Seven Months

This update feels a little bittersweet. My baby has passed the half way point and is closer to being a toddler than an infant. It's so incredible to look through her pictures and appreciate how much she has changed even if I can't notice a difference on a day to day basis. Perhaps the most tangible difference occured a few weeks ago when she tried to wiggle out of my arms while I was cuddling her. Sigh, where did my little infant who could rest in my arms like a loaf of bread go? Soon enough she'll be walking, eating real food and maybe even talking. Time, please slow down..

Nicknames: Cup Kate, Button, Little Bunny, Kater Tot

Stats:
Weight: 17 lbs 11 oz
Length: 26.5 inches

Teeth: The anticipation is killing us. So, we think we've had all.the.symptoms. Drooling perfusely -check. Biting everything in sight -check. Decreased interest in eating -check.  Difficulty sleeping -check, check. Irritability -check. Everything except for the emergency of any pearly whites. We've had a few really bad nights where she would wake frequently, or take a long time to get back to sleep, so we'll give her some Infants' Advil, thinking this might finally be the real thing, only to discover, no we've just been drugging our daughter. Many years ago we had some issues with our late cat Angus, who was upset about something and decided to boycott the litter box. We loaded him up on catnip and he was so mellow that he got over whatever it was that was bothering him again and returned to using his kitty bathroom. I speculated, "Oh, won't we make good parents if we think drugs are the answer.."

Eating: As she doesn't have any teeth yet, I'm glad we're doing purees, especially as I noticed she pushes out the slightest chunk. I'm finding that I have to pre-mash the vegtables before putting them into the baby bullet in order to get a nice perfectly smooth consistency. We started with squash, and then went to peas, which we thought she liked, but apparently she spits them out at Day Care, and they kept writing "doesn't like peas" on her daily report before we finally got the hint; to stop putting the peas in her Day Care bag. The next thing we tried was bananas, which she absolutely loved. I can't blame her, I had a spoonful myself. It's delicious and I'm thinking of blending a banana for dessert and pretending that it's ice cream. Introducing carrots and avacado also coincided with her possible teething and cold + ear infection, so it was hard to tell how well they really were received. She'll often put her hands in her mouth after eating a spoonful, and I discovered bits of food on her lap and down the side of her highchair, which seems to be her version of spitting into your napkin. Co-worker suggested adding some banana to the carrots, which was a big hit. (I tried a sample myself, it is much better!) Apparently in a baby's world, it's not bacon that makes everything better, it's banana.

Sleep: It is such a moving target. She spoiled us by sleeping through the night after two months. I was terrified about the four month sleep regression, and sure enough she started waking during the night at that age. However, she would nurse and go back to sleep quite quickly, which wasn't too bad. Intermittently, she would still sleep through the night, but never more than two nights in a row. About a week or so after her six month birthday, she hit a new personal best and slept all night long for four consecutive nights. We were begining to think that we might go back to life from 2-4 months, but then it all unraveled. She broke her four night streak by waking every two hours, which I think is more frequent that when she was a newborn. Now, she's been averaging about 2-3 wakes per night and a good night is defined as just one waking. If it happens before midnight, then it's a very good night.

We have made some progress with sleep training. While Husband was away, I worked on putting her to bed awake and after three nights, she was falling asleep in less than ten minutes, with a bit of a babblish/light crying. Recently, she's been so tired that she falls asleep while nursing and seems to resist my attempts to gently rouse her while placing her in the crib. We've started using a 15 minute rule when she wakes during the night, wait 15 minutes to see if she goes back to sleep on her own (which happens about 40% of the time). If not, I'll nurse and will find that more often than not, she seems pretty hungry and will fall back to sleep rather quickly. Except for the few occasions, where she's showed no interest in going back to sleep and I'll just leave her in the crib to cry it out. She has started sleeping on her stomach, which makes her Daddy a bit nervous.

Likes: Pulling Mummy's hair. I keep a whole stack of hair ties on my stick shift and I've found it's not enough just to pull my hair into a ponytail. It needs to be a braid or a bun and if there is a wisp that falls loose; she will grab it. Loves bananas, still a big fan of bathtime. She's recently become fascinated with Tyler, and for the most part he's been very tolerant as she's tried to get near him or pet him. She started moving toward him and he gave a look that clearly read: "Oh shit! It moves!"

Stay.in.the.box.

Dislikes: Getting her nails trimmed. Unfortunately, like her mother, her fingernails grow quite quickly. She hates having her face and hands wiped after eating, as that is just the WORST THING EVER!

Diapers: Remember in the Six month update, where I described that diaper changes were becoming 'challenging'? Well, that got quickly upgraded to fucking nightmare. It's like trying to mud wrestle a pig. She won't stay on her back and she rolls around, or she tries to get up on her hands and knees. We asked her Day Care providers for some advice, and they commented, 'well all kids roll around at this age... but Kate is really strong, so it's much harder...' I'm speculating that they must do Rock/Paper/Scissors to decide who changes her, which is pretty much what we do. Trying to distract her with a toy only seems to encourage her to move more. It was starting to take the effort of both of us just to change and dress her. A few times, we both lost our cool and snapped at her. I was desparate for anything that might help, so I took interest when I saw a product called the SnoofyBee, which is a changing pad with a...sort of.. a dog cone. I read the reviews and oh boy, did the Sanctimommies weigh in on this one. "It's called disclipine, can't you just tell your child 'no'" (Um, she's 7 months old, doesn't quite understand the concept yet. I even tried saying 'non-non-non-non' in a [poor] French accent) "Can't you just distract them with a toy?" (Tried that; didn't work).

Yes. I put her in the CONE OF SHAME!

I have no problem confessing that I am a horrible mother, who was so desparate to do anything to make diaper changes easier. Unfortunately, it didn't achieve the objective, as she could still twist and turn. Admitting defeat, we've learned how to diaper her while she's on her hands and knees. It's not too hard when we're putting her in her nightly disposable diaper, but it really wasn't working to fasten her into a cloth diaper. We started using the tri-fold technique, which involves folding the diaper into thirds, so it makes like a long sanitary napkin and it is held in place with the diaper cover. This works to diaper her while she is on her hands and knees, and better yet, it doesn't require Snappy Clips. Does anyone else who cloth diapers noticed that your Snappy Clips suddenly disappear, as if there is a Bermuda Triangle for Snappy Clips? Then they suddenly re-appear as soon as you pick up a new package. 

Clothes:  Still in 6-9 months. I purchased a few sale items in the 9 month size, but they're too big for her right now. Let's keep it that way for a while. 

Milestones and Events: I forgot to mention it last month, but as 'sits independently' is on the developmental check list, we ticked that box just after the New Year. I'm bringing it up again, as I'm reminiscent of the days where she would remain stationary. Once she figured out that she could move forward, there has been no signs of stopping or even slowing down. After she realised that she wasn't going to get very far by moving backward, she took her first step toward crawling, but getting into a plank position. 

Her Cross-Fit parents are so proud!

She can get up on her hands and knees, but she really hasn't learned the coordination of moving her knees and arms in sync, so she's created her own 'slither'. She uses her upper body strength and sort of drags herself. It looks a little like 'the worm' via 80s break dancing. It's amusing and yet terrifing as she's remarkably quick. Yesterday I noticed that she seemed to want to pull herself up on the couch, so I allowed her to push off my hands and she was able to pull herself to a stand, and then proceeded to take two steps. Yikes! we may have a baby who skips crawling and just goes onto walking. 

If you remember from my last post, I was debating about running a 10K over Valentine's/President's Day weekend. Husband signed up to umpire for a hockey tournament (which was supposed to be just the morning, but ended up being an all-day event) so if I went, I would have to bring Kate along. I decided that we weren't ready, I had only taken her out in the running stroller a few times for a walk aroung the block and my one attempt at a training run, was cut short by a screaming baby. (In her defense, she was hungry. I fed her before we left, but had to run and errand on route to the trail, which took much longer than expected) Then my swim coach contacted me as she signed up for the race, but needed to go out of town at the last minute, so she offered her registration. Well, free was a price I couldn't dismiss. Even if she had a meltdown before the starting line, I felt as if we had nothing to lose. I decided that the 5K distance would be more suitable for our maiden race, and to my surprise all went better than expected. She was content for the first two miles and fell asleep around the third. I was able to run the entire way while pushing the stroller, and I even learned that the ediquette for stroller runners is to run on the outside of the course, as I was actually faster than some other runners. I accept that not every race will be this smooth, but I'm really looking forward to doing some more with her. 

Running is very tiring...

While we were waiting for the race to start, I wanted to give her a bottle, so she'd be well fed during the race. I propped the bottle up with one of her toys, so I could attach my bib and when I looked back at her, I saw that she was feeding herself by holding the bottle with both hands! Wow. This is a game changer in terms of making our lives a little easier. 

I can do it myself!

Health Issues: She picked up her second cold. We received the call from Day Care that she had a fever and she ran a temperature for two days while she had a cough and a runny nose. Mummy was impressed that her Day Care germ exposed daughter has only had two colds in a four month timeframe, while Daddy fretted that she has an underlying respiratory disorder. He wanted to take her to the pediatrician right away, but I resisted as I figured we'd hear the usual 'it's a virus, give supportive care' speech. Finally I agreed to take her in on a Friday, so we could see our regular pediatrician, rather than the doc-du-jour at Urgent Care, if we needed to seek medical care over the weekend. Bilateral Acute Otitis Media. The first dose of antibiotics kicked her fever. Sigh. Sometimes having a parent who is a medical provider is hazzardous to your health. 

Looking forward to: Alert the press! We are going on holiday! A proper vacation that does not involve visiting family or travelling with relatives. We're using our Hawaii time share in May. There was much drama leading into this. I'll offer the condensed version. We intended to go in August as Jate's Day Care closes for two weeks. We quickly learned that not only do you have to book on the first day of the year to get anything in August, but we must either book a location or bank our points by the 31st of March each year, otherwise we lose the ability to use them. Husband applied his English charm along with recapping all our fertility/pregnancy drama to the 'Appeals Committee' and we were able to convert our timeshare points to interval points, which allows us to stay in other facilities. We then discovered that everything in Hawaii was booked for 2016, so I was researching other destinations while we were placed on a waiting list. Two days later we recieved an email that there was a vacancy in Maui in May. I looked at the hotel's website and it's easy to understand why this spot opened up. It's a very no-frills hotel. Like no on-site bar or restaurant. The pool is tiny and there isn't even any tropical folliage around it...Who cares! It's a cheap basic hotel in Hawaii! We're going on an actual vacation! 

Feeling bashful about my age...