7 months
Baby E had her 7-month birthday while we were in Mexico. She still loves people and enjoys turning on the charm, and she is so interested in everything that she doesn't want to miss a moment of life. Why waste time eating or sleeping?
She's become so mobile now. We set her down anywhere, and within moments she's across the room digging in the crack behind the couch for some obscure item we missed while babyproofing. She's fast!
She has an amazing talent for spotting things like crumpled Kleenexes across the room, locomoting toward them, and fishing them out from behind and under things--and then, of course, chewing on them. And she gets mad when something she's after gets taken away. For such a cheery, bright, happy kid she sure can throw a tantrum.
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Baby E is starting to pull up on things, and is getting very close to "real" crawling as she learns to move her arms and legs independently while up on her hands and knees. She's not interested at all in walking yet, which is just fine with me--her army crawl is hard enough to keep up with. We're going to have to invest in some baby gates very soon.
She still loves to play peek-a-boo, and will hide her face and peek out repeatedly as long as anyone keeps smiling and saying "peek-a-boo!" when her grin appears. She waves at people too, with a floppy whole-arm gesture sure to bring smiles.
She loves books (taking after her parents and big sisters) and will squeal and dance with glee, patting the book and trying to turn the pages while we read to her. AJ and MM enjoy reading to her, which she loves.
But the cutest thing ever is the way Baby E claps her hands. She's discovered this new delight recently, and shows off her skills often. With a big grin, she brings her little hands together over and over, saying, "A, a! Aaaay!" (translation: Clap, clap! Yaay!") Hearing anyone say "clap, clap" or "yay" is sure to get her clapping her hands and grinning.
It's a good thing she's so cute and engaging, because quite a few times lately I've found myself contemplating selling her to the highest bidder.
She refuses to let me out of her sight, doesn't want to be put down, doesn't want to be held, and will not sleep. She's been sick for 2 1/2 weeks now, and although she's feeling better she still has a runny nose and a cough. That means that any crying leads to an episode of not being able to breathe through a nose and mouth full of gunk, complete with fits of coughing. It's so pitiful to hear her crying, snuffling, and coughing in her hoarse little voice.
At the moment she is trying to nurse and get out of my lap. Yes, concurrently. The one thing she hates more than anything (besides having Mommy go out of sight) is being restrained in any way. So she cries to be picked up, then doesn't want to be held. She is hungry, but cries and arches her back when I try to feed her. She wants to nurse, but refuses to be held in a sidelying position with her face away from the room. She won't even open her mouth--just cries and struggles to escape the horrible restraint of being held in a position conducive to nursing. Apparently she'd rather starve than miss a moment of the day. Which means she wants to make up for it by nursing all night long.
Baby E is still not sleeping much. Last night she went to sleep at 9:15 after having her requisite 3 naps of the day. I thought we were home free, and planned to join everyone else in the house who were already sleeping (I was supposed to go to a Bible study last night, but it's a good thing I didn't because DH went to sleep for the night at 7 p.m. while the rest of us were still sitting at the dinner table. He is sick too and was so tired, poor guy.)
She woke at 9:45. I spent the next three hours in her bedroom, trying to get her to go back to sleep. I did try letting her cry it out several times, but she never got to the "out" part.
She finally went back to sleep around 1:30 a.m.
Just after I dropped off to sleep, I was awakened by MM screaming hysterically. Thinking she'd fallen out of bed or hurt herself in some other way, I leaped up and stumbled blearily to her aid.
She was crying because--wait for it--the hall light was turned off and it was semi-dark in her room. She was, actually, throwing a huge tantrum--picking up right where she left off when she fell asleep several hours earlier crying because she wanted the bedroom light left on. It was 2 a.m.
Baby E woke up at 4 and 6 (even though she was in my bed by that point), and the kids were up for the day by 8:30.
The night before she went to sleep for the night at 4:30 a.m. The night before that it was 2 a.m. Once she does get to sleep, she's been waking about every 2 hours.
I'm getting her up by 8 or 8:30, but it doesn't seem to help. I've gotten her to finally take naps by laying her in her crib and letting her cry for 5 or 10 minutes until she goes to sleep, but that doesn't work at night. I am at a loss. She'll fall asleep for a brief time, but once she's awake she wants to get up and play. I refused to take her out of her bedroom last night, thinking that if she was in her crib she might go back to sleep sooner. But she just alternated between fussing and playing for three hours (with the unending hysterical screaming whenever I went out of sight).
She also refuses to let me out of her sight during the day. She wants to be held, but only if I'm bouncing her up and down and playing games with her or doing something else interesting. She demands to be entertained. And, she's on this wierd nursing strike because she refuses to be restrained long enough to eat.
Is it just an age thing? I can't remember whether my other girls did this sort of thing to this extreme at 7 months or not.
The sleep thing, of course, has been going on since she was born. We keep thinking we're making progress with her sleeping habits and then something like an illness or a disruption in routine sends us right back where we started.
The two older girls are going through Daddy withdrawl after almost 2 weeks of vacation with him. We went to lunch with him yesterday, and they were clinging to his legs and crying hysterically when he had to go back to work. The crying continued for a long time after he left. This tends to repeat every time Daddy threatens to leave their presence. At least it makes him feel loved. :)
She's become so mobile now. We set her down anywhere, and within moments she's across the room digging in the crack behind the couch for some obscure item we missed while babyproofing. She's fast!
She has an amazing talent for spotting things like crumpled Kleenexes across the room, locomoting toward them, and fishing them out from behind and under things--and then, of course, chewing on them. And she gets mad when something she's after gets taken away. For such a cheery, bright, happy kid she sure can throw a tantrum.
######################
Baby E is starting to pull up on things, and is getting very close to "real" crawling as she learns to move her arms and legs independently while up on her hands and knees. She's not interested at all in walking yet, which is just fine with me--her army crawl is hard enough to keep up with. We're going to have to invest in some baby gates very soon.
She still loves to play peek-a-boo, and will hide her face and peek out repeatedly as long as anyone keeps smiling and saying "peek-a-boo!" when her grin appears. She waves at people too, with a floppy whole-arm gesture sure to bring smiles.
She loves books (taking after her parents and big sisters) and will squeal and dance with glee, patting the book and trying to turn the pages while we read to her. AJ and MM enjoy reading to her, which she loves.
But the cutest thing ever is the way Baby E claps her hands. She's discovered this new delight recently, and shows off her skills often. With a big grin, she brings her little hands together over and over, saying, "A, a! Aaaay!" (translation: Clap, clap! Yaay!") Hearing anyone say "clap, clap" or "yay" is sure to get her clapping her hands and grinning.
It's a good thing she's so cute and engaging, because quite a few times lately I've found myself contemplating selling her to the highest bidder.
She refuses to let me out of her sight, doesn't want to be put down, doesn't want to be held, and will not sleep. She's been sick for 2 1/2 weeks now, and although she's feeling better she still has a runny nose and a cough. That means that any crying leads to an episode of not being able to breathe through a nose and mouth full of gunk, complete with fits of coughing. It's so pitiful to hear her crying, snuffling, and coughing in her hoarse little voice.
At the moment she is trying to nurse and get out of my lap. Yes, concurrently. The one thing she hates more than anything (besides having Mommy go out of sight) is being restrained in any way. So she cries to be picked up, then doesn't want to be held. She is hungry, but cries and arches her back when I try to feed her. She wants to nurse, but refuses to be held in a sidelying position with her face away from the room. She won't even open her mouth--just cries and struggles to escape the horrible restraint of being held in a position conducive to nursing. Apparently she'd rather starve than miss a moment of the day. Which means she wants to make up for it by nursing all night long.
Baby E is still not sleeping much. Last night she went to sleep at 9:15 after having her requisite 3 naps of the day. I thought we were home free, and planned to join everyone else in the house who were already sleeping (I was supposed to go to a Bible study last night, but it's a good thing I didn't because DH went to sleep for the night at 7 p.m. while the rest of us were still sitting at the dinner table. He is sick too and was so tired, poor guy.)
She woke at 9:45. I spent the next three hours in her bedroom, trying to get her to go back to sleep. I did try letting her cry it out several times, but she never got to the "out" part.
She finally went back to sleep around 1:30 a.m.
Just after I dropped off to sleep, I was awakened by MM screaming hysterically. Thinking she'd fallen out of bed or hurt herself in some other way, I leaped up and stumbled blearily to her aid.
She was crying because--wait for it--the hall light was turned off and it was semi-dark in her room. She was, actually, throwing a huge tantrum--picking up right where she left off when she fell asleep several hours earlier crying because she wanted the bedroom light left on. It was 2 a.m.
Baby E woke up at 4 and 6 (even though she was in my bed by that point), and the kids were up for the day by 8:30.
The night before she went to sleep for the night at 4:30 a.m. The night before that it was 2 a.m. Once she does get to sleep, she's been waking about every 2 hours.
I'm getting her up by 8 or 8:30, but it doesn't seem to help. I've gotten her to finally take naps by laying her in her crib and letting her cry for 5 or 10 minutes until she goes to sleep, but that doesn't work at night. I am at a loss. She'll fall asleep for a brief time, but once she's awake she wants to get up and play. I refused to take her out of her bedroom last night, thinking that if she was in her crib she might go back to sleep sooner. But she just alternated between fussing and playing for three hours (with the unending hysterical screaming whenever I went out of sight).
She also refuses to let me out of her sight during the day. She wants to be held, but only if I'm bouncing her up and down and playing games with her or doing something else interesting. She demands to be entertained. And, she's on this wierd nursing strike because she refuses to be restrained long enough to eat.
Is it just an age thing? I can't remember whether my other girls did this sort of thing to this extreme at 7 months or not.
The sleep thing, of course, has been going on since she was born. We keep thinking we're making progress with her sleeping habits and then something like an illness or a disruption in routine sends us right back where we started.
The two older girls are going through Daddy withdrawl after almost 2 weeks of vacation with him. We went to lunch with him yesterday, and they were clinging to his legs and crying hysterically when he had to go back to work. The crying continued for a long time after he left. This tends to repeat every time Daddy threatens to leave their presence. At least it makes him feel loved. :)
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 11:00 AM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
I'm gonna guess it's the teeth again. Try the usual teeth stuff and see if that works. It may be just uncomfortable enough to wake her up, but not enough to crank her out.
Hi - in reference to the "weird nursing strike" Adela does the same thing when she wants me to lay down with her to nurse so she can fall asleep. She actually insisted on the lying position while I was in the middle of teaching so I had to go into the empty playroom and find a mat on the floor - worked like a charm! Also, if she's not getting enough during the day she'll be up more at night and she'll be very clingy, too. Colleen
This sounds very familiar. We are having some of the same issues with out third child. Must be number 3. :) We've tried everything, nothing worked. Emily is 11 months now, hopefully your daughter will sleep better than she does at this age. We'll keep you in our prayers. Our "solution" for number 4 is adoption. We are adopting a little girl between 9-14 months and I hope we will bypass the sleep issues. :)
Thanks for all the comments, everyone. Liz, I've started trying the teeth stuff again. . . can't really tell if it works yet.
Colleen, I've been trying lying down with her to nurse her to sleep. It works sometimes, if she's tired enough and I don't move at all for the next several hours. She slept in my bed last night. She woke up whenever I tried to turn over so ended up nursing every hour or two all night, but at least we got more sleep than we otherwise would have--9:30 to 9:30, actually!
B, I hope your third starts sleeping better soon, too! Congrats on the decision to adopt. I'm assuming you're not actually adopting because you think it will be easier than having a child the other way, LOL.
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