seven months

Seven months.  For some reason, I'm having a hard time digesting that one.  Yes, I know every month I say I can't believe how old she is, but this one?  This whole seven month thing?  I don't know if I like it.  Of course I want her to grow and learn and change and everything, but she is closer to being a toddler than she is to being a newborn.  She isn't just a baby anymore, she is a little person.  It was tough when she turned six months, but I handled it.  Every time I think about her being seven months, I tear up.  Ridiculous.

Recently one of Chris's friends found out she was having a girl (hi Jes!) so on Wednesday we brought up the bins of Ryann's old clothes.  Yes they are all adorable and we could easily use them all for another girl (assuming they were born in the same season), but let's face it.  The way my mom and I shop, another little girl is bound to get a pretty good stash of clothes herself, so there is no reason to keep all of the clothes.  We divided the clothes in to three piles, one to keep, one for Jes, and one pile that was going in a bin just for Ryann.  We pulled out the little onesie and green pants that we brought her home from the hospital in, and I about lost it.  The onesie is SO tiny, and it was so baggy on her!  I really just can't believe how small she used to be.

Geez, enough sappiness.  No doctor's appointment for this month (I guess her six month appointment was only a few weeks ago, but...) so we are guessing she weighs about 17 pounds 14 ounces, and is 26.5 inches long.  Ryann is wearing Cater's 9 month clothing, and fits in most of her 6-12 month stuff from BabyGap and Old Navy.  She also wears a size three diaper, and mostly size three shoes (when she actually wears shoes :o).

We frequently call Ryann our little serious baby.  She is definitely playful and is goofy often, but most of the time she is just concentrating so hard.  It is tough for anyone besides Chris or I to get her to crack a smile, and if you can earn a laugh you are really special.  Sometimes I'm sad that she doesn't laugh more, but then it is so so exciting when she does.

Ryann usually gets five bottles a day, 4 throughout daylight hours, and one in the middle of the night sometime.  I think we are definitely to the point where she doesn't need that middle of the night bottle (we probably were awhile ago, but hey) but thus far we haven't had the heart to just let her cry it out at 2am.  We are trying to wean her off of it by slowly offering less and less formula in the bottle, and in a couple weeks maybe we will reconsider letting her cry it out and night to eliminate that waking.  Solids are still only happening once a day around dinner time, because she has yet to seem overly thrilled with them.  I've tried breakfast a couple of times, but honestly she looks at me like I'm nuts putting her in the highchair that early in the morning.  I think we are going to have to just jump in a do it and hope she gets used to three meals a day.  I bet that might help with losing the night bottle anyway.  This month she tried bananas, mangoes, peaches, apples and some various vegetable combos.

Speaking of sleep, unfortunately we have taken a couple steps back in the Ryann putting herself to sleep department.  She was doing really well, and then a couple times if she got really fussy I gave in and rocked her.  Then this past week we were having our pipes replaced, and Ryann doesn't fall asleep as well if she knows someone else is in the house, and I felt bad letting her cry when there was someone there, so I rocked her.  Combine all of that with the fact that I think she is starting to go through some separation anxiety and she is not taking well to being put in her crib at all.  Sometimes she crawls to the end of the crib by the door and just wails.  I can't take that.

We recently (after reading Kristal's post) started trying to keep Ryann awake for three hours between each sleep period.  Previously I was aiming for the 2-3-4 schedule, but more than half the time she didn't really seem tired in the morning after two hours (she would play in her crib for 45 minutes or more before finally falling asleep) and four hours at the end of the day was TOUGH.  The first two days that we did threes were great.  She went down for her naps much easier, but then we went back to her seeming like it was party time whenever I put her in the crib.  Even with me rocking her the length of her sleep seems to have stayed the same (naps are usually an hour or more, and at night she is in the crib for 12-13 hours with one waking).

Funny thing about Ryann's naps... I have a baby monitoring app on my iPhone, I've been using it since she was born.  I know I could give it up now, but I'm kind of OCD like that and can't stop.  Anyway, frequently she wakes up exactly one hour and nine minutes after I pressed the 'sleep' button.  How strange is that?  A little strange in my opinion.

Lets see, Ry is army crawling like a champ.  She loves getting up on her hands and knees to rock it out.  She can sit up unassisted for long periods of time, assuming nothing too exciting grabs her attention, and her pants aren't too tight :o).  She says 'da da da' all day long.  Lately I've also been getting a little 'na na na' and everyone now and then a 'ma' and a 'ba', but pretty much always 'da da'.  It's cute, until it is 2am and she is yelling it over and over again in to the monitor and Chris is laying next to me snoring.  Yeah...

Ryann has been doing this little lay down sideways look thing lately.  It is sooooo cute.  Here is a video.  Please please PLEASE ignore my horrible singing.  I can't carry a tune to save my life, but Ryann doesn't seem to mind.

She loves to play with books.  She gives me just a little smirk every night when I start reading 'Night Night Little Pookie' before bed.  She loves to smash the rings from her duck stackers.  She gives me an mischievous smile right before she pulls my hair.  She loves when you pretend to eat her fingers.  She is always 'slapping' everything.  She loves to play peak-a-boo.  She giggles more about the anticipation of being tickled, then when you are actually tickling her.  She loves for you to hold her hands and help her stand and walk around.  She enjoys sucking water from a straw.

Miss Ryann I love you so very much.  I'm excited to spend another month watching you learn and explore!