7 months old
Smiling,
standing,
stealing my heart every day.
Here’s what’s going on this month:
-Moving and shaking! Oliv has been crawling for a few weeks, but decided she’s over it and wants to walk. She’ll try to pull herself up on anything (thankful for our sturdy coffee table/ottoman thing and mounting furniture to the walls), and will grunt for someone to hold her up as she “walks.” She’s still extremely noodly and needs a lot of help, but I love her giant gummy smile as she’s doing it, like “Look at me! Do you see this?!”
Since she’s more mobile, I’m always an arm’s distance away to keep her from face-planting or toppling sideways. It’s more challenging to do things like cook dinner or take a shower -she’ll still sit in her babysitter balance but I can tell those days are short-lived- and from what I can tell, it just gets more interesting from here. She wants to do more and explore, which is a lot of fun.
-She has two teeth (the bottom two) and I have a feeling more are on the way! She loves to stick her tongue out now and feel her new chompers.
-We missed the boat on getting her ears pierced, and I’m kind of glad. She likes to pull on her ear as a comfort thing as she falls asleep, and would be tugging on her earrings for sure, especially since she likes to pull on mine. It’s a tradition in our family to get baby girls’ ears pierced at an early age, and while I think it looks absolutely adorable, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The thought of making her cry broke my heart, and I figured I’d just wait until she’s old enough to want to do it, and old enough to understand that it burns, but is over quickly.
-Tom and I agree on about 99% of things when it comes to parenting. We definitely agreed on the type of birth we’d like to have (I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him, and despite his busy flying schedule, he came to all of the Bradley classes with me), the circumcision thing was a big discussion without a final conclusion (when we thought Liv was a boy), the cloth diapers was a small one (he wasn’t exactly on board until he saw how easy it is. Even so, I still don’t cloth diaper all the time), and a recent one: the lovey in the crib.
It’s fairly common for babies to sleep with a small blanket or cloth doll as a “lovey” or something to soothe them as they sleep. We were at a toy store with Liv, and she saw this doll, and reached her arms out for it:
I had never seen her do that with a toy in a store, and thought it was so cute that I had to get it for her.
There are no choking hazards (no beady eyes or plastic hair), and she can pull herself up and crawl (obviously strong neck control), so I thought it would be fine for her her sleep with it. When she woke up in the morning, I would see her swinging her dolly around and babbling to her.. her little friend.
Tom read an article on BabyCenter about blankets and toys being choking hazards, so no more Dolly in the crib. I understand where he’s coming from, since I know that a baby’s crib is supposed to have a fitted sheet only, mesh bumpers and that’s it, but had also read that babies like to sleep with something for comfort. It’s confusing when there’s contradictory information out there: BabyCenter in the US said absolutely not, and the UK BabyCenter said to give the baby a lovey when he/she is 4 months old or so.
Dolly is still out of the crib, and our middle ground is trying to find a crib soother that Liv can play with in the morning. The bummer is that I can’t find any that are as cool as the one I had when I was little, and some are ridiculously expensive ($100 for a crib toy? Um, no.). If you have any that your baby loved, please let me know!
-We had our first traveling day and plane ride together this past week. Even though my husband is a pilot, flying gives me major anxiety. I got over it a little bit when we were living on opposite sides of the country while I finished school -we’d fly to see each other every couple of weeks- but even when he’s on the plane with me, I white-knuckle the arm rest during takeoff and landing, and am always asking him “what’s that noise?! What’s happening now?”
Since he wasn’t with us, I had to be brave for Liv’s sake. Even when we were stuck on the plane for two hours -I would have had a panic attack by myself- I stayed calm for her, we played little games, read books and talked with the other passengers, and I was thankful.
Not only for having a mellow baby who seems to go with the flow with a smile on her face, but just for having her in my life. I’m grateful for her everyday, and just hope I can be as good for her as she’s been for me <3
Likes:
-Avocado, banana, pureed chicken soup, sweet potato and Little Ducks apple banana snacks
-“I’m Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee”, “Patty Cake”, “ABCs” and “Baby Beluga”
-Dogs (she smiles and pants every time she sees one)
-Swinging
-Kicking her feet and splashing in the bathtub or pool
-Getting her hair brushed
Dislikes:
-A wet diaper
-Getting her nose cleaned
-This toy:
I think: cool!!!
Liv thinks: creeeeeeeepy.
More monthly updates:
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She’s precious!! I love her smile.
Honestly, I think some of these rules about what your baby can and can’t have a a little silly. I have 4 kids and all have had bumpers, blankets, and a toy to play with. One little doll is not gonna harm your girl, especially since she can move around a lot. I think the concern for all those things is more for a newborn that can’t move their head away from a blanket or a big stuffed animal.
She will totally be fine. If you ever have more kids, you will see how silly things are when you hear about “rules” and you will laugh about how paranoid you guys were with your first!! Believe me, we were just like that with our first!! Good luck! 🙂
First child: everything boiled, washed, sanitized, written rules and instructions even given to grandparents.
Second child: everything rinsed under hot water, verbal rules and instructions given to grandparents. Third child: pacifiers wiped on my pant leg, children left in grandparents’ driveway. Seriously, you will learn what is right for your child.
hahah i believe it!
(i know she’d be fine with the doll.. trying to convince the hub)
I did all of the above with my first daughter when she was a baby. I was so scared I would mess up. Now that she is almost 5 (April 27, 2014), if she is not screaming, bleeding, or destroying anything important I don’t bother. My fiancé (step-dad) has a heart attack when she is messing with anything that isn’t hers because his parents were micromanagers. I always tell him, “Is she in immediate or future danger? Is she hurting it? Will it kill anyone? If the answers are no, then let her do it.” As for the lovey… she can have it. Professionals have no idea what causes SIDS other than the child stops breathing. If she can move her head on her own, it is completely fine to let her have a lovey.
She’s getting so big! My little one is almost 3 months already! It’s amazing how fast time flies. Lol at the thingamajigs. When they first cane out I thought they were so hilarious that I bought two of them! I figured my niece could play with them, but now that I have a child, I’ll save them for her. i am curious to see if Elliana will like them or think they are creepy!
Great topic – I am just thinking about the lovey… OMG, the part about the dolly in the crib and babbling to her in the morning made me cry! I am thinking of something like that for my little girl (8.5 mo) but I am cautious for the same reason – safety… I see a lot of people give their babies a lovey and I am just so torn! I think my little one would love one, I think she needs a little friend-soother, but I obviously do not want to endanger my child!
Logan’s had a lovie since he was about 5 or 6 months old. Now that he’s past 9 months, I give him a blanket too. If something is obstructing him from breathing, he removes it himself or rolls over, even in his sleep (which is pretty cool!), so I’m not in the least worried.
Gotta let a little person be a little person. We grew up ok, and these guidelines were never around back then. Besides, the risk for SIDS drops to almost nothing past 6 months. Babies aren’t helpless anymore at this point – they roll or use their hands to free up their breathing space.
Your daughter is ABSOLUTELY precious!!! And getting so big…7 months have just flown by I bet. (My little guy just hit 6 months & I was like, “where has time gone?!?!”)
My husband bought two of those Sing-a-ma-Jig things at the store a while ago b/c he thought they were hysterical…our son doesn’t like them either, so now my husband just uses them to torment our 3 dogs, LOL!
Wow! 7 months!! Beautiful little gal!
Love your site! We have found that putting a toy similar to the “Manhattan Toy Skwish” or “Bright starts clack and slide activity ball” in my son’s crib is perfect. About 8 months is when we put it in there so he had something to quietly play with when he woke up…it keeps him so occupied in the morning, its great!
You’re so lucky to have such an adorable little girl! I don’t think there’s one person who’s heart those big brown eyes couldn’t melt.
I just had to link this store to you, I don’t even know what to say..
http://baby-bangs.com/index2.php
While reading other people’s blogs I’ve noticed people posting comments such as “Aren’t you worried that your baby-girl is X months old and doesn’t have any hair? I mean, COME ON, they’re babies! Babies aren’t meant to have long flowing locks! That Baby Bang-thing is just stupid, I wouldn’t be surprised if soon they’d start marketing makeup for infants..