Lilly – Seven Month Update!

Lilly girl,

Another month has come and gone and I still have to sometimes pinch myself to see if this is real life. Your daddy and I really can’t remember what life was like before you came, and we’re totally okay with it. You’re growing so much every single day. I love watching you discover new things and start to figure things out. You really are so curious and you always want to grab things and check them out for yourself.

I hope that your curiosity and inquisitiveness is a trait that you will have for life… it will help you out down the road. We are so grateful to be your parents – I know it sounds sappy, but I am continuously thankful that the Lord blessed us with you, sweet baby.

Some nights, your dad and I will go into your room and just watch you sleep. Yeah, I know it sounds creepy, but you just look so peaceful and we just love looking at you!

I know that time is going to only go even faster from this point forward and I pray that I can use this time to remember every single last detail.

We love you!

Lilly’s Seven Month Update

Weight: 18 lbs

Length:26.5″

Head Circumference: TBD

Nicknames: Monkey moo. Monkey doo. Beebeebeeoo. Babybadoo. Baby boo. Putian. Lilliputian. Lil.

Sleep: Praise JESUS we are finally FINALLY getting into a sleep routine! So about three weeks ago, or so, I was trying to nurse her before bed and she was in her Woombie swaddle and she was screaming and carrying on. So, I thought, what the hey, and I took her out of the swaddle… nursed her… and put her in her crib WITHOUT being swaddled. If you know our history with sleep, homegirl has not been able to sleep a WINK without being swaddled. Well, lo and behold, she slept 12 hours that night! And we haven’t looked back.

It was crazy! It was like she was just suddenly ready to no longer be swaddled. So now she’s sleeping, on average, 10-12 hours a night! HALLELUJAH! There are certainly nights that this DOES NOT happen… but most of the time she is sleeping through the night.

I don’t know the secret other than we have continued doing the “Baby Sleep Solution.” I am just enjoying this while I can because Lord knows that as soon as she establishes some sort of pattern or routine, she immediately switches it up on me.

EDITED TO ADD: Well, it’s 4:24am the day after I wrote this originally and she’s been up for two hours refusing to go back to sleep. Sooooo there’s that. 🙂

Eating: We are still nursing and we did finally decide to introduce solid foods. I was so so so proud that we got to 6 months exclusively breastfed. I considered going all the way to 7 months, but in the end we decided to slowly start introducing solids.

We are doing “Baby Led Weaning” which basically is real food just cut up into bite size pieces. We have given her a couple purees to help with… uh… “regularity” if you catch my drift. But mostly what she eats is just normal food that I cut up for her and she feeds herself.

So far she has had: avocado, banana, sweet potato, pears, mandarin oranges (LOVES THOSE), grapes, watermelon (does NOT love watermelon – I think it is the texture), peas, Cheerios, and puffs. We had to give her some pureed prunes to help her move things along a little…

We have also given her some pear juice, apple juice, and water. We are trying to introduce a sippy cup, but have not had much luck with it yet.

If I’m being honest, I haven’t loved having her on solid foods. Sure, it’s cute watching her eat, and it is nice to have her eating while we eat so I get to enjoy a hot meal – but it’s almost been more trouble than it’s worth. So I’m wondering if I should have waited until 7 months? The truth is, nutritionally, she doesn’t NEED solid food yet. She still gets 99.9999% of her nutrition from my breastmilk – and they say that “Food before one is just for fun” – so why was I in such a hurry (or non-hurry, really) to introduce solids?

I’m not knocking anyone who has introduced solids before 6 months – that’s definitely totally fine – I just don’t know if it was the right choice for us. I mean, it is what it is…

I’m probably reading WAY too much into it. But I also feel like a part of her baby-ness is now gone. She’s turning into such a big girl. Gahhhhhh.

Clothing: She is starting to grow out of 6 MONTH clothing now. UGH. She still does have a couple random 3-6 month items that fit her – but they just fit larger I think. She is mostly in 6 and 9 month clothing now and fits really solidly in 9 month clothing.

Mood: Still, by far, one of the happiest babies I’ve ever met. Sure, I may be biased, but she really is so happy. She certainly has her cranky pants days, but she’s just always so giggly and smiley and never meets a stranger. I love our happy girl!

Although, I can tell she is already VERY strong willed because if she is NOT happy, she will let you know!

Loves:

• Daddy. This girl is a daddy’s girl.
• Mommy (yay!!)
• The dogs.
• Pacis.
• Her elephant lovey
• Playing “blast off”
• “Super Lilly”
• Swinging on a swing
• Tags, straps, buttons – anything that sticks out!
• The nursery at church
• Being carried around / worn in the Tula
• Playdates with her friends Elle and Lorelei!

Doesn’t Love:

• Socks or shoes. Still… HATES them.
• Riding in the car at night.
• Being hot.
• Being bored… we have an active girl on our hands. The moment she is bored she will LET YOU KNOW.

What I Want to Remember / Milestones: 

• We started solid foods for the first time
• Lilly now sleeps unswaddled and sleeps on average 10-12 hours a night!
• She will stand up assisted or hold on to something and stand… she can’t quite get herself into a standing position on her own, but I am okay with that
• She is army crawling! She scoots along the floor to get to something
• We took Lilly on her first vacation to Florida and then on a CRUISE. She flew on a plane and did GREAT both ways and she was like, the BEST BABY on the cruise! She handled it way better than I ever thought she would.
• She visited the grandparents in Florida for the first time
• She had so many great playdates this month

What I’m Looking Forward To: Our house is on the market and we bought a new house (AHHHH! more on this later…) and we move in less than a MONTH. So we’ve got a lot going on in the next few weeks with our little girl. I am sad to leave behind her nursery that we worked SO HARD on, but I’m also excited to do a new one for her.