M turned seven months old on Tuesday.
Her crawling is growing more certain by the day, and she really gets going when she’s after something she wants – like a cat, or the Tiger’s whiskers, or an electrical cord. She is trying like crazy to conquer the step up from the library to the kitchen, but hasn’t quite mastered the ability to lift her knee high enough. On occasion, she comes up on hands and feet, walks her feet forward, and then sits down. She is close to moving consistently from a crawling stance to a sit, but it often ends up looking more like a leisurely sideways recline. She has also started pulling herself up to standing, which scares me to death. I am afraid to leave her alone for a minute, because she’ll pull herself upright – and not yet comprehending that she needs to hold on to remain so – she often tumbles down after a while. Not that this fazes her, but my mama eyes see potential-head-injuries lurking everywhere.
Her right eyetooth is through the gum and making its descent … earning her the lovely nickname “Snaggle-Tooth Baby”. She continues to handle teething with aplomb, for which I am infinitely grateful, and please please don’t let that change. The other night she started grinding her bottom two teeth against the upper tooth … it sounds like she’s chewing rocks, and makes my arm-hairs stand on end. The appearance of this tooth has also marked a return to boob-biting, and I am less than pleased. My knee-jerk response is to yelp “OW!” and yank my boob out of her mouth. This seemed to work fine when it was just the bottom two teeth, but now that a top one is in, my nipple is subjected to painful lacerations as it makes its hasty exit. It has taken a while, but I’ve finally learned to insert my finger in her mouth before withdrawing – no matter how painful the biting. Unfortunately, my “Don’t Bite!” command, which previously earned so much respect, now elicits a mirthful squint and a giggle. Nursing is starting to feel like a game of Russian roulette.
She has the most expressive eyebrows I’ve ever seen, and on occasion lifts only one. My favorite is when I make a face or noise at her, and she very briefly raises then lowers her brows, as if to say, “Yeah Baby”.
Her vocalizations are growing more complex – and cute. Imitating her often results in peals of laughter. She continues to experiment with her lips and tongue – producing all manner of hilarious sounds and expressions. She even put her mouth on my arm the other day and blew – something we’ve been doing to her belly almost since birth.
She is quite bored with her toys already, and only wants what the grownups have (keyboard, camera, fork, telephone). The other day, R had her in the sling and packed it full of every toy he could lay his hands on. She spent the next few minutes systematically examining each one, and then discarding it onto the floor. She dropped them languidly from her hand, as if it wasn’t even worth the effort to throw them.
Her favorite activity while nursing is to reach up, curl her fingers around my bottom teeth, and pull. (She also does this to herself, although thankfully not while she’s nursing.) Her second favorite activity while nursing is to run her hand over her head – up from her ear, down the top of her head and forehead, over her eye and cheek, and back to her ear. Repeat. She especially does this when she’s tired.
We are ready to try solids with some earnestness now, as her poops finally seem to have normalized, and she seems to be hungrier and watches us chew with fascination. I wanted to get started this past weekend, but decided to wait until she got through her cold. Expect pictures and stories in the near future.
Speaking of the cold, we are mostly all better now. Congestion is lingering on for all of us, and I am amazed by the amount of snot I squeeze out of my head every morning. Unfortunately for M, she has neither learned to blow her nose nor hock a loogie, and suctioning only gets the stuff that’s close to the surface, so things are still a bit more difficult for her. At least the screaming fits and hours of sleeplessness at night seem to have ended.
I may have failed in my attempts to get her to sleep on her own at night, but I did learn one important thing – under the right conditions, she will nap alone. I’ll lie with her on the twin mattress until she falls asleep, and then make my exit for some blissful baby-free time. Sometimes she’ll sleep for as long as an hour and a half, but she usually wakes every 30-45 minutes. In the morning that’s often sufficient, but in the afternoon she typically needs a longer nap. I’ve learned that waking up crying means “I’m still tired and want to sleep more. Please provide boobage in order to assist in the achievement of my goals.” Waking up happy means naptime is over.
Although having to lie down with her (and return to her multiple times) to get her to sleep can be frustrating, there are also times of sublime joy. Just before she falls asleep, she finally stops wiggling and is calm – a rare event for my always-on-the-go baby. I give her my hand, and she tenderly explores it with her fingers. I stroke her fingers and palm, and she strokes mine in return. The dexterity and control she demonstrates with those pudgy little hands amazes me. She also explores her own hands, or gently fondles the ribbon on her teddy bear, running it between her fingers. She sometimes makes soft cooing noises, and then turns her head to me and closes her eyes, while her fingers continue to slowly caress whatever they hold. After a minute or two she drifts off to sleep, quiet and peaceful, her skin glowing luminously in the soft light from the window.
Our days go by in such a blur – milestones are met, achievements noted, time marches on. In the quiet stillness as she’s falling asleep, I try to take a deep breath and stare with awe and wonder at this amazing human being I’ve brought into this world. And just be.