truckload and sweet potatoes still remain the food to end all other foods. Y'all take two 2-hour+ naps everyday and finally kicked that last cat nap right before bedtime (unless we are in the car and y'all still sneak naps in like champs.)

Madeline Kate,

Maddy Kate, Maddy Girl, Mads Pads, Magellan, Sister Girl, Sister Bear...you are still our sweet sister. You love to cuddle and be tickled and are the most interested in anything Molly has. You wait like a cat stalking prey for her to pick out a toy she likes and then you pounce, taking it all for yourself. Even some toys that we have two of you will take from Molly to keep for yourself. This trait makes you sound anything BUT sweet, but I like to think that you are just watching out for sister and want to do whatever she is doing. At least that's what I will tell myself. :) You are happy to sit back and watch what is going on around you and spend a lot of your awake time doing your own thing.

You've earned yourself a new nickname this month...Magellan. You are so good at (army) crawling that we literally have to search the house for you sometimes. You explore all day long, which is probably how you have managed to stay so skinny. When you are not stealing toys from Molly you are traveling around the house. And when you crawl you stretch your left arm out and use your hand to pull while bending your right arm and using your forearm to propel yourself forward. I need to get a good video of you doing this to capture how FAST you zoom across a room. I can see where you are thinking about starting to pull up on some items, so that will be our next big milestone.

Speaking of milestones, you are finally sitting up! With the help of our OT, Tina, you are now sitting like a champ. Not well enough for a shopping cart, but enough that you sit up in your (infant) bathtub and long enough that I don't have to sit next to you while you are playing on the floor. Now we are just working on you transitioning in and out of the sitting position, to both the right and left sides. You are also eating much better off of a spoon, which was something else we have been working with Tina on. Along with eating more from a spoon you also are actually consuming more of the food from your high chair tray, versus shoveling it at your face and letting most of it fall into your chair. I'm actually going to be a little sad when you stop spilling food at all because you get SO HAPPY when we take your high chair tray off and you get "second dinner" from the food that has fallen into your bib. You literally let out a squeal and sit for a few minutes eating what's in your bib. So cute!

Like I predicted, your "tongue sucking" is starting to fade away, although not gone completely. You L O V E your blanket you get at naps and night and close your eyes and roll over as soon as we hand it to you. And that weight check we were stressing over so much a few weeks ago? You totally dominated it. I'm thinking that first weight they took where it looked like you may have lost weight was wrong, otherwise you gained 12 ounces in 3 weeks, which is pretty impressive. Basically, you are perfect in every way.

Madeline 10 month Stats

Weight: 15 pounds 13 ounce (3%ile)

Length: 28ish inches

Eating: nursing 3 times a day with one breastmilk bottle in the morning. Typically 11am, 4pm, 7pm, and 7am.

Bedtime: around 7:30pm

Awake: 7:00am

Naps: 9:00-11:00am, 1:30-4:00pm

Diapers: size 3 Huggies

Clothes: 3-6 months

Teeth: 4 on top, 3 on bottom

Food: everything, favorites are sweet potatoes, grapes, pasta, and macaroni

Favorites: sleeping, Daddy, Carter, Molly, riding in the Ergo, eating blankets, chewing on cords, all food, being outside, being "thrown" up and down, exploring,

Development: scares easily, crawling, holding her own bottle, sitting up

Milestones:

11/27- first Thanksgiving

12/1- upper lateral incisors

12/11- lower right lateral incisor

12/17- sitting up unassisted

Molly Ann,

Molly Girl, Molls Balls, Molly Mae, Sister Girl, Sister Bear...you are rotten. You have us completely at your beck and call, and know exactly how to work us in which you get your way. You know what you want when you want it. And you are N O S E Y and know where Madeline and Carter are at all times; I can see in the future you always being the one to tell mw what the others are up to. You want to always be in the middle of everything and get upset when we walk out of the room without you in our arms. God forbid you crawl and follow us! You can crawl, you just don't do it as much as Magellan. You prefer to be carried. And spoon-fed. And have your diaper changed immediately after it is dirty. I guess I'm calling you a princess.

You and Madeline have really started to "play" together for short periods of time and it is just my favorite thing to watch. You are very interested in her and touch her whenever she is within arms reach. You love to lay in the bed next to her or Carter and laugh at everything they do. You have not mastered the "gentle" face touch, so I don't think they are as interested in you are you are in them. You always finish your bottle before Madeline in the morning and Carter has taken to talking to you while you lay on your boppy waiting for Maddy to finish. Carter always says "I talk to Molly" and then leans over your face and blabbers gibberish until you laugh at him. I can see the two of you getting into a lot of trouble together in the years to come.

You are not quite sitting completely unassisted, but are so close. I just don't think you are interested enough in sitting still to truly master this milestone. You crawl just fine, seem to be interested in pulling up, and love to "stand" on our legs. I know you will eventually sit up on your own so I'm not stressed over it, but it would be nice to be able to get all three of you bathed at one time. Or go out to eat without infant carriers. Or use one of those monster shopping carts at Target or HEB. Just saying. No pressure. None at all.

I'm beginning to think that you would prefer to be done nursing altogether. You bite me constantly, you would rather do ANYTHING else than lay still in my arms, and would drink both yours and Madeline's bottles if I let you. The only time I feel like you nurse really well is at night when we are alone in the dark room and you nurse until you fall asleep. So that makes me think you are interested in nursing the rest of the time, just maybe too distracted. If you were a singleton I would probably just stop nursing and use my freezer(s) stash to bottle-feed you until your birthday. But since Madeline acts like she wants to nurse until college, selfishly, I'm going to continue to nurse you out of convenience for myself. I don't think I can keep up with a sippy for Carter, a sippy for you, pumping for both of you, and nursing Madeline. It makes me crazy just to think about it all. We are almost done so I'm going to push forward and see where the next two months take us.

Molly 10 month Stats

Weight: 17ish pounds