An Ode to My Baby in Her Golden Age of 33 Weeks

Dear Hailey, 

You are now 7.5 (almost 8) months old. This is the golden age. This is the baby stage that I absolutely adore and will treasure forever. Knowing that you are most likely going to be our last baby, I'm starting to cherish all the small moments: breastfeeding, cuddles, changing your wiggly bottom, baby giggles and crazy flailing. 

This month you seem to have just perked right up. You are way more interactive with toys, grasping, picking up and exploring with your mouth. 

 You are a champ at eating. You love baby mum mum crackers, cheerios,

 an assortment of veggies including Indian bitter melon...

 You love gnawing on bones to pick off the bits of left over meat.

 You will eat anything fed to you in a spoon...

 You love an assortment of veggies (even brussels sprouts)

 and you will suck down pouches like a kid with a milkshake. I've been blending up dinner for you before I add salt and most of the time you will eat it. When you don't like what's being served to you, I simply add some applesauce to the puree and you will gobble it down.

As of you 6 month appointment, we were concerned about your weight gain. We weighed you and you are officially back on the 25 percentile growth curve! Yay! I'll continue to feed you pouches at the beginning of your meal and then give you finger foods at the end.

You LOVE to pull yourself to standing. Sometimes you will whine to let me know that you want to pull yourself up with my hands. All I have to do is extend my fingers out for you to grab a hold of and then you will pull yourself up to standing. Then once you do, you squeal with excitement and joy as if you are so proud of your new accomplishment. It's really too adorable.

You are sitting up very steadily. I can feel pretty confident to drop you down anywhere. Ionly have to worry about you falling over if I set you down on an elevated surface. 

 You are starting to get more interactive with those around you. You grab for you siblings, Teddy, and toys. When people talk to you, you almost always flash them a little smile.

 Our bedtime routine involves a nursing session, 3 books, lullaby, and if you are crying after I put you down, we'll do another quick nursing session, and then lullaby before you go back down.

 You love peek-a-boo books and books with dogs.  You are sleeping for about two 3-4 hour stretches, waking up in between for a 30 minute nursing session and then from there, you'll wake up for the day at around 7:30 (although today you slept until almost 9).

Two hours after your wake time, you'll go down for another nap. Sometimes that nap is 45 minutes, sometimes it's 2 hours. Regardless, 2 hours after you wake up from your nap you are ready to take another one. This usually occurs after pre-school pick up and will usually last for about 90 minutes. If it ends up being a short nap, I'll have you go down for a quick 15 minute snack nap to tie you over until 8:00.

Everyone you meet comments on what a happy baby you are. Most people are perplexed about who you look like. They say that you definitely have your own look and don't resemble Nathan or Hannah much. We'll see who you turn out looking like.

I know in a bat of an eye, you will be big and going off to kindergarten like your brother. I pray that time slows down these next few months so I can enjoy the extra snuggles and baby giggles.

Love,
Mommy