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| Still obsessed with jewelry of all kinds. |
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| She can be really silly sometimes. You can kind of see it here :) |
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| Loves to watch the cars and birds out our front window. |
Eating:
Still pumping...I thought I was losing my milk for about a week, so we did a little experimenting with formula. We hadn't done ANY since she was about 9 weeks old, and I was so nervous to try again. (When we tried before it made her really sick.) Well...we tried the Similac regular formula, and it still makes her SO sick. :( It's the saddest thing.
Her reaction has been like clockwork all three times we've tried giving it to her: two hours after she drinks it she wakes up and throws up, them thirty minutes later she throws up again. After that, she seems fine. This time, she hardly even woke up. She was just so tired. Sam kept saying, "She's taking this so well!" Haha. I think she was just exhausted and didn't know what was going on. She seemed fine the next day, thankfully.
Based on this recent reaction, I am going to for sure wait until 1 year to try anything with dairy in it. I may even ask to be referred to an allergist. Our pediatrician says most babies outgrow this milk protein intolerance by a year old, so that's what we're hoping for! I am just grateful that she no longer seems to be affected by the dairy in my diet that comes through into my breast milk. A strict no-dairy diet was hard, and it is so nice not to have to worry about that any more.
So, to make a long story even longer :) I pump 5-6 times a day for 10-20 min., depending on how long I can spare. Claire then drinks 4-5 bottles a day, totaling about 24 oz./day.
She is also doing great with solids. She does ok with purées but loves solid finger foods. She does well with Cheerios, little pieces of bananas or other soft fruits/vegetables. I'm excited to start letting her do more finger foods in the next month or so. She has mastered at pincer grasp and can pick up small pieces really well. She also does well with a sippy cup and has learned to drink through a straw and out of a normal cup if I help her. I also sometimes make her little Popsicles out of juice or water and she LOVES those.
Sleeping:
Sleeping has not gone as well this month, but we are finally getting back on track. We had a few weeks where Claire was getting up in the night for random reasons (it's so hard to never really know why/what's wrong!), and it somehow spiraled into her finding her way into our bed (because I get too tired to sit up rocking for hours on end) every night.
She never needs/wants anything when she wakes up, just wants to be held and rocked. I am fine with this every so often, but with Claire it's kind of all or nothing. If I get up with her and rock her in the middle of the night a few times, suddenly, she's up every hour or so all night long. It just isn't good for anyone involved.
We decided it was time to let her cry it out after this getting worse and worse over a couple weeks. Sam was a champ and took charge of checking on her and comforting her while we sleep trained, and he told me to put ear plugs in and go to sleep. I didn't think I could do it, but I was so sleep deprived that I totally zonked out. Thankfully, she only cried on and off for an hour and then went to sleep and slept through the night. The next night was about the same, she woke up around midnight, cried on and off for an hour, and then went back to sleep and slept through the night.
She has done great (sleeping 8pm-6:30 or 7am with no waking up) the three nights since then, so hopefully she keeps it up! Man, you forget how hard it is to function on so little sleep, and how great it feels to sleep through the night uninterrupted!
Her naps have been kind of all over the place through this process. She usually takes two naps a day, but when they're really short (20-30 min), she ends up taking three naps. It's the best day ever when she takes a two hour nap in the morning and a one hour nap in the afternoon. (That is quite rare though.)
Day in the Life w/Claire @ 7 months:
6:30 am- Claire wakes up, snuggles in bed with us for a bit. She always attacks Sam's face, grabs his nose and mouth so hard haha.
7:00 am- I pump and read scriptures on my phone/Sam gets ready/Claire plays with toys on the floor or in her bouncer
7:30 am- I feed Claire a bottle/Sam eats breakfast
8:00 am- We pray together and Sam heads off for the day (Our super nice neighbor teaches at BYU and has been giving Sam rides so I can have the car most days.)
8:15 am- I go for a walk/run with Claire if the weather is nice enough
9:00 am- Claire & I eat breakfast (1 T oatmeal mixed with a little breastmilk and 1/2 a container of fruit for Claire; cereal and a banana for me-- I usually give Claire little pieces of my banana too)
9:15 am- Bathe Claire and dress her for the day
9:30 am- Read book, sing song, nap
*While she's asleep, I pump again and then try to hurry and get ready and clean up the kitchen. You know she took a short nap when my kitchen is a mess and I am still in pajamas or workout clothes by the afternoon. (Sadly, this has been most days lately.)
11:00- Claire is up, plays with toys and rolls around for a few minutes (I pump again)
11:30- She drinks a 5 oz bottle
2:00- Claire goes down for another nap (I pump)
3:00 (sometimes earlier)- Claire is up, drinks a 5 oz. bottle
We usually try to get out of the house at this point and do something fun.
5:30/6-Dinner (1 vegetable with a little oatmeal mixed in and sometimes 1-2 oz bottle)
7:00- Bath
7:30- Bottle
8:00- Bed (She usually falls asleep while drinking her bottle, and I wake her up to read a book, sing a song, and say prayers. We put her down awake, and she usually rolls around for 10 minutes and then goes to sleep.)
New Tricks:
-Claps on demand and sometimes waves hi or bye on demand
-Soo close to crawling. She gets on her hands and knees and rocks and sometime takes a few crawling steps. She is also good about going from a sitting position to all-fours.
-She has mastered the pincer-grasp and loves to pick up Cheerios and other little objects--I am constantly vacuuming and trying to make sure there's nothing around for her to choke on.
-She also loves to play peek-a-boo or have me hide behind the couch and jump out and scare her. She laughs so hard.
Other Notes:
Claire has become really attached to me this month and had pretty bad separation anxiety. She is extra weary of strangers and cries when I leave the room. She is pretty comfortable with her grandma (my mom), her Yia Yia (Sam's mom), and her aunt Tara. She LOVES her daddy and lights up the minute he walks through the door. He can make her smile like no one else. However, if she has her pick she always wants to be held my me.
I have started letting her watch Baby Einsteins every so often (when I need to entertain her while I pump), and she LOVES it. She is obsessed with babies and little kids--pictures is them, movies of them, and especially in person. The episode she loves is called "Baby's First Moves", and it's so cute to see her get so excited watching the babies on there.
We just love our little Claire Bear so much! She is our life and makes life so happy and full!
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