7 Months Old

Syd Piddles is 7 months old already!  I love this age!

one day old:

one week old:

one month old:

two months old:

three months old:

four months old:

five months old:

six months old:

seven months old:

graceful even when she's falling :)

PLAY:
Syd loves to play.  She gets so excited about any old toy that we hand her, and she can amuse herself for long periods of time chewing on things and turning them around in her chubby little hands to look at them.  She especially gets excited about Sophie the giraffe.  She laughs so loud when we hold her belly down and swing her up into Millie's face, airplane style.  The activity table is a big favorite and she's able to stand a few minutes at a time now; otherwise, she sits on my lap or in her chair to play at it.  She's been getting a little bored with the jumperoo, so she isn't in it as long these days...same with the activity mat.  I think I'll be getting out the walker soon to give her another big thing to hang out in.  The swing is over.  In fact, we sold it a couple of weekends ago, and it actually made me sad to see it go.  No more baby babies around here...growing up so fast.

Still no teeth yet, but I think she's been working on some...lots of drool.

She's working on learning to crawl.  She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, but she has yet to go anywhere.  She's also done the lunge and gone from sitting to tummy a few times.  I imagine she'll be crawling any day now!

Millie loves to get on the ground and "show" Syd how to crawl ;)

EAT/SLEEP:
Syd nurses 4 times a day now: 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm.  This was a huge month for change in the sleep area, which also affects the nursing area.  She dropped her "dream feed" around 11pm and she has been sleeping all the way through until morning!  I feel like she eats a lot though in those 4 nursing sessions because my supply hasn't been low, and even after baking and eating hordes of cookies, I'm continuing to lose more baby weight.  I felt like with Millie that breastfeeding didn't help me lose weight at all, but with Syd, it seems to really be helping (still plenty to go!)...which is why I think she's eating more than Millie did.   I also feed her two small meals a day - some type of pureed fruits and veggies plus baby oatmeal.  She reeeeeeally loves it, and she makes you feel terrible if you eat around her without giving her anything.  She stares.  Hard.

Look at this gorgeous chubb.  I LOVE how roly poly she is...it makes me so happy to have such a juicy baby.  I try not to compare her to Mills too much, but she has a few more rolls than Millie did at this age.  They look so different too...it's getting more apparent the older Syd gets.  I'm sure there will be resemblances, but Syd definitely won't be the spitting image of her older sister.  Syd's skin is so creamy white (where Millie's is olive) and she gets red flush spots on her cheeks sometimes...lighter hair color and blue eyes.  Here is Millie's 7 month post.  Syd is wearing 6-9 months clothes and size 3 diapers.

We had two terrible months of nighttime sleeping, then all of a sudden about two weeks ago, she's sleeping 11 hours straight through the night.  I have no idea what changed.  I'm scared to even talk about it.  These past couple of weeks of sleep have been glorious!  And she's in the most amazing mood in the morning...jabbering and talking in her crib, happy to roll around until we come get her.  I love seeing her smiley face when I pick her up from the crib in the mornings.  She still takes two full naps and one catnap around dinnertime...and still extremely easy to put down.  When I lay her down now, she usually puts two fingers in her mouth to suck on (see pic below); still no paci use unless we are in the car and she gets fussy.  She's doing this finger thing more and more, so it may stick...

I am so grateful for this easy, happy baby.  It is impossible not to love her.

Dear Syddles,
This has been one of my favorite months; you're just so fun and happy!  And so easy to entertain!  I'm okay with you not crawling for a bit longer because I love how I can sit you down to play and you stay put.  You're showing excitement now when someone comes back to pick you up or gets down on the floor to play with you.  Millie always receives a smile and a squeal from you when she gets down on your level; you like to touch her face.  You make us all feel so loved...I hope you can tell how much we love you back.  Lately, I've found myself reminiscing about where I was last year during the holidays...we had just found out we were having a baby girl and I had just started feeling your little kicks.  It is so amazing how much can change in a year.  I miss your little kicks, but I'm so glad we've already had 7 months of Sydney on the outside.  Baby of mine, you're loved wayyyy more than you'll ever know.