7 Months Old!

The days and weeks are just speeding past and it's just so hard to believe another month is gone. She's in a hurry to get moving, too. She's just about ready to crawl and rocks back and forth on her hands and knees before collapsing back down on her belly. She gets around by commando crawling (pulling herself forward with her arms) but that tires her out easily and when that happens she just lays there on her belly waving her arms and legs back and forth and crying. She can pull herself up to standing if there's furniture or someone's leg around to hold onto. She's taken a few steps too while she's up...doc says she might be one of those babies that just skips the crawling and starts walking right away. We need to baby proof the house ASAP!

You Can't Fool Me!
She's got a fake cry now...complete with eyes shut and mouth wide open with a pathetic and not always convincing "Huwaaah huwaahhhh." I've caught her doing this and then briefly peeking to see if anyone's looking.

Sucka!
She knows how to get her way, too. She'll throw you her gummiest smile, wrinkled nose and everything, and to top it off she'll squeeze her eyes shut for that extra kick of cute. How can you resist?

"I'll have the oatmeal with a side of pureed apples..."
Her menu has a little more variety in it. I've tried to make her baby food myself and use the pre-packaged stuff mostly for convenience when we travel. Making her food is actually not too hard, and just involves peeling, boiling (in the microwave usually), and throwing into the food processor. I've tried sweet potatoes (loves), peas (doesn't love), carrots, apples, and squash. She also likes plain oatmeal and we usually give her some close to bedtime to keep her nice and full and hopefully sleep through the night.

Sleeping like a baby..NOT!
The oatmeal trick doesn't work all the time, though. She had a couple of bad weeks of night waking and was up every 2 hours. The only way to get her back to sleep was to nurse. After a while I couldn't take it anymore and we decided we had to break her of the habit. When she woke at night, instead of nursing automatically, we took turns rubbing her back or tummy, singing to her, and comforting her back to sleep. Part of the reason for night waking was that we stopped swaddling her and she had to get used the having her arms free to rub her eyes and scratch her head which usually woke her up. Solution to that was to give her a stuffed animal to keep her fingers and hands busy and help soothe her back to sleep. It works! It took a few sleepless nights and a rough couple of days at work, but by the 5th night, she was sleeping 6 to 7 hour stretches without waking...and when she did wake up, she went back to sleep with a little back rub and a lullabye.

Separation Anxiety
As long as I'm in the room, she doesn't want anybody else to hold her these days, sometimes not even her daddy. It's flattering in a way to think that she wants ME and ONLY ME! Yay for mommy! She likes me, she REALLY likes me! But mama needs a break sometimes, girl! Hey, moms out there...how long is this clingy stage gonna last?!


There's so much to look forward to in the next month ...St. Patty's Day, Easter, Lake Tahoe! We'll keep you posted!