This month has flown by even more than the others. Forgive the few-days-late post, our new internet is a piece of crap so it’s harder to do anything that’s not on my work computer (the only one not on wifi.)
It’s been filled with fun (and some stress) – overall it’s been quite the whirlwind!
Month Seven
Milestones: Effie wasted no time. We moved on the 22nd and soon after she was officially crawling. I think it was a combo of the carpeted bedrooms (her first crawl was on carpet) and more floor time in general (due to less tile- more laminate and carpet.) She was just about 6.5 months when she crawled first. No army crawling or inchworm crawling- she went straight to “real” crawling and MASTERED it. About a day or two later, she had moved on to pulling up to stand. I was like, geez, take a break or something, kid! If she can pull up on it, she does. By her 7 month “birthday” she was a pro at both, and working on trying to stand unassisted. Effie also had her first trips to the grocery store sitting (safely) in the cart this month! She loved looking at everyone and people LOVED to admire her! She’s also talking more, and on very rare occasion she will make a real “word” sound (like NA) instead of just the sing-song screams she usually does.
Sleep: This area has shown AMAZING improvement but also some frustration. Starting April 22, Effie and I no longer shared a room. It was probably good that I was sick and exhausted from moving, because I didn’t fret too much about her being far away. I think she enjoys having her own room, too. She’s still solidly on a once-a-night wakeup – that is, IF she wakes up. About seven or eight times this month, she slept through the night, twelve and a half hours!!!!!! Unfortunately, a bunch of the nights she also had extremely jarring, screaming wakeups. I don’t know if she has teeth coming in, an ear infection (no fever though) or night terrors- but it’s sad and scary to see her screaming. Luckily, a small bottle and she’s right back to sleep – that seems to be the only thing though, no amount of rocking or consoling will help. I am also no longer changing her diaper in the night, which I think she’s now used to. Oh and naps are still a total crapshoot. You never know what you’re going to get. It doesn’t help that she can stand up (we had to immediately move her crib down when she displayed that skill) because when she doesn’t want to nap (even though she’s CLEARLY tired) she’ll stand up and scream to protest. Woof.
Eating: Doing pretty good in this area. 4 to 8 ounces of solids (purees) a day. I’ve worked on her bottle schedule this month and it seems like we have a fairly good system down. We typically tried to push it from her midday bottle to bedtime bottle, which I think is part of the reason she had such an early bedtime (and why bedtime sucked so much.) Now she gets a small 4pm bottle, and bedtime is pushed back to 6pm, and is almost a breeze. I’m working on lessening the noon bottle to be 4oz as well, since she is eating more food during the day. Effie has tried some non purees recently too- she has had frozen mango and apple chunks in a mesh feeder (she just sucks on them) and she accidentally got some lime popsicle… she grabbed it from my mom and went to town like she owned it! She also has tried puffs and melts, but didn’t quite figure them out. She’s still working on that pincer grasp!
Health: We are actually off the reflux meds- for now! I *think* all is good there. My stupid insurance makes you fill it through their mail-order system after two times, and since they changed the dose and wrote me a new script for the 2nd fill I thought that meant I had another. Nope, two times per MED, not per script. She had missed a few doses and been fine (due to sleeping through the night) so I figured we might try just going off of it, since she’d be off of it anyway if we had to wait for it to come. Turns out she seems fine! (It hasn’t correlated with any of her nighttime issues- they’ve happened both before and after.) I am going to try to get her seen this week though to discuss that and also the nighttime screaming- just in case it is an ear infection, as I hear those can come without the ear pulling or temperature occasionally. It’s worth the copay just to make sure she’s good. She started out this month congested and under the weather, but luckily she hit 7 months healthy and happy!
Worst Moment: The nighttime screaming. It sucked so bad the first few times (it’s probably happened five or six times really badly) hearing her scream bloody murder and looking strange. (She looked glazed, almost like she was still asleep- which is why I think they may be night terrors.) Also it’s hard seeing her take some spills when she’s trying to stand. Luckily she recovers easily but I wish I could catch her every time!
Best Moment: Seeing her achieve new things!!!!! We were so lucky that her first crawl was with both B and I present (she crawled towards one of the pugs, of course.) And seeing her stand up is so surreal. Where has my baby gone? It’s incredible what a night and day difference there is between just one month ago and now. It makes me sad (and oh my gosh is it more work to have a mobile baby… ugh) but there’s nothing better than seeing her achieve something. (Ok, except maybe snuggles. Which I never get anymore. SOB. She is just NOT a snuggle baby. She is all independent and basically a teenager.)
It has been absolutely nuts this month due to our move, but we had a blast and of course… so many things to take pictures of!
It started out with Easter… which we celebrated by going to Disney! B was working, and Pottery Barn Kids ruined Easter by allowing me to order an Easter basket three weeks in advance then canceling my order due to stock issues and not telling me. I had to do SOMETHING. Mom guilt! So a trip to the Magic Kingdom was in order since that was the only place with an Easter bunny available ON Easter. Luckily it was ADORABLE.
(It would have been AWESOME if someone had told me that my shirt was pulled up but ya live ya learn I guess.)
A few days after Easter was the move! My mom came to visit a few days later to help us out. She brought Effie a hat from her trip to Armenia.
While she was here we also got our first trip to the pool- one of the many perks of our new townhouse. Effie LOVED it!!! We got her a floaty and of course a rashguard, sunglasses, hat, swim diaper, mineral sunscreen, etc etc etc. Going to the pool with kids is no joke!
Now every time we walk into the pool, she lets out the happiest little squeal, it warms my heart!
A week or so later, she was standing. This is what we get to look forward to at the end of nap time!
And how could I forgot… it was Mother’s Day this month! We went to Target to celebrate since B was working.
She looks thrilled, doesn’t she? Effie didn’t get me anything besides getting me up early (an hour earlier than normal, around 5:45) and a huge diaper blowout at Target! Yeah, it wasn’t her best showing. Oh well! Didn’t keep me from taking three million photos of her all day and feeling so blessed that she made me a mom!
It’s been such a hectic month but an exciting and blessed one, too. Can’t wait to see where we’re at for 8 months!
