Lydia at 7 Months

I'm really late getting this seven month post together. It has been on my mind for over a week now. Lydia turned seven months old on March 16th.

We went to the doctor on March 7th for Lydia's 6 month checkup and shots. We were surprised to find out that she only weighs 11 pounds and is 22 1/2 inches long. She is small, but Dr. Singletary showed us that she is right on track on her growth curve, although that curve is well below "normal". Lydia is healthy, so I'm not too worried about her being something like -1% on the growth chart. That's my independent girl! Bucking the trends even before a year old! Ha.

Dr. Singletary cleared us to get out of the house with Lydia some more, so we had a good trip to Kroger last Saturday. Lydia was an angel, and looked around at all the new things to see - shelves and people and lights. Then, she fell asleep

Lydia still wears size 2 Seventh Generation diapers. Since the box says they fit from 12 to 18 pounds, we'll probably be in those for a while. She can still wear most of her 3 month clothes, although a few of them are too small. She is in some of the 6 month clothes.

Lydia loves her food! So far she's had squash, peas, sweet potatoes, pears, apples, and carrots. We're trying out bananas next. She cried through the peas (twice) and spit up the apples (also twice), so we might not try those again for a while. At noon and 6 pm Lydia eats 2 1/2 tablespoons of rice cereal mixed with 2 tablespoons of baby food and 1 ounce of milk or formula. We are going to increase to 3 tablespoons of each this weekend to see how she does.

At the moment I'm still pumping, but I'm winding that down. The past few weeks I've dropped a session each week, and I'm down to three (from seven). That means I've gotten almost two hours of my day back, which I've filled with more work while I'm at work and at least 45 minutes more sleep. Sounds ridiculous, but getting in bed by 10:30 pm is a major improvement over 11:15 pm when 5:45 am is my wake up time!

We haven't changed Lydia's feeding schedule much since last month. She eats between 4 and 5 ounces of milk or formula at 6 am and 9 am, food and a few ounces of milk at noon, another 5 ounces at 3 pm, food and milk at 6 pm, then about 4 ounces at 7:30 pm. I get her up for the dream feed at 10 pm, and she'll eat 5 ounces. Most nights (about 5 out of 7?) she sleeps through until 6 am. If she does wake, its usually around 3:30 am, and we can get her back to sleep without feeding her.

Movement comes naturally and smoothly for Lydia now. She can roll from her tummy to her back and from her back to her tummy. A recent development is that most nights she turns herself over and sleeps on her left side. Her hand movements are less jerky and more purposeful. She sees a toy she wants and reaches and grabs it. She can sit up straight if her back is supported. She is just starting to "tripod" sit where she can sit up by leaning on her hands. That generally doesn't last long though before she wobbles and falls over on her Boppy pillow.

Lydia still takes three naps a day: 8-9 am, at midday, and late afternoon. My next goal for her is to get her to two naps per day. When she goes to day care in the fall she'll have only one nap a day, so I really want her to be down to two longer naps by eight months.

I have so much more to say about baby girl, but I'll have to save it for another day. We're going to meet great Grandma Cain today, so it is time to get ready to go.

Play Time with Mommy

I got a bonus day home with my baby this week. Our babysitter's grandmother passed away, so she  was home with her family on Thursday. I got to work from home. It was great to have a day home with my girl, but working from home is so tough. I never feel like I'm doing either job well - mothering or analyzing.

I did catch some sweet shots of my girl while we played in her room. Chip's mom got her this super cute gorilla that she LOVES. She especially loves it when mom makes monkey noises, too.

We practiced sitting up, but Lydia usually gets pretty frustrated when I make her do this. Her sad face in that last photo is the calm before the screaming storm. She's doing pretty good sitting up in the "tripod" position, though. She wobbles a bunch, but she can lean forward on her arms and balance.

She'll be seven months old tomorrow. I can't believe it!

The Wonder Weeks

 

Lydia is changing and doing new things every day. She had a rough couple of days over the past week where she was cranky and not sleeping well. We do think she was teething some, but also she was in her 19th week adjusted which is a Wonder Week. Are you guys familiar with the Wonder Weeks? Researchers have found that babies all over the world go through fussy periods at about the same time based on their due dates not birth dates. These fussy periods are tied to leaps in the baby's mental development. The baby is experiencing the world in a drastic new way during each mental leap which can make her cranky and clingy. The Wonder Weeks are weeks 5, 8, 12, 19, 26, 37, 46, 55, 64, and 75. I have found these estimates for fussiness to be extremely accurate. Some people also call night waking during the 19th week the "4-month sleep regression". Before this week Lydia slept through the night for 7 days straight. Then on Sunday and Monday she was up crying every two hours. Boo. I think we are over the hump though because both Wednesday and Thursday she slept through the night again. I would love to hear from any mamas out there that used the Wonder Weeks. How accurate were they for you?

English Rose for a New Trellis

We recently had some work done on a section of the yard that was in bad shape. The area is about eight feet by twenty feet. It borders a patio under our deck, the driveway, an iron fence, and a ditch between our property and the neighbor's wood fence. Prior owners of this house had spread mulch all over the area and used it for a playground. The mulch had deteriorated and the area had become really weedy. Add in a poorly placed walkway and poor drainage, and we had an area that was a real mess.

While I was home on maternity leave, I called in some landscapers to come redirect the walkway, lay zoysia sod, and put in a bed along the iron fence. They planted white knockout roses in the middle of the long fence and sweet olives on either end.

I also had them build a wooden trellis to hide the utility boxes and meters on the side of the house. They were the first thing I saw every day when I drove into the carport, and I wanted them hidden. I gave them this photo as my inspiration:

The one they built for me is really similar. Because my house is a 1975 modern style split-level home, the landscapers gave it a cleaner shape. What I want to do with this trellis is plant climbing roses on either side with clematis, too. The spot only gets about 3 or 4 hours of midday sun. In the morning I have full shade from the house, and in the mid-afternoon dappled shade through the large trees all around our property. I have whittled down my list of English roses to these nine climbers that are supposedly good for shady positions and hot, humid areas of the US:

A Shropshire Lad - image from the Kew Gardens website

Abraham Darby - image from the Antique Rose Emporium

Benjamin Britten - image from David Austin Roses

Crown Princess Margareta - image from Roses UK

Golden Celebration - image from The Gardening Website UK

Graham Thomas - image from Rose Gardening World

James Galway - image from Brooke's Rose Garden

Teasing Georgia - image from Dave's Garden

The Generous Gardener - image from the Garden Web Forums

So, help me decide! I've created a poll at the top of the blog. Let me know which one you like best for the area. Remember, these are the parameters: my modern style home (although I am a cottage garden lover), existing plantings of sweet olive and white knockouts close by. 

I'll try to post a photo of the area soon! 

6 months.

Today my baby is six months old. It is hard to believe that half of her first year has already come and gone. Really, I can't believe it.

I still haven't been to the doctor for a weight check since Lydia's 4 month appointment on December 27th. She was 9 pounds then, and now I think she's at least 12 pounds. We go to the doctor for her 6 month appointment on March 7th. Lydia is out of all her newborn clothes and is in 3 month+ clothes. A few of her 3 month pajamas are snug but still fitting. She graduated to size 2 diapers a few weeks ago, still Seventh Generation brand.

Lydia's appetite has really grown over the past week. She is eating 4 to 5 ounces at every bottle. I'm still pumping and supplementing a few ounces a day with Enfamil. She's been eating two tablespoons of Earth's Best organic rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula at 6 pm every day. Today we added a tablespoon of rice cereal at lunchtime, but I think it gave her a tummy ache.

We've started putting her to bed a little earlier because she gets sleepy by 7:30 pm. I give her a dream feed bottle around 10 pm. Lydia still wakes up in the middle of the night most nights, but for the past week we've been able to put her back to sleep without feeding her. Once we get her back to sleep she usually sleeps to 5 or 6 am. She wakes up for a bottle, plays for a little while, then goes back down for a long morning nap. She generally takes two more long naps during the day after she eats.

Her biggest achievements are sitting up in the Bumbo, lifting her head and body 90 degrees while on her tummy, and rolling over from her tummy to her back (both ways). She can roll from her back to her side, but she hasn't rolled from her back to tummy yet. It won't be long though.

I was really excited when she rolled over for the first time. I was playing on the floor with her last Friday night putting her on her tummy and watching her lift her body up by pushing through her hands and arms. Then, all of the sudden she pushed off one hand and boom! She was on her back. I think she kinda scared herself at first. She did it again three times, but was tired after that. We tried to get her to do it again all weekend, but she didn't have a repeat performance. Then, on Monday I stayed home from work because I had a sinus infection. Lydia's sitter came over so I could get some rest. In the afternoon we were playing with Lydia, and I put Lydia on her tummy, hoping that she would do her rolling over trick. She did and has been doing it very steadily since then.

Things Lydia likes:
Her crinkle books. They make fun noises and have chewy corners. She loves them.
Her floor mirror. We have it attached to the bricks in front of the fireplace. Her activity mat is on the floor there. She loves looking in the mirror these days.
Funny faces and noises always get a smile out of Lydia. Daddy makes the best funny faces!
Making spit bubbles.
Fingers and mouths, hers and ours. She still loves sucking her hands, fists, fingers, and thumbs. And now she realizes that we have mouths, too, so she wants to shove her fingers in our mouths. Its pretty disgusting when those little fingers are covered in cereal, drool, formula, and breast milk.

We still don't know who she looks like. What do y'all think? Me or Chip?

Yum Yum

Sorry if the video is jerky. My laptop is a piece of junk.