Callie: 7 months!

This is my big girl at 7 months old! She just keeps growing! Although I know this is expected, it just seems like she's growing faster than she's supposed to be! I cherish each day I'm given with her! 

Here is a summary of her seventh month (when she was 6 mos old):

EATING 

Callie generally ate every 4 hours. However if I needed to adjust her schedule on a certain day, she could eat earlier if needed. She finally fell into a feeding schedule that seemed to stay the same over the month. She would normally eat breakfast (nurse, solids, bottle) between 7-8am. Then lunch (solids, bottle) around 11/11:30am, a snack (bottle only) around 2:30/3:00, and dinner (solids, bottle) around 6/6:30. Sometimes she would wake for a short feeding in the middle of the night, but not usually. 

She started refusing nursing at most feedings. She would always nurse at her first feeding (and in the middle of the night if that happened) but that's it! So we did mostly solids and formula this month. Her bottles ranged from 4-7 oz. 

Once she turned 6 months old, we started her on fruits and veggies. Her first food was avocado. Then she had bananas, then sweet potatoes, then yogurt, then pears. Every time we introduced a new food, she made funny faces at first and wasn't crazy about the new flavor, but usually after the second feeding, she was fine! She will eat any of these foods without any trouble. So far, I'm still making her own baby food, and I love it!

 First Veggie: Avocado!

Feeding herself a teething biscuit

SLEEPING

Callie's sleep pretty much stayed the same this month. She took 3 naps a day. They weren't always at the exact same time each day....I just watched her for sleepy signs. She tended to usually stay awake around 2 hours between naps. Her morning nap seemed to get shorter (30-45 min), her afternoon nap was usually 1-2 hours, and then her evening nap was also short (30-45 min). As long as she woke up happy and playing, I knew she was well-rested. 

At nighttime, she seemed to have several night wakings this month. Most of the time she would go right back to sleep when given her pacifier, but sometimes she would eat. She can put her paci in by herself during the day, but she doesn't do it at night yet. I think it's just because she wakes up disoriented and can't find it. But her sleep was getting better with less night wakings by the end of the month. 

Another milestone in sleeping this month: we successfully took away her wedge that she slept on and we finally weaned her from swaddling!!! Yay! We've tried this several times and each time her sleep went dramatically downhill. But I didn't worry too much....I figured we would just keep trying every once in awhile until she was ready. This month, it finally worked! We started out by un-swaddling one arm. Once she had done that for a few weeks while maintaining her normal sleep patterns, we went to swaddling her trunk only. I'm just so glad to be done with this!!

PLAYING

This was a big month for Callie and she learned to do lots of new things! She figured out her Jumperoo and loves it!  Since she had learned to sit on her own at 5.5 months, we got some of her "big girl" toys and she has fun with those too!! Some of her favorite toys are her baby piano, baby laptop, and her learning home. It's fun to see how quickly she learns which buttons, switches, and spinners do different things. 

 Letting big brother push her in the Cozy Coupe

She L.O.V.E.D. this thing!

She stayed in it for so long and just let us push her

in circles around the driveway!

She has also been figuring out object permanence. If we hide something, she will look for it. If she drops something from up high, she will bend her head over, trying to find it. She loves to look at herself in a mirror....she smiles so big at herself and sometimes laughs. We love her big open-mouthed kisses that she gives! When on her tummy, she kicks her feet so hard like she's trying to go somewhere, but just can't quite I figure out how to move yet! But I think our favorite part is listening to her talk. She started babbling at the end of this month and she is so expressive (and loud) as she tells us all about her day! 

Callie is also great about playing independently. She will sit and play in one spot with a few toys for 10-20 minutes. I feel like this is pretty good for a baby who can't move around yet. BUT if I walk through the room where she can see me...it's all over....she wants to be picked up. So I often try to stay out of eyesight when she's playing by herself. :)

 First time on the swing!

Again, Caeden has fun pushing her!

Swinging together!

Another first....Callie started going to the church nursery on Sundays this month, at 6.5 months old. Up until this point she would still either sleep or sit quietly during the adult service. But finally, she got to the point where she was ready to play (loudly). She has done fine in the nursery so far. Both weeks that she's gone, the teachers have commented on how she was the happiest baby and how great she did. 

TEETHING

Callie still does not have any teeth, but she started showing several signs of teething at the end if this month (right at 7 mos). She has been extremely fussy (but acts better with medicine), is a drooling machine, and we are constantly wiping her (clear) runny nose. So who knows? Maybe we'll see some teeth soon!?

On a day she didn't feel good,

but still smiling!

OUTINGS

Callie went on her first camping trip this month, and loved it! I think she just really enjoyed being outside the whole time, and she still slept great the whole time. More details on that trip here. 

We also took her to Silver Dollar City for the first time. My parents, Reid's parents, and my sister's family all went together. Again, Callie did wonderfully! She took a morning nap in the car on the way to Branson, a 1.5 hour afternoon nap in my Boba wrap, and an evening nap on the way home. She was just happy and content, enjoying being held by lots of people! :) More on this trip in a future post!

GROWTH STATS

Weight: 18 lbs 3 oz

Length: ??

Clothes size: 6-9 mos, 6-12 mos, 9 mos

Shoe size: finally moved up to a size 1!!

Diaper size: 3

MILESTONES

• Can feed herself a teething biscuit or cracker
• Babbles (says ra/ra/ra, da/da/da, na/na/na, and a few other random sounds)
• Smiles a lot when interacting with people (very social)
• Objects and gets upset if we (or big brother) try to take a toy away 
• Really works to get a toy that's out of reach
• Looks for a dropped object
• Rakes with fingers to pick up small objects...can pick up a "puff" but can't open her hand to get it into her mouth
• Passes toys and objects from one hand to the other

Callie, 

We just love hearing your sweet voice, and big belly laugh. We adore your proud smile. And it's amazing to see how quickly you figure things out and learn. You are very clingy to mommy right now, but mommy doesn't mind at all. You also get so exited when Daddy walks in the door or when Caeden walks toward you to play. Our family is so complete with you as a part of it. 

We love you sooooo much!