Growing Up Lanese: Lilly Belle: Seven Months

Lillian Belle - 7 Months Old!

Weight: As of today, 16.5 lbs :)

Health: We have been really lucky with a healthy baby. Other than normal baby things like constipation, teething a few low grade fevers & some sniffles - Lilly Belle has had a healthy 7 months.

Sleep: What sleep? ;) Lilly takes short naps throughout the day. Lately she has been able to stay up for a good 2 hours at a time before taking a 30-60 minute nap. She does not sleep through the night. She wakes every 1-4 hours through the night beginning at 11pm. We put her down between 6:30 and 7:00pm and she wakes every morning at 7am. So, her nights are 12 hours but she wakes to nurse and be with mommy 3-6 times.

Social: Lilly is becoming a lot more social. It probably has to do with the fact that she is now not only with Mommy & Daddy all the time. Now that Matt is working, Papa L. and my friend, Jodee, watch Lilly during the week. We also continue to go to our weekly Kindermusic class. Lilly Belle now loves to "sing" during class and gives her teacher and friends big welcoming smiles. Lilly was a great sales baby a few days ago when we had a tutu sale at the studio. She was talking and smiling at all the women who stopped by. I'm sure thats how we sold so many ;) On the opposite end, she does get nervous and more quiet when her environment gets too loud or when people get too close to quickly. She still really studies people before deciding on giving a smile or not. We had many moments this month where I saw a bit of me in there for the first time. Little missy can be quite loud when she "talks and sings". It's so funny, especially because she is usually calm and quiet. When she does talk, you can see her wind up for it. Adorable.

Schedule: We are still working on getting her schedule down. Slowly but surely, we are getting there. Still so hard when I work such weird hours. She always wakes up around 7am, nurses and then we can usually keep her up until 9am when she takes a 45-90 minute nap. She will then nurse again around 10am and then at noon. I give her solids around 12/12:30pm and she stays up until 12:30-1:00pm. Then she sleeps for 45-90 minutes again. 90 is if we are lucky (super rare). Her afternoons are always different. Sometimes she can stay up for 2-3 hours, other days just 1 hour at a time. All depends. Then at 6pm we start her bedtime routine and she is down for bed by 7pm.

Diet: Lilly Belle has now had a lot of different solids. I am having a blast with feeding her! She has now added squash, mango & peaches to her list of foods she has tried.

Clothes: Lilly wears 6 month onesies and tops, her 6 month pants no longer fit and her 6-9 month pants are on their way out as they are too short. She wears 9 month pants and lots of 6-12 month outfits.

Baby Gear Love: We still swaddle her every night with her Aden & Anais swaddle blankets. We use her Britax stroller and carseat everyday and still love them. Lilly now loves to be in the Ergo Carrier with me and still enjoys her Bjorne as well. She now sits in a high chair for meals and only sits in the Bumbo seat while I'm getting ready in the morning. Sophie the Giraffe, her zebra, Oball, bunny, Haba wooden ring, wooden stackers & Poppity Pop Dino are all favorite toys. She has discovered a new love for chewing on books. I just go with it because I know babies learn through touch and taste the most. My goal is just for her to be interested in books. If for now, that means chewing on them is part of it...then that's fine. She still loves her "office" - jumper. Most of all though, she just likes to sit on a blanket with all her toys around her :)

Crying: Lilly cries if she is hurt, scared or tired.

Likes: I may have blended the "Likes" category into "Baby Gear Love" a bit. She still loves bath time. Splashing is a lot of fun now! Lilly's laugh is probably the cutest thing I've ever heard and she loves to be tickled. She loves the song "Do You Want to Build A Snowman" from Frozen. She starts "singing" and talking almost immediately after we sing or play it - every time! Big smiles! Lilly likes her Begin Again bath toy turtle. (obsessed!) She loves to nurse and be held. She is just a really content, happy baby. She is such a joy to be around. We really are so lucky.

Dislikes: Getting her turtle taken away from her when it is time to get out of the bath or getting any toys taken away from her really.

Milestones: Lilly Belle is most definitely able to sit up on her own now. I sit her in the bathroom on a towel while I take showers and can sit her on the bed with toys while I do laundry and she is totally fine. She's a pro now. Lilly really reaches for toys now which is fun to see because we are finding which toys she likes more than others. (Bunny is probably her favorite - she chews on the feet which are like satin ballet slippers.) Lilly says "Mamamamama" and the "bababa" sound. She does "babababa" on her own but will copy me if I say "mama" :) Good girl ;)

And now for a plethora of photos...

Lilly takes baths sitting up now :)

"MOM. Seriously, if you take one more picture." (she totally has my eyebrows)

These aren't in any order - This was our last time in our apartment. This is our room where Lilly Belle slept her first night home with us. I made sure to stand where her basket was ;)