So here she is:
She's becoming quite the little lady with her own preferences and personality. Her personality is becoming more defined and a bit more predictable. In particular, she's starting to know what she wants. Before when she would be upset, I would have an idea of what she wanted but she didn't seem sure so I would have to present a bunch of options and then eventually we'd get to the one that made her happy. Now when she wants something she'll often reach for it or make certain sounds. Like when she wants to nurse, she'll put her face in my chest (which should be an obvious enough sign) and go "nun-nun-nun-nun-nun" and fuss. I really like that she can be so clear.
One thing she is really clear about is that she hate HATE HATES her car seat. She even starts to fuss when I open the car door and she sees the seat. We had a particularly traumatic moment when she saw the car seat, arched her back in protest and hit her head on the doorframe and then cried because of the car seat and because of her hurty head. Sad times. Lots of times I'll nurse her a little before putting her in the seat because it mellows her out a bit.
It's really great that she is becoming fun to play with. She loves to sing, dance and listen to music. I've made her a bunch of shakers and we sing "Shake your Shaker" with them all the time and she smiles along. When I start to sing a song or start a rhyme that she knows she smiles right away and gets excited before the bouncier parts. She also loves to sit at the piano with me while I play. The Bumbo on the end table is the perfect height for her to play. I've tried to teach her Hot Crossed Buns but we've not had any luck yet.
That's actually one of the things that I'm really excited for - teaching her things. I can tell that she's getting aware enough to listen and respond to commands. We are working on turning pages at the right time, knocking over towers and maybe even recognizing some animals. I know it will be a long time before any of this pays off but its fun to think that we're more than just blobs to each other.
Her awareness does mean that she is happiest when David and I are both around. She's pretty content when it's just one of us, but when David comes home from work she looks back and forth to us, like, "isn't it great, you're both here. At the same time!" David is so so so good with her and they will spend tonnes of time looking out the window seeing the fall changes and watching cars go by. It's way cute.
She still doesn't really have gross motor skills in terms of movement. She is really fantastic at sitting and will sit confidently for hours if people are around and she has toys to play with. At my mom's group she sat on one of the patio chairs for about an hour playing with different toys and eating snacks and was happy as a clam. But if I put her on her stomach its meltdown city and she can't seem to figure out how to keep her arms and legs underneath her body or to move forward. Mostly she moves because she's fussing and flailing so much. She is good in the jolly jumper, but that's pretty much it for exercise. (Sidenote: it seems the only time she wants to roll is when she's in my arms and it's time for bed).
Her fine motor skills are much better. She can pick up her little Gerber puffs and put them in her mouth. She likes to manipulate strings and ribbons (and flip them around) and my travel-sized Scope bottle is the perfect size for her to shake and see the liquid swish around. It's cute because she would pick that bottle over all sorts of other "appropriate" toys. She love non-toys like David's watch, a tongue depressor, a comb, a headband and her Scope.
She's still a little nugget buddy too. She's 16 lbs 9oz for weight (48 percentile) and 25.25 inches long (11th percentile). In her 7 month picture she's wearing a 3 month size shirt (yes, it's a bit short in the arms, but really it fits). Her ankles are always out in her pants, but that's more a factor of them riding up than being too short.
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| At the doctor's |
Food is going great and she'll eat just about anything (even willingly tried a lemon more than once the other day). She likes food spicier and loves when I put cinnamon in her cereal, pepper on her chicken and when she tried carrot ginger soup. We do a mixture of purees and sticks of food, but since she doesn't have any teeth yet we haven't given her little bits.
Sleep is all over the place from where I thought it would be. She's gone down to 3 naps (usually) and they're about 1.5-2 hours (although we'll have freak days when it's 45 minute naps which make both of us quite grumpy). At night she likes to be in bed and asleep by 7:30 (still quite a stickler on that). But she'll wake up anywhere from 2-5 times in the night. When it's 2 times, I'm good since one is at 10:00 just as we're going to be and again at 2 am, but when it's more I feel like we're regressing sooo much. She also went through a phase where she thought 2 am was a time to party (and she's never partied in the night as long as I can remember) so hopefully we're through that now. And went through a phase where she wanted to wake up for the day at 5 am which I was very not ok with. We seem to have settled on 6:30 and I'm ok with that because she usually takes her first nap at 8 and will sleep until 10 (and I nap too). Now that she's bigger we are working on going to sleep without having to be bounced so that one day we can just put in bed, sing a song and leave and she'll go to sleep. My back and shoulders are so over bouncing now that she's gotten so big (relatively).
I remember when I thought about 7 months and I thought she would be weaned (still going strong on nursing and loving it) and that she would be more independent (she is more independent than she was but I now know what a baby is). She's also way way more funny than I thought she would be. She has an adorable giggle, loves when we "whisper" in her ears, and is so happy to have someone play with her or to discover anything new. It's actually making me excited for her next developments instead of longing for the days when she was wee and snuggly and slept on my chest at the drop of a hat (I still love that phase but I don't miss it as much). I think months 3-5 were the hardest for me, so I feel glad that 7 is so much different.
I also didn't realize how much babies are disease magnets! I have been sick 3 times in the last 2.5 months, which is more than I've been in the last 2.5 years. And because of the lack of sleep I am sick for soo much longer. Before it would be about 24 hours, now it's 2 weeks. And because I'm nursing I don't feel comfortable taking a tonne of drugs (though 2 Advil and 1 Tylenol seem to be enough for me to forget my problems). The worst!
I've also kind of see where moms are coming from when it comes to hygiene. Why shower when you can play with your baby? And why buy new pants when your body is changing sizes day to day? It's way easier to just wear stretchy pants. As a kid I always wondered why my mom smelled so distinctly (not bad, just "mom-ish"), it's milk. That stuff is fragrant!
I am starting to feel like I have a life. We have baby lap time at the library, mom's group, baby yoga and friend meet-ups. It gives me lots of chances to talk to other moms and get out of the house. Once winter really sets in, it will be great to have these routines so I won't make excuses for the weather. I've also got to do some things I like, like practicing piano while she sits on the floor and plays/watches, and yoga at home (which she thinks is pretty funny). With a more consistent bedtime, David and I are getting to spend more time together which means I can bake or knit and we watch a TONNE of TV (so that we can both work on our hobbies at the same time). Some nights David and I just talk to each other all the way until bedtime, it's awesome!
I've also figured out that I will be going back to work, and I am really happy with how that feels. A friend from church is going to take care of the Bean and she has an 8 year old boy who is at school most of the day, so the Bean will get lots of TLC. I love that we have the same values and that her son will be a good role model for Ellie. Plus it's on the way to work too! I'm also going to work reduced hours from 8:30 - 4:30 (4pm on Friday), so that will be lovely too. I'm nervous about being away from her, but we'll work our way up to a full day so it's easier on us both.
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| Zoo date with Finn (they both just woke up from a nap) |
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| Playing with cousins before Thanksgiving |
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| Brianna was having so much fun with "him" |
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| Play date with Nathan |
This next month is going to be pretty exciting as we get ready for Christmas (FIRST CHRISTMAS!!!!) and go on our cruise. I just love my little Bean Bean and I'm so glad I get to be her momma (which she's getting very very very close to saying). Our family feels so complete with her in it and I can feel her loving us too!
Also I put the Bean up as a Gerber baby, so please vote for her: https://www.gerberphotocontest.ca/en/card/54469d0f899bfb88391174ca
Until next time...
P.S. I've noticed that I've used a lot of parentheses in this entry (oh, well).
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