P.S. Sorry this is posted late–I wrote it May 10th and then never got around to uploading the pictures to go with it!
BABY WINTER’S MONTHLY UPDATE: 7 months old
Baby’s Age: 7 months old
Height: 26 inches
Weight: 17 pounds
Head: Not sure
Diaper Size: Size 2
Clothes Size: 6 months and some 9 months
Here is a look back at the past few months:
Here is Winter in her Bumbo:
May 10, 2014 – Okay, I know that every month I talk about how “quickly time is going” and how much I wish “time could slow down,” but seriously, how on earth do I have a 7 month old baby?!?! I remember when Winter was just a few weeks old and I would see moms with “older” babies like 6-9 month olds and I couldn’t even imagine Winter being that big or that “old.” HA! Now, not only is my baby not a tiny little newborn, she is a full personality, spunky, silly, cute as can be, chubby 7 month old! She sits up and plays, she attempts motions of “learning to crawl,” and she constantly wants entertainment. Winter is so much fun! I don’t miss those newborn days–as cute as she was back then, I love every new stage more and more! Her personality continues to develop and she is more opinionated about likes and dislikes. It is incredible witnessing her grow and change.
The last week of April into the first few days of May, Winter and I travelled to Texas to visit my best friend. Travelling with a baby solo was an adventure! The last time that I flew with her alone was when she was 5-6 weeks old when we went to Florida to attend my husband’s work project launching into space. I knew that travelling with a 6.5 month old was going to be very different from travelling with a one month old. Overall, the trip went well! Since I am a more experienced mom than I was at 6 weeks, I felt a million times more confident about my ability to travel with Winter alone. In the airport, I chose to wear her in the Ergo. I kept my stroller and carseat with me because I actually used the stroller as a “luggage cart” to transport my carryon bag, diaper bag, and my breastpump (which is a little backpack bag). People stared at me as I walked by, but who cares! People probably just wished they had thought of my idea to use the stroller as a luggage cart! On both of my flights to and from Texas, I had really nice gentlemen who helped me get on the airplane. I had to take the carseat out and breakdown the stroller to gate check them, as well as carry my pump, diaper bag, baby (who I was wearing), and pull my carryon suitcase. The nice men who helped me took my carryon for me and placed it in the overhead bin. I am grateful for people who see a woman in need and volunteer their help!
Winter isn’t crawling yet, but I am in no rush for that to happen! I know that once she begins crawling, our lives will drastically change. My prediction is that she will master the ability to be mobile (whether it’s crawling or army crawling) within this next month. She is really “trying” to crawl. She gets up on her hands and pushes her belly off the floor. She hasn’t quite gotten onto her knees yet, but she attempts getting on her knees. I see her frustration–she really wants more independence!
Still no teeth! That’s ok though! Again, no rush on that. We really thought she was for sure teething recently because she was acting differently and being more fussy than usual. But we haven’t seen any true evidence of teeth yet. Sometimes she will put something into her mouth, bite down hard and furiously shake her head back and forth….that must feel good on her gums? Who knows!
At a restaurant, Winter sat in a booster seat/high chair for the first time on Easter weekend! What a big girl! She looks so cute and grown up in it. 🙂 We put her in one of those a couple of times since, and we have started to realize that our relaxing days of going out to eat with a baby in tow are pretty much over. It isn’t that much fun or “relaxing” to have her along with us at restaurants anymore. I guess it’s time to start thinking of getting a sitter every now and then so Eric and I can get a nice dinner away.
In the past month, Winter has become obsessed with her feet and toes. She adores playing with them and putting her toes in her mouth. It’s WAY too cute. 🙂
This little girl is needing constant entertainment! She gets bored of things quickly! When she sits on the floor and plays with toys, she moves so quickly from one toy to the next. She loves shaking toys really hard (especially if they make a rattle sound). She likes waving things around too. Even when she is not playing with toys, we’ve noticed that she uses her arms to show emotion a lot. When she is happy or really excited, she waves both arms out and waves them around. She nearly claps, but not quite yet.
Winter is getting to be a bit stubborn and a “stinker” sometimes. One example: she used to smile on command for a picture. Now, getting her to smile for a picture is nearly impossible! When we went to get her 6 month photos taken, we were exhausted afterward from our failed attempts to get her to smile. Don’t get me wrong, she still laughs and smiles A LOT—just only when she wants to. Not when we are trying to prompt her to do it!
We love this little girl. She brings us so much joy!
Milestones: Sits by herself for long periods, while sitting she constantly rolls her toes in a clockwise or counterclockwise rotation, she isn’t crawling, but she is “wanting” to–she has started scooting backwards, she isn’t quite clapping her hands–but almost there, she is eating 2 solids meals a day in addition to 5-6 nursing sessions per day.
Sleep: Our rockstar sleeper is still going strong! She consistently sleeps from 8pm to 8am (12 hours). She takes 2 daytime naps, one around 9am to 11am (2 hours) and one from 2:30pm to 5:30 pm (3 hours). After she first learned to roll over onto her tummy, she was always sleeping on her tummy, but I have noticed lately that she sleeps on her back half of the time and on her tummy the other half of the time. What I do notice also, is that she uses every square inch of her crib! She moves around so much throughout the night. Often times she wakes up in the morning in the corner of the crib (sometimes with one of her legs stuck in the rails)!
Best Moment: When she and I travelled to Texas at the end of April/first week of May, on our return flight home, she slept the entire duration of the flight with her head cuddled on my chest/shoulder. For a baby who is too independent and never wants to slow down to relax and cuddle, it was truly a special 2 hours of getting to have my daughter cuddle with me!
Worst Moment: On the flip side — while travelling, on our flight to Texas, I had a baby who slept briefly, and then cried for portions of the flight! I nursed her 3-4 times to console her, but those moments where she was belting out loud cries felt stressful to me!
Health: Winter has been very healthy this past month!
Eating: After 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, we are now a full month into the addition of solid foods (ie baby food purees–all vegetables so far). For the first week or two of introducing solids, Winter didn’t know what to think about the new tastes and textures she was experiencing. Much, if not all of the food was spit out and ended up all over her face! After a couple of weeks, she started catching on and getting the hang of this whole eating thing. For the past 2 weeks, she has been doing great! She went from eating about 1/3 of a 3.5 oz jar of baby food to either 2/3 or all of a jar! Initially we were only adding solids to her routine around 6pm, but for the past few weeks she has been so interested in baby food that we have been doing twice per day solids in the mornings and evenings. She is loving pureed carrots! Those are her favorite. So far we have tried: green beans, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, avocado, mixed vegetables and chicken/vegetable mix.
She still nurses 5 times per day. 8:00 am upon waking (then solids after), 11:30 am after her morning nap, 2:30 pm right before her long afternoon nap, 5:30/6:00 pm after her nap (then solids after), and 8:00 pm before going down for the night.
Likes: Winter loves blowing raspberries. She absolutely loves animals! We took her to a petting zoo and she squealed and waved her arms in delight at the cow, goats and sheep! She really loves our dog, Koda. She smiles and laughs when she sees him. She likes the cat too, but the cat tends to keep a little more distance from Winter compared to our dog. Winter really likes my phone, go figure! When we were out of town, we would facetime (or sometimes just call) Eric and as soon as she heard the ringing, her eyes lit up and she smiled. When she saw her daddy or even just heard his voice, she smiled and cooed out of happiness! I try to call Eric several times per week during the day just so she can say “hi” to him — she loves it!
Dislikes: She really hates getting her face wiped off after eating solids. HATES it! She also hates having her nose wiped if it has been runny.
How Mommy is doing: I know that the choice to be a stay at home mom has been such a great decision for our family. I truly love my days with my daughter! I know that Eric struggles with the fact that on weekdays he only sees her for about 2-3 hours before she goes to bed (she wakes up from her nap around 5:30 when he gets home from work and then she goes to bed at 8pm). That would be REALLY hard for me to be a working mom and only get to spend those few of hours each day with her. I think I would just die! It is truly a blessing to be able to stay home with Winter. I know not all families have this option, but I thank God every day for the gift of all of this quality time with my little precious girl!
As I have mentioned in previous months, Winter and I are very active in our moms/babies group. At least 2-3 days per week, we spend and hour or two with our friends at various activities….stroller runs, play dates at someone’s house, working out with babies in the carriers (like climbing the stairs at Red Rocks), walks, park days, etc. We also have mom’s night out with no babies about once per month too. It’s SO MUCH FUN getting to bond with other moms who are in the exact same stage that I’m in! We talk about everything mommy related (like breastfeeding, teething, solids, crawling, etc) to birth and personal things (like sex, weight, body image, periods or lack thereof, etc). I’m so happy that I found this group! (If anyone reading this is interested in finding a mom’s group, the place I found my group was on http://www.meetup.com. The group I am in is for moms of babies born in 2013 or 2014, so that way we all have really similarly aged kids!)
If you missed her previous updates, you can check out:
Photos of Winter and Our Family:
Baby Lute x3 