Lena: 7 Months

The 23rd snuck up on me this month! How is my baby 7 months old already?? Here's what she's been up to lately.

Routine
She wakes up every morning between 6:45 and 7:00 like clockwork. She's still eating every 3 hours, and takes 3 naps a day - morning, afternoon, and evening. Then she's back to bed around 8.

Eating
I have been so lackadaisical about giving her solids. She definitely prefers feeding herself to being spoon fed, but I'm nervous about giving her chunks of food. I give her something in the mesh feeder when I think about it, but I think we're just going to take it slow.

Sleep
Oh sleep. I've come to the conclusion that I just don't have babies who sleep through the night at 6 weeks like all the rest of my friends and facebook acquaintances. Lucy didn't sleep through the night 'til 8 months - after 2 grueling weeks of CIO. Lena seems to be following suit. I tried CIO last weekend. She screamed for two hours and was hoarse for the next two days! I stuck with it for 3 days, then gave up. It's too torturous for all of us. So she's back to eating every 3 hours around the clock. I've decided just to embrace it for the weight loss benefits. :-)

She's also suddenly become quite attached to her bed - meaning she won't sleep anywhere else. I babysat at Niki's a couple days this week, and it was so difficult to get Lena to sleep. Then she took short little catnaps that were not nearly sufficient. Oy.

Milestones and Personality
She's become an expert sitter in the past couple of weeks. She loves sitting up like a big girl and playing with her toys. She's still working on getting onto her belly from a sitting position - she just kind of tips herself over, and usually isn't too happy with the subsequent head smack.

She pivots like a pro and rolls to get where she wants to go, but she still hasn't figured out crawling. I'm starting to wonder if she'll just go straight to walking, because she loves standing up and she loves walking.

She was fussing in that video because she wanted to get to me so badly. She's still a major mama's girl. Basically, if she can hear or see me, she expects me to be holding her. Haha. So I can't ever hand her to Justin and stay in the same room. But she does okay in nursery at church because I'm out of sight, out of mind.

She's finally started laughing a little bit more. Justin and I each had her giggling at different times one day recently. And I've discovered her ticklish spot (her neck). But she still doesn't belly laugh by any means. Mostly she just squawks and shrieks and makes goofy noises with her mouth.

Her legs are almost always moving. When she's mad, she kicks them like crazy. If I'm ignoring her while she's crying in bed, I'll start to hear her feet pounding the mattress. When she's in the bath, she kicks so hard that she tips herself over. If I ever lift her up in the air, she starts kicking - almost like she's swimming. Haha.

She is a sweet snuggler. Her favorite position in all the world is cuddled up on my chest. And she frequently lays her head down on my shoulder. She does it when she's tired or being shy or just relieved to finally be handed back to me from whomever was holding her. Haha.

She is a happy, silly girl and we love her so much!!