7 Months

Brenna is 7 mos old now! Where did the last month go - it seems I was just posting her 6 month update?

Well, anyway, Brenna is such a delight these days. I love love LOVE this age. Her little personality is really starting to show through. She seems to be all smiles all the time. She has the cutest little giggle that comes mostly from her sister playing with her or from Bailey. And most recently, even the cat. She is soo sooo fun. She weighs right at 17 lbs. No well check this month, but we took her in yesterday for the second round of her flu shot and they weighed her. My, what a difference in just a month! Her hair is coming in slowing but it is really blonde. I think it is even more blonde than Brooke's was at this age. Her eyes are of course, still the stunning blue that gets everyone's attention. I think they are here to stay! :-D And her feet are still the tiniest little things you ever saw (again, hate to comare the two, but just like Brooke's were) She still wears 0-6 month sized socks and if I put shoes on her, they are way too big. Her foot is probably a size 0 to size 1 in shoe size. Tiny! But oh-so-cute!

She now spends the majority of her time on her tummy ironically. Ironically because only a few short months ago, this was the same baby that hated tummy time. She is getting around on her own time. Not crawling, but she either rolls to get where she wants (or the near vicinity) then scooches using her feet and arms to get closer. The other day, you could see it in her eyes. She spotted a toy on the ground and wanted it. She was on her back, so she rolled to her tummy, spotted it again and rolled over again a complete rotation. Then got on her tummy and scooched till she was able to reach the toy. She's figuring these things out! :-) She's also much better at sitting with no support these days. She just can't quite get their on her own yet.

No teeth yet, but I swear they are coming ANY DAY now. She is drooling like crazy and chews/clamps down on everything. It's so funny to watch her gnaw on her pacifier!

She also 'talks' like crazy! She is saying all kinds of two consonant sounds - not just Dada anymore....she does this funny "DaDeeee". No Mama yet though.... :( She also does this wierd gurgling sound. I remember Brooke doing the same thing and it's hard to do! I don't know how she does it. We did manage to struggle through the nursing issues we were having and mustered through. She is now nursing well still and shows no signs of slowing down/stopping, which I *was* afraid of for a while. She is up to eating 3 solid meals a day and we have pretty much worked our way through all the baby food foods that are available. The only thing she hasn't had is meat. But we will probably start that soon with the Stage 2 chicken and apple dinners and such. We have kind of started the finger foods, but not really. We give her some Puffs (those Gerber quick dissolve things?) and she can get it from the high chair tray to her mouth and eats it well (her medicine is dissolvable so she's used to that), but still is doing it with her whole hand instead of with her index finger and thumb (the pincher grasp). The doctor said that's what we were waiting for with finger foods. So, we will give her one or two after a meal just for practice, but that's about it.

Speaking of medicine, she is still on the Prevacid and it seems to be working, so we're not messing with that! I still think some of her nursing problems that we went through for about a week or so were dealing with reflux. It coincided with the timing of starting the new medicine, so in hindsight, I am thinking it just took her a bit for the new meds to start working well. Whew!

Likes

-playing peek a boo

-stuffed animals

-her sister

-chewing on anything

-Bailey

-talking...or as we call it, preaching. :-)

-her exercauser

-the TV remote and telephone

-paper (supervised of course)

-small board books that she can hold and flip through

Dislikes

-being left alone in a room (separation anxiety kicking in)

-loud noises (she's beginning to be a little skittish when something startles her)

She is getting better with her sleeping, taking 2-3 naps a day, depending on the length of them and timing. Usually one of those naps will be a longer one (2 hrs?) and the other(s) will be shorter catnaps (45 min?) or sometimes she'll split the difference and take two hour and half naps. I should mention here that Brooke is still enamored with her little sister. We have made it 7 months with absolutely no jealously issues whatsoever. And not only that, she really really wants to do everything for her and with her. I am not exagerating when I say everything. She is such a little mommy. There are times when I don't even have to feed the baby, because Brooke will do it. I still sit there with her to supervise, but give her a jar of food and a spoon and she'll take care of it. I couldn't be more proud and amazed by how well she does with Brenna every day. And what's really fun is Brenna is starting to really play back with her so they really do have so much fun with each other. Brooke doesn't need any toys anymore - she has a baby sister to play with and oh, how that warms my heart.