Monthly Photos: Month 7

Sweet little one is 7 months old! It seems as though not too much has changed this past month. Still super fun and happy. She has mastered sitting without assistance, but will still tump over occasionally. She has her 2 bottom teeth but no others have come through yet.

Size: Last week when she was sick the doctor weighed her at 19 lbs. 10 oz. She wears 9-12 month clothes mostly, and size 3 in disposable diapers.

Likes: Getting out and about, being around people/babies, morning walks, her jumperoo, sleeping on her tummy (with her hiney in the air - it is the cutest thing), baths, putting everything in her mouth, and dogs (she will squeal with delight when we carry her and chase one of our family member's dogs around the house).

Dislikes: Bottles (we have pretty much given up), all food including rice cereal, various baby foods, homemade purees, small bits of fruit for her to pick up herself, etc. I have tried letting her bite off some of my banana, or gnaw on a slice of apple - she immediately realizes it is food and will not put it in her mouth! The closest she has come to liking something was while holding a (peeled) grape or a strawberry and letting her kind of suck on it. Although when we gave her a tiny piece to put in her mouth she acted like she was being gagged/tortured. But hey, she is clearly getting enough milk (see thighs) so I'm not worried. We are taking it easy on the food and will maybe try again in a few weeks.

Working On: Crawling - she likes to get her legs going and can move around by pivoting and scooting, but hasn't crawled yet. I have been trying to teach her the sign for milk for the past month or so. She can do the movement with her hand but hasn't figured out that it means milk yet. I also say "mama" and "dada" to her a lot, but she hasn't made any attempts to say it yet.

Eating: Still 100% milk since she is not interested in food. She nurses about 7-8 times a day including once at night.


Sleeping: Her bedtime routine is working out great. Goes down between 7 and 7:30 with usually no crying (sometimes a few minutes of fussing). Most nights she wakes up once to eat around 3 or 4 am. She usually wakes up around 6:15 or 6:30am. She takes about 3 naps a day and they always vary in length. Lately her first is approx 45min-1hr, her second is 1-1.5 hrs, and her third is about 30 min.

And as I say every month, she is not on a schedule, but that seems to be working for both of us. A schedule would be nice in knowing when she is going to nap so I could better plan play dates, doctor appointments, etc, but I do like that she can kind of just go with the flow. I have had it suggested to wake her up at the same time every day to help get on a schedule, but I just can't bring myself to wake up that early. She already gets up fairly early, and sometimes even gets up in the 5's. When she does that, I feed her and put her back down because that is just too early. She will usually sleep until about 7 something when that happens and I enjoy the extra sleep. Anyway, I am fine with how things are now, and we will see if they change in the future.

I feel like this past month has flown by. On one hand I can't believe she is already 7 months old, but on the other it feels like we have had her for so much longer! She is so sweet and happy and so much fun. I think she gets cuter all the time. I still kiss her dozens of times a day. Even after she goes to bed I look at the monitor a million times just to see her cute sleeping positions. Babies are such a joy.