7 months

Wow... this past month has truly flown by! I can't believe how fast the summer is going and how big our Lydia Grace is getting.

Her stats: We don't have any updates on her height or weight but I can definitely tell you that Lydia is getting bigger! She is out of 3-6 month sleepers and bottoms although some of the onesies can still fit.
She feels noticeably heavy this past week  - my biceps get a good workout holding her!

Eating: I know the BLW post still isn't up and I promise it will be soon! But for a short version, eating is going well. We have jumped into solid food and Lydia loves, loves, loves to eat. She eats lunch and dinner each day, and sometimes has an afternoon snack, which supplements breastfeeding. Some of her favorite things to eat are yogurt, blueberries, oatmeal, broccoli, squash, and purred apples and carrots. She also loves puffs (I said I wouldn't do it, and then I did). I would say that we spoon feed her half the time, and the other half we let her try to feed herself. She is doing well with her sippy cup too and loves to drink down cold water when we are out in the sun.

Since she is consistently eating solids I have tried to cut down on the number of nursing sessions she has in a day. I know she is still gaining most of her sustenance from breast milk, but I was ready to be able to be away from her for longer periods of time without having to pump. Now she is nursing every 2.5 hours on average, and then every 4-5 hours at night.


Sleeping: I got jealous of our past selves a few minutes ago when I read her 6 month update... she was sleeping so well!! And now she just isn't. I have heard from so many people that this happens a lot - you get a baby on a schedule and they sleep well for 4-6 weeks and then all of the sudden something changes and it is back to square one. I am not sure if we are back to square one yet, but we are back pedaling. The past 10 nights have been really rough, and it could be just a random change or it could be a combination of teething, her first diaper rash and a stomach bug that she caught. Her "routine" now is getting a bath around 7:45 and then nursing before going to sleep in her crib, and she still falls asleep pretty easily. But rather than waking up at 3, she has usually be waking up at 2, then 4:30, then 6:30 then 7:30. Last night she woke up at midnight and we just gave in and brought her into our bed, where she slept pretty well. I am very tired, and it is hard to be so sleepy again especially because she takes more energy out of me during the days now! I am just hoping that her teeth will eventually break through and her belly will go back to normal and then maybe just maybe she will sleep well.

Naps are okay.. some days she fights them and others she lays down quickly. She is still taking her long nap of the day at home in her swing and as much as I would like to get her out of the swing I am just taking what I can get lately. Hopefully this coming month we will transfer this long nap into her crib! Her other two (sometimes one) naps are shorter and she can take them pretty much wherever which gives me a lot of flexibility in my day.


What she loves: Food, standing, animals, Daddy, swinging on the swing set, the pool, the zoo, maybe sometimes riding in her stroller...


What she hates: Missing her long nap, tummy time, staying up past her bed time, painful teeth and diaper rash! (When her teeth are really hurting her Lydia will clench her jaw, make fists and raise them toward the sky as if to say, "curse you teeth!" It is cute, and so sad.)


Personality/Milestones: Oh my goodness - so much to say here! A couple weeks ago Lydia started to stand while holding on to things and she has only fallen twice. She has also started to jump a lot when you hold her or while she stands in her exersaucer. These days changing her diaper is more of a workout as she rolls her hips side to side, but rolling over still rarely, if ever, happens. There isn't much going on in the crawling department, but today Lydia pulled herself up to standing while she was playing in her stroller at the pool! I really think she may not crawl at all because tummy time still makes her so mad.

As far as a personality goes, she is just shining through so brightly recently. She laughs and smiles all the time and has started to babble! I adore her voice and David and I will just sit around for way too long swapping "ma ma's" and "da da's" back and forth with her. She is very verbal these days with her moni-syllabic babble,  growling, squealing and spit-blowing (if you understand what that means...). I just love it.


Heaven-sent baby items: Nothing right now... we got her a high chair and she really likes it. We got a cheap Graco one from Walmart and it definitely suffices.


Words from Daddy: She is amazing and every day is better. The more that I hear her little voice the more I can't wait until we can actually talk.