Growth/ development: Asher is big! He is solid- heavy and tall, very compact. He has five teeth, and his little grin is the cutest thing. He has a lot of hair- far more than Charlotte had at his age. It's starting to curl a bit in the back.
Asher is a master crawler, and pulls to standing all day long. He loves to stand up and reach for something a tiny bit out of his grasp.
Sometimes Asher will wave and say, "Hiiiiiiii," but lately this privilege is reserved for animals- stuffed, or living. :)
Sleep/ schedule: Asher has been waking up EARLY this month. Ugh! We thought that once we night weaned, the sleep situation would get better, but it is still fairly difficult. Some nights Asher will sleep silently through until 5:45am (rarely later than that!), but many nights he stirs a few times throughout the night and settles when Joel comforts him, but then he is awake and mad at 5:00!!
His naps are fairly consistent, though a couple of times recently he has cried until I finally rocked/ bounced him to sleep in my arms. He usually naps for 1.5-2 hours in the morning, and about 1.5 hours in the afternoon. His bedtime is roughly 7, but if he wakes up early or his naps are off, we will put him to bed closer to 6:30/6:45. I feel this poor guy has a reputation as a bad sleeper; I wouldn't necessarily say that, but he isn't as consistent of a sleeper as Charlotte was, so we can't help but compare.
Asher is no longer nursing; he takes 6-7 bottles per day and I pump five times a day to keep up with his breastmilk consumption. I would really like to spread out his feedings so he takes just 4 bottles a day, but he definitely prefers to have milk frequently and I'm nervous that cutting back on feedings would affect his sleep. After Charlotte's first birthday I started dropping nursing sessions, so I may try to help Asher take at least one less bottle after he turns one. We'll see.
Asher likes: Charlotte. She is his favorite person! It's so cute to watch him crawl around the house to find her! He also likes drinking milk, eating food, playing outside, climbing (on his family members, the furniture, and up any steps he can find!), electronics, cords, taking things out of baskets/boxes, BOOKS, and animals.
Asher doesn't like: being stopped from exploring a place he wants to go, being given a toy that Charlotte deems an appropriate substitute for whatever he's trying to take from her at the moment, getting dressed/ diaper changes.
Big things this month: Asher had his first baby sitter put him to bed. And his dad put him to bed for the first time. He had friends visit from Philadelphia, visited downtown Seattle, and went to a lot of playgrounds. :)
