Camden Eight Months Old

Camden Eight Months Old

My sweetheart is eight months old, and I can’t believe it! This month went by way too fast. Camden is darling, and growing more ornery and mischievous everyday.

He is crawling now, which just happened this week. Everyone was right when they told me life is much easier when babies stay put! Camden is into everything and we have majorly procrastinated on baby proofing. Whoops! He is especially infatuated with outlets and cords. Of course! Let’s pick the most dangerous things to play with!

Now that he’s crawling, he’s never far from me. Wherever I put him, he crawls to me and clings to my legs. He used to play in the kitchen with his toys while I cooked, but now he’s right on my toes, and I have to be careful not to step on him!

Baby led weaning is still going well, although Camden is starting to get picky. He used to investigate any food in front of him and try everything, but now he definitely picks out what he wants to eat and protests loudly if he doesn’t get what he wants! Lately all he seems to be eating much of is fruit. I guess there are worse things he could be insisting on eating!

For those of you who are wondering (which is everyone, right?), the poop situation has gotten much better. It’s really not much of a big deal these days. For the record, I love using cloth diapers. I have found them to be really easy and not the huge extra burden everyone warned me they would be. It’s slightly more difficult when we travel, but honestly not much of a headache. While I completely respect a parent’s decision to diaper their child however they see fit, based on my experience I have a hard time understanding why so many people are turned off by cloth. But, hey, that’s just me. I know some brands leak pretty badly. We did have a problem with leakage in the beginning, but rarely anymore. I also haven’t been working, so I’ve had time to keep up with laundry…but even then it’s maybe two extra loads a week.

But that is about to change….because I’m going back to work in October. It happened kind of randomly. I had been thinking of finding something part-time this fall or winter, now that Camden is older and I’m feeling much better. However, a friend sent me a posting for a full-time position a few weeks ago that looked like a great fit for me, and I decided to give it a shot. Two weeks and two interviews later, I was offered the job and decided to take it.

Being a stay-at-home mom is not really something I ever saw myself doing, but I felt forced to leave my previous job as I was putting in excessive hours and offered very little flexibility. Many parents find that balancing full-time jobs and raising children is nearly impossible in a country that offers no maternity leave, little flexibility, few (affordable) childcare options and an overall lack of support for life outside of work. Luckily the culture at my new job seems different, and my supervisor graciously agreed to work with me on a schedule that allows me to be home a little bit more with Camden. I’m so glad she recognizes this is a short and precious time in my life and the life of my child’s when he needs me more now while he is still so small. But it won’t always be this way.

Ironically, in the past month or so I have finally felt settled into motherhood, and truly happy. And then an opportunity comes along that I feel I can’t turn down! It will be a big change, and one I’m equally nervous and excited about. I’ve never been away from Camden more than four hours. But now that he is older, eating solids and nursing less, I feel much more comfortable about being away from him for longer stretches. We also found a wonderful daycare with a sweet woman who has been in childcare for more than 30 years. I really like her, and I think Camden will thrive in daycare. It will be a strange feeling leaving my baby with someone I just met, but I know he will be well cared for and once he adjusts, he will really love it.