Sunday, January 27, 2008

7 months old

Baby girl,

You are now 7 months old, boy oh boy that time has gone so fast.

You certainly make life around here very enjoyable. We just LOVE having a little girl around.
Your brothers adore you, and Elijah especially expresses this. Almost the first thing he says each morning when I come in to you both, is 'Lani!' - he wants to see his little sister. He looks at you with this big proud loving cheesy grin most of the time. Its so nice to see that sibling love. I'm sure it will die down once you're into his toys though...

You are almost crawling now - your own version of it though. It looks like what I can only explain as a 'caterpillar'... you get up on your hands and knees, then sometimes you'll reach out your arms, and sometimes you'll just fall back to your belly, then you stretch those arms out, and scoot along on your tummy, then get back up on your haunches again. It's definitely starting to serve its purpose now though, as we can no longer contain you to the loungeroom - you want to be under the computer, the dining table, in the kitchen when Mummy is cooking - wherever the action is. You seem to slowly be getting the gist of moving your arms alternately, but haven't quite got the arms and legs together.... I'm sure it won't be too long and you'll have it. We wonder if you will crawl the way your brother ended up doing it - with his bum in the air and his legs straight... we figure its the way to get around when you have wooden floors - no sore knees!

You love bouncing in the Jolly Jumper. You grin from ear to ear as you bounce up and down. You also love playing a peek-a-boo game while you bounce; as the JJ is away from the main rooms, in my bedroom (the closest door frame), you can't see me when I'm in the kitchen. But you love it when Mummy jumps out from the kitchen and says 'Boo!' You giggle and bounce and giggle and bounce some more. We have started taking the JJ downstairs under the house (carport) so that you can still be with us when the boys are playing outside and Mum's putting washing on the line.

You started on solids about5 weeks ago now, consistently at 6 months. You LOVE your food, and I've not once had you spit out anything we've tried. For breakfast you have either Baby Rice and fruit mixed together, or the Farex Banana Custard mixed with some yoghurt. For lunch you usually have vegies and either custard, fruit or yoghurt, and the same sort of thing for dinner. I have you your first little bit of toast yesterday, you sucked away at it to your heart's content. We will continue to introduce some more finger food as we go - with careful supervision of course.

Which leads me to your teeth!! Your first little toothy-peg has sprouted! It's hardly visible yet, but I can definitely feel it. You weren't too unsettled when it was coming through, which is nice. Just chomped hard on stuff a lot! We will need to give your cold teethings rings a better work-out I think, and I keep forgetting to get you some teething rusks to chomp down on.

You have your first cold at the moment my poor little darling. Last night you looked so stuffed up, and Mummy had a kind-of rough night with you. You didn't stay up for long, but woke frequently, I bet its a pain in the butt when you can't breathe through your nose Missy! A bit of Dimetapp I hope helped last night - and hopefully you'll be better by this arvo... unfortunately Eli has woken with lots of snot too, so maybe we'll all get it.

Speaking of sleeping, we've been perservering over the last month, trying to get you to sleep through the night. I must admit, this have been a bit of a frustrating esxperience for me darling. Both boys slept throug hthe night from about 3 months old, so I'm finding it hard and annoying that you still wake. But I have definitely learnt that each baby is different and do things in their own time. To help you along though, we started following a daily routine, and have dropped the middle-of-the-night feed. I realised you were waking for that feed out of habit, and you have not missed it. You still wake, but you are not hunger-crying, so its just a matter of teaching you to settle yourself back to sleep. This is a little more difficult than it could normally be, as you share a bedroom with Elijah, so we can't just let you cry it out, as he will wake. On many occasions, I have had to drape you over my lap (trying to keep you away from the boobs) and patted your back.... to keep myself awake, I usually surf the web and pat with one hand. On many occasions, its taken up to an hour to put you back to sleep. But on others, less time, and a handful of times you've not woken at all. I think it will just take a bit of time, and maybe once Jai is back at school, fine-tuning that routine a bit more. Please start sleeping through baby girl. Mummy would so love some unbroken sleep again.

You are a cloth nappy baby. We are well on our way to getting your brother out of the disposables too. You look very cute with your big nappy bums, of various colour and pattern. I'm making them all for you and Eli, and I love doing it. You wear mainly pocket nappies now, which are great coz I can have lots of cute patterns on the outside and they dry quickly as I pull the stuffer out to wash. My favourite is your cow-print one with purple inner.... I have just bought some new cow-print though, so you'll have a couple more soon - red and pink inners I think.

You bring us lots of joy little one. Your precious smile brings warmth to me and your Daddy. Mummy still loves dressing you up and playing with all things pink.

We love you little princess xxx

3 comments:

kathie said...

So cute, Nat, it takes me back to when J was that age. It seems such a short time ago. The JJ is just the best, isn't it!! they love bouncing.

Karen L said...

Nat is it so hard to beleive that Lani is almost 7 months old. Where has the time gone. Love the way you have documented the memories of their early months. This will be so good to look back on.

Nic Wood said...

7 months - wow where did that go.
Lani sounds like a delightful little girl Nat! LOve to see some more pics of the gorgeous nappies you are making. Im getting a little stash together ready to try out - never thought I could get so excited about getting a nappy in the post LOL

Nic xxx