Seven Months

So Wren hit the seventh month mark, what, four days ago? Five? I should probably acknowledge this but I'm terrible at blogging lately. Of course part of that terribleness is Wren and her new awesome sleep pattern's fault. She sleeps through the night now, yay! But "night" doesn't start until 9:30, 10:00, boo! Those precious minutes between putting Calder and myself to bed are my prime getting shit done moments and Wren's desire to stay up late and party has taken that away. Is she hungry? Teething? Just a happy/fussy P in the A? No idea. She seems to have plateaued at just the two bottom teeth, unlike Calder who was determined to sprout as many teeth as he could as fast as possible. And this is OK by me. Actually, I should say my boobs are OK with it since I still get a little bit of PTSD flinchiness due to what Calder and his chompers did to my sensitive bits.This is why, unlike he brother, I am still breastfeeding Wren at seven months and not quitting at five. I am still spending up to an hour and a half every work day hooked up to the pump, still waking up with painful engorged boobs (the only bad thing about the whole night sleeping thing) and still making my daily dressing decisions based upon chestal accessibility. That's not to say the Wren has ever been any kind of exclusively breastfed. Yesterday we bought her third can of formula ever and the first full size one. Regardless of what I do, I am barely keeping up with her insatiable appetite and so, formula. Sorry lactivists, my daughter was not EBF, she was MBF (mostly breast fed). Is that OK? Doubtful.

If I were to list her current likes they would be the dog, the cat, the Christmas Tree, climbing the present pile, chewing on her brother's presents so he can see what they all are and eating. Eating what? What do you have? She'll eat anything. Being an actual food product is only a minor requirement. Bruce and I regularly play a fun new game called "What's the Baby Got in Her Mouth Now?" Hint: It's usually paper. Wren could eat a whole magazine if left alone long enough. Our printed media pile looks as though we have adopted a quickly growing family of rabbits. As for real food, she wants to be eating whatever it is we have, baby appropriate or not. If you don't share, Wren will stare you down from her seat and growl at you. For reals, a low, rumbly, "Rahhhhhhhhhhh." She's been learning from the cat apparently. So we usually give in and feed her small chunks off our plates. I hear this is maybe something called baby-led weaning? Again, though, I am probably doing it wrong and making someone somewhere on the internet angry. I am terrible at following PARENTING doctrine.

Wren will be walking soon. Sometimes when she pulls up on stuff she'll forget to hold on and will stay steady for a second or two before plopping down on her butt. Or face. (Another new favorite game: "How'd the Baby Get a Shiner?") Last night, tired of being clawed at and kicked, I gave up on trying to cuddle/feed the honey badger to sleep and put her on the floor to burn off her extra energy. Wren immediately pulled up on Calder's plastic chair and motored her way around the living room. She looked a lot like the old guy from Up with his walker. Bruce was going to just get out the baby walker we got her for Christmas but that appears to be the only gift she hasn't partially chewed open yet so it couldn't be located.

Mastered Skills (most kids can do): Let's just say "Yes, with vigor" to these.

Sits without support

Drags objects toward herself

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do):

Lunges forward or starts crawling - Yeahhhh. Starts, hah.

Jabbers or combines syllables - Yes. I swear she says "Heeeey, yeahhhh" to people and also possibly a version of Mama. It's more like "uhmmMah MAH" though and it is used indiscriminately.

Starts to experience stranger anxiety - She'll still let others hold her but she is definitely more reserved now. Until you offer her food, then Wren is your new BFF.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do):

Waves goodbye - I am trying to teach her this. I don't think she's getting it. Sometimes she'll throw out an arm in response but I could just be reading into her undeveloped fine motor control.

Stands while holding onto something - Pshaw. With vigor.

Bangs objects together - A recent discovery. It's now like a competition to see who can make Mommy's headache worse up in here.

Begins to understand object permanence - Perhaps. Wren is certainly down with the whole, "Hey, let me toss this toy you just gave me so you can pick it up again a billion times" thing but we tried the whole putting an object under a cloth game to see what she does and what she does ist lose interest and go find a magazine to eat.