Melanie - 7 months

Height: 28.5 inches

 

Weight:  21.8 lbs

Hair: Blonde

 

Her hair is so long now!

Eyes: Blue

Food: Breastfed and finally gets the spoon!! Like, literally TODAY! It took over a month of practice, but she is finally opening her mouth for food. Current favorites are sweet potatoes....that's it. Not too excited about anything else we've tried including banana, apple, pear, peas, and avocado. She did ok with scrambled eggs, but it wasn't a proven winner. We'll keep trying.

Back in the swing of making baby food

Giving peas a chance

Sleep: We had a few weeks there with VERY little sleep. She had learned to wake up every 2-3 hours to see us. I was a zombie during the day!! I was hoping she would revert back to her 4 month self and sleep through the night again.





Not so. 

This was one of the things I worried about with two kids; how do you sleep train one with the other right next door?? Surely a screaming baby will wake the toddler then you have double-trouble! We even discussed switching kids rooms or our room for a time until it was all settled. In the end we just started putting Mel down earlier and keeping Reed up a little later. This would have really ruffled my feathers with just Reed, but with two kids, you learn to let a few things go. Rigid bedtime was one of those things to go.




Now I HATE CIO (cry it out), but it was my only option for sanity-saving sleep (say that five times fast). So we started.




Night #1: She is a stubborn little booger and cried for almost an hour and a half. Thankfully I got to take a LOOOONG shower to skip most of it. But I think Wes got the short end of the stick having to hear daddy's little girl scream that long. She slept a solid 5 hours! SUCCESS!!


Night #2: Slightly better, with about a 40 minute scream-fest. I played with Reed a lot and we had a great time to minimize the stress of the screaming. A decent 4 hours again.

Night #3: About 20 minutes of crying. MUCH better! And she was only up once!! I was thrilled!!

Night #4: NO CRYING!!! I put her down awake and she soothed herself to sleep. YES!! Naps were easy again.

Night #5: She was already asleep when I put her down. Bad idea. Zzzzzz

Night #6: No crying and she SLEPT ALL NIGHT!! Now, in case you're wondering what qualifies as "all night," she slept from 7:30pm - 7 am when I woke her up. That's some serious success!

Hopefully this is a trend because we have some company coming this weekend who probably don't want to hear a baby crying all night.



 

Temperament: Such a ray of sunshine!! So happy until you walk away and she wants to see you.

 

 

 

 

Action shot!







Melanie loves:

-Eating

 

-Sleeping

 

-Mommy's funny faces 

-Playing with Brother

Brother's 'playing' was putting a grape vine on her head and giggling.

-Smiling

-Daddy! 

-"Talking"

-Riding in the car

Zzzzzzz

 

-Getting her legs massaged

-Her pacifier

-Sitting up

-Chewing on EVERYTHING

-TV/iPad/remote/phone: whatever the adults have, she wants

-Standing up with help
-"Flying" in the air
-When Daddy gets home from work
-Grabbing things

-Outside
-the jumper

-sweet potatoes!
 





 



Mel dislikes:

 

-Waiting to eat

-When Mommy leaves the room
-Being tired
-Falling over from a sitting position

 

 

New adventures:
-Another visit from Nana!

-First cart ride with brother: Any parent of two can understand the awesomeness of the double-seat cart. Mel is sitting up pretty well now so we just added a towel for extra security.

Thank you HEB for these awesome carts!

The more exciting carts are the car carts. Reed goes bonkers for them. Unfortunately I can't put Mel in there yet for fear of her falling. One day.

Real men drive pink cars at Albertsons

-Eating solid foods: yummy sweet potatoes!

-Sitting up: Melanie LOVES sitting up. She does not, however, like falling over.

-Baths in the sink: Because she loves sitting up, she tries to do it in her bath seat. It's not really meant for sitting up, more like lounging back. Worried for her safety, I started bathing her in the kitchen sink. She really likes it.

-Sleeping exclusively in her own bed: She was in our room in a pack'n'play for 6 months. I didn't want to put her in her room at night when she still woke up so often. Reed and Mel's rooms share a wall and I was sure she would wake Reed up. As it turns out, Reed is a pretty sound sleeper.

 

Here is the side-by-side monthly chair pic:

Enjoy!

The Turners