And with our angels...: Madelyn's 7th month...

Where is the time going and how do I get it to slow down.

Madelyn at 7 months! How can it be... its getting hard to get her to sit sill

I’m writing this now as Madelyn begins her third week of her 7^th month. It is so hard for me to believe it. I don’t meant to sound like a broken record, but I’m going to sound like a broken record. Madelyn is simply a joy to have and remains the move happy-go-lucky baby around. She loves to take in everything around her, remains cool and content as a cucumber and is still as smiley and chunky as she’s been for the past many months.

This month we are really starting to see her come into her own personality, as she lights up when Mommy, Daddy, her brothers and sister, or Nana and Papa come into a room. She’s finally starting to show preference (much to mom’s delight-all those nights of middle-of-the-night feedings finally show reward) as she reaches for me or whimpers when she sees me but is being held by someone else (mostly daddy). Nothing against Daddy, as we remind him, its just that mommy’s fun and she has the food. I don’t kid myself, I know it’s the food desire more than just me.

Madelyn has been sitting up like a pro for the last few months but this month she’s started to become mobile. Not fully able to crawl yet, she likes to go from sitting position to reaching forward as far as she can to shifting to a belly lay. And then, for her final act of the trick, she rolls from her stomach to her back and kicks her feet in the air. This video is a classic example of the shows she gives us.

Madelyn also started her 7^th month and the new year by saying a new word… it is my favorite. I’ll let you watch for yourself. Hearing her say those momma babbles causes an involuntary response to hold my chest, to keep my heart from bursting through. Hearing momma from your baby is one of those life moments, I’ll never forget.

Madelyn is also interested in starting to pull herself up on things. I’m totally NOT ready for a mobile child yet, (note to self: must childproof the house), but it is fun to see her starting to gain strength in her legs and her inquisitiveness start to spike. Along with becoming more mobile, we have officially moved into the teething time of her infancy… she loves to chew on anything she can. I forgot what it was like when Belle was a baby cutting teeth, she just seemed to get ear infection each time a tooth would pop through. Madelyn on the other hand, she just chews, has a running nose and doesn’t sleep. Yes, I said that correctly… my really good sleeper of a baby has regressed to a not-so-good sleeper. I’m not sure if it was a growth spurt or the fact that her teeth were hurting her, but much of her 7^th month she has been up every couple of hours during the night. Jarrett’s been helping me more, which is nice, as I told him one morning, I was so desperate for sleep, I didn’t know how I’d get through the day. Now we have a routine, where I get her when she wakes up, feed her, change her… hand off the wet diaper to him and he sometimes helps me burp her.

Everyone talks about how tired you will be with a new baby and I honestly didn’t bat an eye at it too much… Lord knows I didn’t sleep when I was pregnant very well. But there comes a point in these months when the cumulative effect of not sleeping seems to hit a point of complete exhaustion. On Friday night, after taking the kids to zoo lights, we got home, put the kids to bed and I decided at 8:45 I was going to shower (yes for the first time that day- no judgements please). After showering I came out of our bedroom with my jammies on, to see Jarrett getting ready to take the dog for a walk. He said, “I wondered where you went. I thought maybe you fell asleep with Madelyn.” I said I just showered for the first time that day and he left to go get the mail and give the dog his 10 minutes of attention for the day. Seeing the piles of things around me and the bottles that needed to be washed, I decided instead I’d just sit on the couch for 5 minutes, until Jarrett got back.

Here mom was trying to keep Madelyn up a bit later, so Mom could get some sleep during the night. Madelyn wasn't too impressed. This is also the first picture where I can totally see Jarrett (or Bennett our nephew).

The next thing I felt was a nudge on my shoulder to see Jarrett telling me it was after 10 and I should just go to bed. He said, “I tried waking you up several times but couldn’t get you to wake up.” I guess I should have known…. Never sit down until you are completely done.

Another funny story about just how tired one can be, just happened last night. Madelyn got up at 3 to eat, so I fed her and changed her diaper. Jarrett, half awake, rolled over and said, “I’ll take the diaper” meaning he was going to throw it away. He held out his hand, I put the diaper in and then expected him to get up, sleep walk to the bathroom garbage, throw it away and come back to bed to sleep. Instead he just held his hand out, while lying on his back and proceeded to go back to sleep- I know because the snoring resumed. I sat there in bed, burping Madelyn for the required 20-30 minutes and at first debated if I should just take it back and throw it away myself. After several minutes of watching and waiting for him to wake up enough to throw it away, he didn’t, I decided it could be my form of entertainment while I burped her. Five minutes went by… sleeping like a baby he was. Then 10, yep, still sleeping with his arm straight out, and a wet diaper in his hand. A full 20 minutes went by, arm as stiff as a stick. Madelyn was fast asleep and fully burped so I decided to lay her back down. As I was crawling out of bed to put her back, he woke up enough to ask me again for the wet diaper. I laughed, told him he’d been holding it the whole time and then if he planned to hold it the rest of the night. Oh the things that happen when you’re trying to function on minimal sleep.

Madelyn loves to share Mom's water bottle with her.

And that’s not to mention the nights when it isn’t just Madelyn up. Some nights, all you can do it laugh when it alternates between the dog barking because he wants a midnight meal, then Isabelle coming in because she wants to sleep with us, Michael and Gabriel turning on every light they can when they get up to go to the bathroom and then Madelyn wanting to eat. Oh it’s a circus… but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Wow, sorry for the tangent… back to Maddie.

Madelyn has been expanding her palette this month from peaches, to mixed vegetables, green beans, peas, kale, spinach, squash and other fruits. Her favorite remains sweet potatoes and a new treat… Fruit and Veggie melts. They are these little, almost chocolate chip shaped drops of vegetables that she can chomp or suck on til they melt. She loves them and now with her two front bottom teeth she has gotten down the idea of biting into things. Mostly she likes to bite my chin, I realize not the best thing to bite. But I was happy to see she’s now able to eat a more solid substance. I have a feeling table food will be coming very soon.

The other day I received an update from one of the formula companies who sends us coupons which thankfully we haven’t had to use (we have lots of milk) and they referred to Madelyn as a toddler now. I thought-“Wait, what, I thought I had a few more months before she’s a toddler.” I asked Jarrett, who knows me so well and that I am dreading the end of the baby stage, who immediately said, “Mom, she is still a baby. Don’t stress about that.” He gets me so well. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been together so long.

So before I continue this long drawn-out post here are some of the photos from Madelyn’s 7^th month.