Crawling Attempts and Nursing

Okay – on my way to Denver so I'm going to try to write a little more! Major milestones:
He was sitting up by himself around 4 ½ months, I'm pretty sure. And probably without bobbling (very stable) by about 6 ½ months.
Started leaning forward from sitting, attempting a crawling position around 7 months (?)
7 ½ – 8 months he was leaning forward quite a bit, getting in crawling position, but not on his knees – it was a 'crab crawl' position – one knee and one foot. He's 8 ¾ months now and just now starting to rock back and forth on BOTH knees – he would do this before if we PLACED him in the regular crawl position, but now he's been doing it by himself (which I'm happy about, because I thought he might never crawl on both knees – just crab crawl until he walked, and it's better if he crawls on his knees because he learns the opposition movement of one knee and the opposite arm going forward simultaneously – important for brain development – I've read a lot about how important it is for them to not skip crawling – ideally they should crawl for 4-5 months). At around this same time he would get in the crab crawl position or we would put him in the regular crawl position and he would try to move, but usually end up on his belly, which was pretty frustrating for him! Often he would collapse to his belly, then promptly roll over to his back. Early on when he first learned to roll from his tummy to back (which was probably around 3 months), we would praise him like crazy and get so excited, so he loved doing it because it would make us so happy! And he never liked being on his belly (tummy time wasn't fun), so he would always promptly roll over (so we couldn't really FORCE him to stay on his tummy!). Because of that, I fear he didn't quite develop those back and tummy muscles as quickly as he could've, making the crawl position hard for him to sustain.
At about 8 months or 8 months and a week he was pretty mobile. He could get in a crawl (crab) position and sustain it . He would get in a regular crawl position and sort of 'crawl' backwards. This is all very normal and common, from what I've read. His leg (?) muscles weren't quite as strong so he would push back with his arms and end up moving backwards. He can now move several feet by himself – maneuver around a room. He does this by crawling backwards and by kindof leaning forward from a sitting position, getting in a crab crawl position, then sitting back down in a different place.
Right from the get go (when he started to discover moving from a sitting position), he wanted to (and would rather) stand. He would just smile and grin when we would lean him against his walker toy. And now he'll maneuver his way to the coffee table and then try to pull himself up. It's so cute! And it's so cute how happy it makes him to stand!
He's also at that point where he does get frustrated sometimes – I think he just really wants to crawl, and to move FORWARD. He has been getting on both knees and rocking back and forth more just in the last week, so I know he's close!

Nursing:
I weaned to nursing ONLY during his night feeding when he was about 7 months (?). I would pump during the day. And I was getting very little. I think when I stopped nursing during the day, my milk just really started to wane. Nursing him was a struggle (minus the night feeding – and he wouldn't put up as much of a fight then because he was tired and hungry, plus I would have a little more milk after that surge of prolactin(?) in the middle of the night) that got more and more of a struggle the older he got. My milk really STARTED waning at around 4 months. I was calling and meeting with lactation consultants, taking TONS of fenugreek, drinking lots of water, and just keeping up with nursing and/or pumping. It was kindof stressful, and got more and more stressful after I was only nursing him once a day. I would take my pump with me a lot of places, just trying to keep my very little milk going.

I am posting this a few days after I wrote it. To sum up, I stopped pumping at about 8 months. It was sad and I cried a couple times, because in my mind, as long as I was pumping, I could always get the milk back and even plentiful. But I truly believe (now) that my milk couldn't ever have gotten that plentiful with just pumping - my body had been done for awhile, and Georgie had definitely been done for awhile, and I finally just let it be and let it go. It was a big relief once I accepted it (and saved me so much time!).

Also, a couple days after we got there (the 26th I think?) Georgie finally mentally grasped rolling from his back to his tummy! I gave him just the slightest push, and then I kept just really encouraging him saying "push, push!!!", and he finally did it all on his own (in Grommer and Papou's family room!). It was really exciting - they were there and so was daddy! After he figured it out, he did it over and over, and that night changing his diaper was a chore because he wouldn't stop rolling over! Careful what you wish for!!!

Ahhh!

Well, I'm going to just try to touch on a few major things (yeah right, this is me we're talking about!). He's over 8 months now. I feel so bad I haven't posted more. I really should just print out my facebook wall for the last 8 months and call it his baby book!
Major Points!:

He now, as of about maybe a month ago, USUALLY, and FINALLY takes about 50 min. - 1 Hour and 15 min. naps - 3 a day! I had tried that a few times when he was maybe around 6 months old, and it seemed to be working, but then I kindof forgot and went back to making him sleep every two hours, so he was doing short naps - 4 or 5 every two hours. He wasn't sleeping quite as well at night either (sleep crying a few times and waking up early for his night feeding - like 3:00-4:00) during that 'short nap stint', so I remembered to try the 3 nap 'method' again, and it works! It's really the only thing that works! Basically, I increase his wake time between naps, and only allow 3, and try to be on a general schedule. So then he's pretty tired by the time he gets to nap (and usually, contrary to what I've read in Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child), and goes down 'like warm butter on toast'. Sometimes he gets pretty fussy because he's tired (maybe overtired), but I've found that sometimes if we wait another few minutes beyond that point, he'll go into a 'zoning' stage and then he'll go down SO easily. We still rock him pretty much fully to sleep (usually, anyway), but we don't mind because he almost fall asleep within 5 min (and usually like 2 or less). Anyway, it took me 8 months to figure it out (and probably was helped by the fact that he IS older and that it's winter now so much darker early and later (less daylight)), but I finally did. It also took kindof disregarding what I've read!

More to come!