Seven Months

Charlotte was born seven months ago, and I cannot even begin to fathom where the time has gone. She has taken off in leaps and bounds in the last month. Within one week she went from barely sitting up and falling over every minute or so to sitting like a pro. She is even able to reach for things and pull herself back upright again. She is up to four bottles of formula now, and I am still feeding her three times a day. I think by the end of this month she will be completely weaned. I am looking forward to the time when we can just take a bottle with us and warm it up on the go, but my last feeding will be a sad one. I have gotten so much one on one time with Charlotte this way. Charlotte has now added squash, apples, peas, bananas, carrots, peaches, prunes, and chicken to her diet and loves it when I cut up banana so she can feed herself. She not only knows her own name, but also chooses to ignore it sometimes (but smiles when she does!). She laughs and giggles and thinks peek a boo is the funnest game ever. She has also started to anticipate things like when it is time to go or I am about to leave and she will start whining. I am attempting to teach her some signs (to the delight of my deaf and hard of hearing students) but I also admit I don't always remember to do the sign when I say the word. Charlotte loves anything that makes noise right now, whether it be a rattle or a piece of paper. She still wants to put it in her mouth, but she is giving up on her oral fixation slowly but surely. She has also almost grown out of her 3-6 month clothes, it will probably be time to put them away by the end of the week and she will wear 6 month or 6-12 month. We gave up the swaddle and the pacifier this month which are two huge feats I am glad to have behind us. Our next goal is to stop the night time feedings. I tried so hard to "cry it out" over Spring Break but I can't seem to make it past an hour. My new approach is going to be heading in there with a bottle but decreasing the number of ounces by half an hour every other night. Sadly I think we've picked back up on night time feedings because she misses nursing (clearly it is not because she needs the calories!).
I think I understand now why the last child born to the family gets the bad rap of being "the baby". If I had known how independent Charlotte would come in such a short time I probably would have babied her a bit more too. She has never slept in our bed, we almost always put her in her cribs for naps, and I tried so hard to give her space to play on her own. Now I wish she would lay in bed with me and take a nap, I would love it if she would fall asleep in my arms, and she will whine at us if we are in her space for too long. And goodness I thought she was beautiful when she was born but she is absolutely gorgeous now.