Baby Check: 7 Months

Baby Check: 7 Months

Posted 2 weeks late.  Surprised?  Probably not.

Somebody wouldn't straighten their knees for this photoshoot...

Bonjour!  Oh my…this 7^th month of life for sweet Effy has been very busy.  She changed a whole lot during April.

Eating habits: Last update, Effy had started eating solid foods.  So far she’s eaten cereal, peas, carrots, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, pears, & peaches.  I think next up will be a pureed Chalupa!  Only the best for my baby.

Waiting patiently for lunch...

Effy LOVES to eat.  I mean, she typically always eats everything we offer her.  Right now, her eating schedule is:

Breakfast: Nursed before work

Lunch: Rice cereal, fruit, and a bottle (until May 24^th…when I’m a stay at home mom!)

Dinner: Fruits/Veggies

Bedtime snack: Boobs

Another super fun change during the last month: Effy sits on her own!  It’s just the sweetest thing ever to see her looking like a little person.  Also, it allows her to be more purposeful with her actions, like reaching for certain toys and picking up and putting in her own pacifier.  Also, this means she can sit up and we can play with her while we lie on the floor, which is selfishly comfortable.  She’s not yet crawling, but is super close!  She hasn’t yet figured out how to get to a sitting position from laying down, but she sure gets an ab workout trying to do so.

Sitting up + mirrors = happy happy time

Sleep training

Oye vey.  So, whatever your opinion is on sleep training is perfectly cool.  We decided Effy (and therefore, us) would sleep better with some Ferberizing…yeah, I said it.  Guess what?  After about 4 nights, it worked!  We used to get up a couple times a night to rock her or her put her pacifier in, but now she sleeps SO much better.  Sometimes she’ll get upset but really, she goes to bed between 7-8pm and wakes up around 5:30am when I’m getting her fed and ready to leave while we go to work.  Usually sometime during the night she’ll wake up and fuss for a very minimal amount of time (less than a minute) and then go back to sleep.  There are definitely still nights where she gets upset and cries for a while in the middle of the night, but those are not the norm anymore, which is a welcome change.  We always put her in her crib awake and she falls asleep by talking to herself.  She doesn’t cry or wail herself to sleep, which is great because boy that sure is tough to hear.

Talking

Effy is making a variety of noises including dadada, bababa, mamama, rarara, and my personal favorite – blahblahblah.  She did blahblah very consistently for a couple of weeks, but she’s sort of stopped now.  Sad day!  Anywho, she likes to talk and scream.  Here is a sweet video of her talking to a bear at my parent’s house.  To the untrained ear, it’s hard to tell what she’s saying.  Translated she is saying, “I love my mommy.  She should eat more Sonic.  Also, she should buy more tote bags.”

Babyfying the living room

Since we moved into our house, we had a pretty bland area rug in the living with a coffee table on it that we love that matches the rest of our furniture.  However this set up, as well as wood floors, did not leave any play area for Effy downstairs.  I started researching area rugs and wanted one that was pretty much a piece of carpet.  Everywhere we looked they weren’t quite the right size, texture, color, or price!  We ended up going to a carpet store close to our house and bought a remnant and they finished the edges like a rug.  We love it!  I also just ordered this lovely ottoman/storage unit/coffee table that has casters to replace our coffee table for a while.  It won’t ship until June because it’s being upholstered but we will wait patiently!

Other exciting events in Effy’s life this month:

-       Scott’s best friend from high school, Joey, and his wife, Marigold, were in town for the first time since Effy was born so we were excited for them to come play at our house. Effy thought Joey was pretty swell.  We also got to go over to Joey’s parents’ house on Easter afternoon and there were eggs waiting there with Effy’s name on them!

"Hey Joey...I like you."

-       Speaking of Easter, it was Effy’s first Easter!  The Easter bunny brought her the cute wooden rattle shown below.  She spent the day celebrating at Scott’s dad and step-mom’s house (aka, Poppy & J-Ma) and hanging out with Scott’s wonderful family.

-       Effy was a happy girl when she met my friend Elaine.  Baby E (which is actually my nickname for Elaine, my pledge daughter from our sorority) is moving to California soon to continue her teaching career and it was so wonderful to catch up with her.  Effy was well-behaved during our coffee time.  She totally pooped before I even got to the coffeeshop and just happily squished around in it until we got home.  There was definitely no good way for me to change her out and about.  Good thing neither Effy nor Elaine seemed offended by it.

-       My life-long and very very dear friend Haley moved to KC from working quite successfully in DC.  I’m pretty much obsessed with her.  You can watch her nightly on our ABC station as a reporter.  I look forward to being a stay-at-home mama for so many reasons, but a big one is so I have more time to spend around Haley and my other wonderful friends!

Effy, we LOVE how happy you are.  You bring us so much happiness and overwhelming pride.  We love making you laugh and smile.  We love when you fall asleep on us.  We love spending so much time with you.  You are the best baby.  We love you.