Madison Monthly: Turning 7 Months

The Basics
At her sixth month check up, we found out that Madison is 28 inches long and 19lbs 3oz. That's my big, tall baby.

Eating and Sleeping

Eating, same old, same old. She is a champion eater; although this month did teach us a bit about her likes and dislikes. She hogs down sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, and her special dish Garden Vegetables with Whole Wheat Pasta. Peas and green beans, on the other hand, not a chance. And meat? I. Don't. Think. So. I think it's adorable that she has taste preferences. I just hope she doesn't turn orange....

Sleeping has been a roller coaster this past month. She has never been a good sleeper. An average night: Bedtime ritual starts at 7:45. Rocking her to sleep, putting her gently in to bed, and repeating that ritual five or six times throughout the night. Sometimes it would take a full hour just to get her to stay in bed. I was going bananas as I, personally, love sleep with something close to an obsession, and averaging 2-4 hours of sleep a night was not my cup of tea. We knew we had to do something, so I decided to try the Ferber Method, aka the cry it out method.

The Specifics: Bedtime ritual, put baby to bed awake but sleepy, leave room. The first night you wait five minutes before going back in, doing a little singing, and leaving again. No picking up. (Breaking your heart yet?) If you have to go back, you wait ten minutes; then twelve the third time and every time after. The amount of time you wait increases every night.

A search online had parents saying their baby cried for one to three hours the first night and got better and better. When we decided to do it, I was a heartsick nervous wreck the entire day. Would I actually be able to listen to my baby cry for that long without picking her up?

We waited until she was good and tired and did it. That first night, she cried for five minutes, and I went back in, sang, and left. She was crying by the time I finished the song, and I must admit I was very tempted to pick her up. There were tears people! But I did good, left, and lo and behold five minutes later, she was asleep. And she slept the whole night until 6:30. Are you kidding me? One night. My baby's a freaking genius.

We've been doing it with naps as well, and she is - Hallelujah - actually taking one to two hours naps. Now, I sort of feel like we've been preventing her from sleeping. She's getting 11-13 hours of sleep a day now, and before she was getting only 8-9. Too freaking awesome. Go figure she would start this right as I was going back to work....

Behavior and Development

She is sitting up all by herself these days - which I must say is too cute. She can pass objects from hand to hand, drag them towards her and pick them up, and find a way to put absolutely anything in her, rather giant, mouth. She has an obsession with beer bottles which I think is because they are cold and Brian thinks is because she will like beer.

She loves her walker and is getting rather adept at making it go where she wants it to. When she's not in the walker, she loves to walk around (with us holding her hands obviously). We are starting to lay bets on when she will walk. Great-grandpa is going for this month; Brian and I are holding out for October; Great-grandma thinks not until November (although the rest of the family thinks she's saying that because none of her kids walked until nine months and since they were seriously ideal children - sleeping through the night by three weeks people - Madison can't possibly beat them to it).

The only thing we have to work on now is my poor only child playing by herself. If I'm not in the room, she can handle it for a bit, but if she can see me, not a chance. I'm her favorite toy. :)

Social Stuff
Madison is a smiling social butterfly who loves new people and new situations. She had no problem flitting from person to person during the family reunion, and she actually seems to thrive on activity and chaos.

The Pictures

So, I was thinking an up-do....

I'm sexy and I know it...

I've got this reading thing down...

I shall suck on this...

Swimming. It's how I roll...

Dude. There's a monkey on my head. Pay attention.

I shall throw myself at my favorite toy...Mommy.

Space Cadet. A sphincter says what?