If have to start off by saying that I FORGOT to mention two of the most important/exciting developments in last months post (Six Months) - Lauren got TWO teeth AND she started eating solids. Woohooo!! Lauren's first bottom middle tooth popped up midway through the month and once that one came through it wasn't long before the one right next to it cut through as well. I'd like to blame her night wakings and short naps on the teething buuuut those haven't exactly stopped and no more teeth are coming through.
On Thanksgiving day Miss L had her first bite of solid foods - sweet potatoes! Basically she was disgusted at the actual taste of it, but for the most part she just pushed it around her mouth and spit it out. I was a bit slow at first getting her started (ahh sorry second child) but her first couple of foods included sweet potatoes, avocado and bananas!
Ok, ok - onto the current month!
Seven months old. We are officially closer to her first birthday than we are the day she was born. Insert all of the crying emojis here. And this has been a BIG month. Solids. Sitting up. Scooting. Apparently all the big developments start with the letter "S". A lot of exciting developments came right around Christmas time. After those first two teeth came in she must have started feeling a heck of a lot better as she started sitting up on her own much better than before. I still use the boppy sometimes to cushion her (if she isn't paying attention or turns around too fast, over she tumbles) but for the most part she is sitting up nice and strong. Around the same time she also started getting up on her hands and knees AND getting up on her hands and tip toes! This girl does a mean plank - don't let the chub fool you, she's got a six pack under that belly!
She's starting coming along with eating solid foods. It took her a while to actually ingest any of the food (most of it ended up on the walls, all over her face and/or all over me. I forgot how messy this stage is) but that is mostly my fault because for the first few weeks we were on a "try-solids-once-every-three-days" schedule. I just could not handle one more thing in my day! BUT! Now we are on track. So far she has tried sweet potato (puree and mashed), apple slices (in a mesh pouch), bananas (mashed and whole), sugar snap peas (raw), pears (puree), avocado (mashed), butternut squash (puree) and baby oatmeal cereal. I am doing a mix of baby led weaning and purees, depending on what I have on hand and how much time I have.
Sleep. Oh sleep. How I miss you. We did have a good run, for about four nights around New Years when she was sleeping from 6/6:30 - 5am and then back down for another two hours. But that was short lived. Luckily she is pretty much only getting up once a night, anywhere from 2:30-4:30am, and then will sleep until about 6am (she is usually in bed, asleep by 6pm). Naps are all over the board but are most likely to be about 35-45 minutes long. But the worst thing is that she is STILL sleeping in her swaddle during nap time!! I tried taking it away for a whole week and she literally only took 20-30 minute naps. It was terrible. She was exhausted, I was exhausted and her sleep deprivation started waking her up during the middle of the night. So, back in the swaddle she went. She might be going to college with her swaddle packed up with her extra long twin sheets.
And, as always, she continues to be such a ray of light in our family. Kaitlin and Lauren are still getting along great (although as Lauren gets to be on the move and discover Kaitlin's toys, Kaitlin is starting to suspect this might not be all fun and games). Her smile can light up a room and there is literally nothing she loves more than when her sister plays with her.
