{alligator: Jellycat // top and leggings: Tea Collection // moccasins: Freshly Picked}
{month seven} Happy Girl! Seriously, she is just so happy. I really just hope that we all can be as happy as Daphne girl, even just once every day.
Daphne LOVES to eat and is now eating three meals per day. She eats so much (I usually just cut her off since she will just keep eating whatever you offer her) and it’s always after she has nursed! In a few months we will switch and do solids before nursing (as she transitions off milk and onto “real” food) but for now, nearly all of her calories still come from breast milk. We are still offering purees (that I defrost before every meal) along with chopped fruit (apple, banana, pear, mango, peach) or roasted veggies (zucchini, broccoli, squash, cauliflower, sweet potato). And while we still have a ton of purees in the freezer, Daphne seems to prefer hand-held food that she can feed herself. Even when we do purees on a spoon, she grabs at the spoon and wants to feed herself! It seems like we are going to be transitioning off of purees a bit earlier than we did with Eloise, but the frozen purees in single (ice cube) servings are super nice when we are on-the-go; I just put a few cubes into these reusable pouches and it is perfect when we are out to dinner.
Nursing sessions these days are pretty short since Daphne is a much more efficient drinker and also because everything, especially Eloise, is such a distraction! Daphne probably spends 50% of the time sitting up or otherwise looking around. Her first nursing session in the morning (usually around 8 am) is always 20 solid minutes, and then she is off to start her day! On a few occasions in the last few weeks we have been out during Daphne’s morning nap, so it has been very short or non-existent, so that second session (right before lunchtime) as been a super quiet one and sometimes Daphne has even fallen asleep! It seems like it has been SO long since Daphne would fall asleep during nursing, and I am trying to hold onto those sweet moments.
Daphne is still on the go and has managed to army crawl even faster than ever! If I set her down on the play mat, she will be off of it and headed to Eloise’s kitchen (across the room) in about 20 seconds. She still isn’t crawling with her knees underneath her yet, but she is surprisingly mobile, going from sitting to her belly to rolling on her side to spinning around (on her belly). It is impressive! She will chase toys down (like her ball rattle or round blocks that roll) and loves to give big sloppy kisses to stuffed animals and dolls. She also really likes books and even though she wants to chew on them, she will sit and listen to a story before bedtime or play time and grab at anything that is brightly colored (she seems to really like red).
I almost hate to bring it up, but it is what everyone who sees us asks (strangers, friends, neighbors): sleep. Daphne, from day one, has been a great sleeper partly because she is a good self-soother. She naps at least twice per day (with a third catnap on days her afternoon nap is early) with one nap being about an hour and the other nap being close to 2 or 2.5 hours; generally her afternoon nap is the longest (especially if her morning nap was short or we were out of the house) but sometimes her morning nap is nice and long (which is glorious on mornings when Eloise is at school). Daphne goes down super easily and without much effort which is mostly out of necessity in the form of a toddler big sister. Sometimes I feel bad that I don’t spend time rocking Daphne before she sleeps, but it is also great that Daphne can go from wide-awake to sleeping completely on her own. She likes to have two pacis, one in her mouth and one in her hand, and she switches them out while she is awake. And she also needs her lovie to snuggle with or to hold in her hand if she is sucking her thumb. I just bought her another identical lovie since I couldn’t find time to wash her original one and figured she is attached to it enough that it probably won’t hurt to have a back-up down the road.
We are still cloth diapering and it seems to work well for us. Eloise’s old bumGenius diapers don’t seem to fit Daphne as well around the legs though, and she tends to leak when she wears those. Frustrating, but it happens. I will try again in a few weeks and see if it works! Until then, we are only using the Grovia ones that we got from a friend. I really like these Grovia ones and they fit Daphne really well! Cloth diapering is a bit more challenging once you start solids, but not terrible. I just roll any solids into the toilet and then wash the diapers like I always did. And because I am flushing away nearly all of the poop, our cloth diaper pail doesn’t smell (as compared to a diaper pail full of poopy disposable diapers night). Plus, did you know you are supposed to flush solids from disposable diapers? Yep, it’s in the instructions! (Crazy, right? Though it makes a lot of sense.)
And finally, Daphne is so chatty! She is making so many sounds these days and is chatting during most of her awake time. Mostly we hear DA, MA, and BA which are the same first sounds we heard from Eloise. Daphne does say “mama” a lot, though I know she isn’t calling me Mama. But when she is upset, it is a very sad “mamamamamama.” Daphne also shrieks with excitement when she is really happy or when she sees Eloise. It’s the cutest.
{weight} I would guess close to 17 pounds.
{hair} blackish brown.
{teeth} two bottom middle teeth.
{eyes} dark grey/brown.
{clothes} 3 to 6 months (pants only), 6 months and 12 months (Carter’s), 6 to 12 months.
{diapers} size 3 {from the honest company}. At home we are doing cloth (bumGenius and Grovia) and disposables when we go out and overnight (and add a cloth cover).
{feeding} nursing every 3 to 4 hours during the day, starting around 8 am. feeding sessions last around 10 to 20 minutes (still both sides). bedtime is between 7:30 and 8 pm with a 6 oz bottle. {likes} eating, watching big kids or babies, crawling, spinning on her back and belly, teething rings, chewing on anything, sitting in her highchair, staring at her quilt (from Amanda), rattles, nursing, riding in the car (usually), her big sister Eloise, Sadie, singing, lights, paci, being bounced, sucking on her hands, being tickled, talking (cooing).
{dislikes} having gas, lying down flat right after eating, being hungry or tired, not having a bottle immediately after seeing it. {nicknames} Daph, Bug, Snorty, Baby D, Daphne Doo, Daph-a-doo, Love, Lovebug.
And here is Eloise’s seven month update. It’s interesting because in real life I think Eloise and Daphne look so similar at this age, but in these two seven month photos, I don’t think they look as similar!
Happy seven months Daphne!
M
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