G'day Gibbins: Poppy 7 months

7 months already?! Where has the time gone! Poppy is changing by the day, and sometimes I wish time would stand still. It seems like we just brought her home yesterday.

The last month has brought a little more routine to her schedule. Right before our cruise, we broke down and made her "cry it out" to go to sleep. It wasn't as bad as I feared but it is still hard to hear her cry. The first night she cried for about 20 minutes, and the longest we've had her cry is 45. I would call the crying it out a success since it has made getting her down for bedtime or naps much easier. She is pretty good about soothing herself back to sleep too. I think the crying it out played a critical role in the great sleeper she was while we gone, too.

After our cruise, we decided it was time to say goodbye to Miracle Blanket. This was a dreaded decision since Poppy has never slept with her arms unswaddled. I had no idea how she would do with her arms free to flap about. But, we were frequently finding her rolled over in her swaddle or with it around her neck. She actually did 100 times better than we anticipated and is now in a sleep sack for sleeping.

The last month has brought a little more predictability to her routine. On an ideal day (like yesterday), she will take a 1.5-2 hour nap in the morning and a 2-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. Most days don't look exactly like that, and she will get a second morning nap or a late afternoon nap; today she had both! I am looking forward to hitting the "ideal" more days than not.

We are still not sleeping through the night. She usually wakes for a feeding sometime after 3:30. If it's before then, I try to get her to self-soothe back to sleep. Lachlan and Jonas were still eating once a night at this age too, so I'm not worried about it. More sleep for Mommy would be nice, though.

Poppy is still nursing every 3ish hours. She is also eating baby food 3 times a day. Her least favorite food so far is peas. She also loves that she can feed herself the Mum Mum crackers.

In the last month, she started sitting up on her own really well. I still try to put a pillow behind her but falls these days are rare and are usually forward instead of backward. She can roll from her back to her belly but has to really want something to do it. We are still working on rolling back the other way. I hope mastering that skill will lead to better sleep.

Oh, I almost forgot, she cut her first tooth in December, while we were on the cruise. Ms. Theresa and Katelin say it didn't seem to bother her much. I can see tooth #2 through the gums, and this one seems to be causing quite a bit of trouble. I have had one fussy girl on my hands the last few days! She likes to use this new tooth to bite mommy; I am not a fan.

Poppy does love attention. She is definitely starting to cry whenever she realizes she is alone in a room. She thrives on attention from her brothers and was in heaven yesterday when she found herself surrounded by all 3! She also loves when Daddy comes home!

Here are a few cute pictures from the last month:

Christmas morning