7 Months Baby Girl

Why is it that the more desperate you are for them to stay the little, the more determined they seem to be to grow up?  We have not only passed that half way mark, but my little lady is now 7 months old.  Cora still needs me in many ways like a newborn, but she is learning new skills and becoming more independent every day too.

We started weaning as she turned 6 months and after a slow start, she is starting to enjoy her food more.  Toast and broccoli are firm favourites, carrots are not.  We are following the baby led weaning principles but I did try offering her something on a spoon out of curiosity - she was highly unimpressed!  Cora eats one meal a day, sometimes two and I hope to encourage some kind of regularity in the coming month.  

At 7 months I would love to say that sleep is improving but it would be a lie, we seem to be stuck in a pattern of hourly or two hourly feeds through the night still and Cora will only settle in my bed.  We still have the co-sleeper crib up against it, but it is currently being used more for storage than anything else.  In all honesty, I am not really encouraging her to sleep on her own, I find it comforting to have her so close at night and I barely wake in the night when she needs milk.

Since Cora leaned to sit, she has been reluctant to spend any time on her tummy.  She loves to sit on her playmat surrounded by toys and she goes in her jumperoo for short periods too.  She is happiest when one of her brothers sits to play with her and she is always amused by them, especially Finn, despite the fact he plays quite rough with her.

This past month saw two little teeth emerge from her gums which was quite a shock! Her brothers were all around 11 months when they got their first teeth so I thought we had a few more months of that gummy smile!  I have a feeling that this baby girl of mine is going to do everything her own way!  She has been snotty and full of cold all week and I don't know whether it is connected to the teeth or just typical January germs.

I have definitely come around to the girly thing now and I am finding it easier to dress Cora in pink.  She is wearing lots of soft little dresses at the moment as I imagine when she starts crawling they will all be packed away for a few months.  We are coming to the top end of her 3-6 wardrobe and starting to break into the 6-9 bits now which is quite exciting.  At 7 months Cora weighs 16lb 10oz and is following the fiftieth centile exactly.  

Cora is cuddly, happy, healthy and loved by us all.  I feel like I am writing these updates too often as the months are flying by, and we are trying so hard to stop and appreciate how small she is now, amidst the chaos of our busy house.

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7 Months

Unlike his big brothers, at seven month old Finn is still very much a little baby.   They both seemed so much bigger at this same age and Finn, whether because he is physically smaller or because he is the last, seems so little still.

He is doing so well, he is sitting unaided and whilst he still leans forward, he is straightening up and gaining strength.   He has finally learned to roll from his back to his front, although I still haven't actually witnessed it.  He isn't interested in rolling around the room, but often isn't facing the same way I left him.

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So Big, yet So Small

At 7 months, I thought Dylan was so big, and in so many ways he was.  He was comfortably sitting, dressed in his 12-18 month jeans and T-shirt and eating three big meals a day.  He looked older than his months and compared to that helpless little newborn, he had come so far.  I moved him from his infant car seat to his group 1 as he was far too tall and well over the weight requirements for his 'big boy seat', and I watched him take in everything in awe and wonder.

Everything is different the second time around.  Rather than comparing Archie to the tiny baby he once was, I compare him to his older brother, who walks and talks and is a little boy not afraid to speak his mind.  Compared to him, Archie is still so small and so fragile still.  He is not yet crawling and his smile is still gummy.  He hasn't mastered any sounds other than blowing raspberries and he is as reliant on me as ever.

Although the months are flying by, and all the signs show me how much Archie is growing, I am reluctant to let go of the baby mentality.  Archie is still nursed to sleep, he still wears sleepsuits all day long when we are having a quiet day and his porridge in the mornings is still fed to him on a spoon.  I am ignoring the fact that the 6-9 month vests are slowly being packed away as the 9-12 month hoodies come out of storage.  I am ignoring the fact that Archie is quite content to feed himself, and is busy mastering his pincer grip.

I am ignoring the fact that today I noticed a change in his laugh.  It no longer sounds like that newborn giggle that I loved for so long, but it is now the big belly laugh of a small child.  It is louder, longer and just as beautiful but it is different and bigger and more grown up.

Archie still needs me and there is something so heartwarming about being needed that much, even if it is hard to remember that during the night feeds.  When he cuddles into me in the dark to fall back asleep, he is just so tiny and so fragile that I bring my knees up to warm him and protect him as a natural instinct.  

My little man is so big in so many ways, 7 months have seen so many changes and so many milestones but he is still so little, so precious and my baby boy.

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