7 months old

Today Emma turns 7 months old. Wont be long before she is one! It is so hard to believe. I know I say it every month but its true. I feel like we just brought her home from the hospital. 

She is developing quite the personality. I would like to blame it on her father but I have to admit she has my temper. :) She has a very short fuse with just about everything. If she cant reach something or gets bored or hungry for a snack, she doesnt hesitate to let us know lol. She has a very piercing scream. Basically saying "HEY, COME DO THIS FOR ME......NOW" hahaha. She hasnt started saying any words really. Every once in a while she puts a daaaaaaa or haaaaa together but not often. That doesnt mean she doesnt talk though. She is a chatter box!

She is still eating twice a day. She can easily chow down 4 oz of baby food and still want more. Her favorites are still carrots, peaches and squash. She still hasnt mastered the sippy cup yet. She mostly chews to get the water out. She will eventually get it. I think she is struggling because she has never used a bottle and doesnt know to suck to get stuff out. I have exclusivly nursed her since she was born. She never would drink out of a bottle. I am soooooo ready for her to start using a sippy. The Dr. started her on miralax for her constipation. It works well most the time. Still gets a little plugged up every once in a while. She is on 3/4 of a cap full. We started at 1/4 cap and went up from there. Her first dose of 3/4 cap was a disaster!!!! We were at the mall and she had a major blow out! I mean dripping out of her pants leg and up to her neck in poop! We had to through away her clothes and buy her a new outfit at gymboree. Im sure people thought we were horrible parents walking around the mall with a baby in just a diaper, lol. It was a scene for sure. She is still on her reflux medicine. Prevacid solutabs have probably saved my sanity. Her reflux is finally under control for the most part.

Still not crawling but scooting and rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy all the time. She gets those legs kickin and uses her arms to pull herself everywhere. She does circles all the time. Pulling herself up is also a new favorite thing to do. She grabs ahold of my fingers and with very little help pulls herself up to a standing position. Just the other day she started to widen her stance to get better balance. I dont think it will be long before she starts grabbing stuff and pulling herself up. 

Sleeping has been a struggle with this little girl from day one. Every night is a hit or miss. Even naps are unpredictable. I bought an amazing product called baby Merlin's magic sleep suit! It really is magic. She could not fall asleep without being swaddled. It worked like a charm. I haven't had to swaddle her since the first time I put it on her. I was also able to take her out of the tucker sling. No more raised crib or sling! What a relief that is. She now rolls all over her crib. I often find her on the opposite side I put her in. But back to the sleeping....... Every night is different sometimes she is up every two hours and sometimes she sleeps 10 straight hours. I have tried feeding her the exact same thing for days in a row and have the exact same routine but every night I will get a different result. My guess is she may have stomach issues or her reflux sometimes bothers her more one night compared to the next. It it may be her teeth. I have just decided to accept it. It doesn't bother me like it used to. I have just come to the realization that that's just Emma. Hopefully soon she will get on a schedule. I'm not going to hold my breath though. Lol

Emma's favorite toys right now are her teething ring that has a lot of different things to chew on and her singing butterfly. She also loves peek a boo games and is very ticklish. She can really let out some laughs! When she gets really excited she squeals really loud. Her excersaucer is still a hit too. She loves that thing. I recently had to raise it :) 

That's all I really know for now. Nothing else has been going on around here. That's fine by me! Uneventful is what I strive for these days. Here are a few pics for ya! See you next month. 

Valentines day!

Before I took away the sling. But with her sleep suit!

I misspelled greys, lol. 

Fun with noodles!

6 months old!

Half a year old! Can you believe it? I can't. Before I know it she will be one!

Where to start?........ Let's start with the most exciting thing, for me at least! For the past week or two she has been sleeping from bedtime to around 4-5am! This is huge for us. She was getting up 3+ times a night. It just sort of happened and I am loving it! We moved her bedtime from 7:30 to 8. So 8-9 hours she is going before wanting to eat again. After I feed her she goes right back to sleep until 8. It's almost like she has an internal alarm clock for 8am. It's always 8:01, 7:58, 8:05...... I would love to sleep in a little later but hey, I shouldn't be complaining really. It could be A LOT worse! She is still in her tucker sling to sleep. I tried taking it away for a nap.......OMG! I won't do that again. At least not anytime soon. She didn't know what to do with herself. She flung around everywhere and screamed! She ended up throwing up she was so upset. Poor baby. We are also struggling with swaddling. She insists on it or she won't go to sleep. She just cries and cries. I tried one arm out, a loose swaddle, no swaddle and swaddle until she is asleep but nothing is working. So I will just keep doing it I guess for now. At least I know she can't flip over and suffocate herself because the sling keeps her in one spot. 

Emma cut her first tooth last week! Her second one just poked through too. She was a very cranky baby but after it broke through she was much happier. They are sharp little things too! I'm still nursing and let me tell you, when she was trying to cut them I was in lots of pain! She isn't as bad now but sometimes I regret not introducing her to a bottle sooner. She looks so cute with her little teeth. :) somehow I managed to get a few pictures. It was like Fort Knox in there!

She has started drinking/chewing on this new cup I got her. She mostly chews but sometimes takes a few big drinks. I put pear juice/water in it and she seems to like that the best. If it's milk she wants nothing to do with it. I don't know why. She just prefers to nurse. 

Her 6 month appointment was today. She weighed in at 17lbs 7 ounces, 27 inch long, and her head was 16 1/4 inches. 75th percentile for weight 90th for height and 40th for head. We talked about her pooping/lack of pooping problem and she gave us a medication to try out for a few weeks and see if it helps. Since starting solids she can't poop so I hope this helps. She also got her shots today. No more until her first birthday! The dr said she is right on track and looks great. Oh I did end up getting a new dr. I didn't like my old one. This dr is so much nicer and more thorough. 

Emma is sitting very well. She doesn't need help at all anymore. She sometimes falls over but usually by choice I think. I left her on her play mat the other day and when I got back she was about three feet away from her starting point. I guess I will never know how it happened but I'm guessing she rolled over there. It had to of been at least 2rolls, maybe 3. When she is doing tummy time she scoots if I put a toy just out of reach. I don't think it will be long before she really starts scootin along. Probably a few months before she crawls though. I got a walker for her and can cruise really well on the hardwood floor but struggles with the carpet. 

Her favorite toy is still the talking/singing book. She is also very find of this popping ball toy. It's a giraffe :) She has started figuring out the drop it on the floor and mom picks it up game! Annoying but oh so cute, for now at least :) I'm sure I will eat my words in a few weeks. She has started reaching for mark and I. Love that!

She is eating solids twice a day.  Once in the morning about a 1/2 hour after she nurses. The the same in the evening. She eats a lot more at night though. Girl can eat! She has a full 2.5oz thing of food and about 2 tbls of oatmeal mixed in. Her favorites are peaches, carrots and squash. Her prevacid dose has been increased to half a tablet twice a day. 30mg per day. She is doing really well with that dose. She loves it too. Tastes like Cherries. Beats the hell out of that compounded liquid crap. 

My husband went to the Super Bowl and got this so I rolled it up like a headband. Lol

We had her 6 month pictures done on Sunday! Love them! She did really well to. 

She is currently in 6-9 -9month footed onsies and 6-9 month clothing. She can still squeeze into a few 6 months outfits. She is so long! 

That's all I have for now. :) here are some pictures......

Haha, not always happy!

Photo contest!

I entered Emma's tutu picture in the cute kid contest. Please copy and paste the link below and vote for her!!!! 

www.thecutekid.com/photo-contests/20140201

Emma's BOWteek

       

Some of you may know that I have started a bow business called Emma's BOWteek. I just made this for Emma's 6 month photos and I am also selling them on Etsy along with some other bows. Here is the link if you are interested. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/176874000/tutu-with-matching-bow

Also come like me on Facebook! I have a variety of bows being sold on this site. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emmas-BOWteek/749290481764544

Here are a few.....

5 months old!

My little girl is growing up so fast. I just can't believe that she is five months already. I feel like yesterday I was saying get this kid out my belly and running up and down steps praying for contractions. 

So much has happened in this past month. She has done lots of firsts. I'll start with her first Christmas! We had lots of fun in St. Louis visiting family. Emma got so many toys and tons of clothes. We ended up having to borrow a suitcase from my mom to bring it all back. She is one spoiled little girl. :)

At the airport waiting for our flight that was delayed 2 1/2 hours

 Christmas dress #1. It was a 3-6 month outfit that she could barely squeeze into. Actually those aren't even the tights that it came with. 

Great Papa

Pappy

Mimi, Pappy, Grace, Sophia and Emma!

First family Christmas photo. 

Grandpa Charlie

L-R Grace, Emma & Sophia 

Aunt Jenny 

Poppy

Nanny

Grammy

Aunt Jean

Cousin Abby

After we got back home Emma and I quickly got sick. Upper respiratory something. I just got over it and Emma is at the tail end I think. It was very scary. Over the weekend she had a fever of 100.5, diarrhea, vomiting a horrid cough and a nose full of snot. She also went almost 9 hours without a wet diaper. I was so scared. I started crying and Mark had to calm me down a few times. I was very close to packing her up and heading to the hospital. Luckily she showed some signs of improvement. I ended up sleeping in her room until I found myself waking her up with my horrific cough. So I left around 2am. She has been getting better each day. :)

Now on to the rest of the firsts....... Emma can now sit up on her own!

She can roll over from belly to back. But she doesn't like to do it very often. She figures, hey why should I do it when mom  will do it for me! Her new thing the past few days is to roll from back to belly and start screaming because she can't get back to her back. Once I turn her over she does it again. It's a vicious cycle I tell ya. Her favorite toy is her talking book and the fish on her excersaucer. Unfortunately the fish had to go to fishy heaven today. She puts it in her mouth and chews on the fin. She sometimes gags on it but today it made her throw up, twice. That thing isn't easy to take apart and put back together so I opted to put mr fishy away. 

I have noticed that when I say her name now she looks at me. I was in the kitchen and said Emma loudly. She stopped what she was playing with and quickly looked around for me. :) She know her name! That's crazy. It seems like such a small thing but for me it's huge!

We tried solids again after coming back from Christmas in St. Louis. This time I mixed it with half oatmeal and half prunes. I went with prunes because the prevacid for her reflux constipates her. The prunes do the trick! :) We have done squash as well but she prefers prunes. 

Sleeping...... We are still struggling a little but things have started looking up. We have a great routine down. Starting at 6:45 We eat our oatmeal/prunes, bath if it's bath night, tummy time with daddy and then story time! Usually around 7:30 after story time I nurse her and rock her to sleep. I know I shouldn't do it but if I don't rock her to sleep she is a screaming angry baby for hours! So I just do it. Maybe in a few weeks I'll try to put her down without it. I also have to swaddle her. She has a bad gag reflux and right now she can't keep her fingers out of her mouth. Well, she has made herself puke 3 times now. Swaddling it is! 

She is usually up around 1 am to eat. Ever now and then she will go until 4 or 6. But usually it's 1am and then again at 6-6:30. I guess I should just get up at that point but hey if I'm gunna be a stay at home mom I'm not gettin up at the crack ass of dawn! So we usually get up around 8:30. 

She usually does 2 long naps a day 2-3 hours. And 1 cat nap in the evening for about 30-45 min. She is also still exclusively breastfeeding. She won't have anything to do with a bottle or soppy cup right now. I'm letting her warm up to this cup I just got her. It has handles on the sides. She chews on it but gags if there is anything inside. So I just keep it empty for the time being. Maybe soon she will change her mind. 

Oh I should also add that we are still using the tucker sling for her reflux. If your baby has reflux I highly recommend this. I think this is a huge help. 

She is currently in 6 - 6-9 month clothing. Still is size 3 diapers. They are getting a bit snug though. I think I'll finish up what I have of the 3s and then just move to my size 4 stck pile. She is just growing like a weed. At this rate she will be in 24month clothing by her first birthday. Lol

Her eyes are turning brown in the center. Mark has hazel/green eyes and I have brown. So we still aren't sure what the end result will be. Her hair is coming in white! She has the brown hair she was born with and then a ton of blonde now. Mark had white hair when he was a baby. I had red. So I'm pretty positive it will be blonde. 

Emma is so much fun right now. Each day she does something new. She is the light of my life and I love her so much. I look forward to the next day with her. Time is just passing to fast. I am so blessed to be able to stay home with her. I can't imagine leaving her with anyone during the day. My heart drops just thinking about it. 

 

That's all for now! Here are some more pics!