Madelyn's Seventh Month

And the changes just keep coming!  I swear I can't keep up with this girl - she is just getting smarter and more physical day in and day out.  She had even more big accomplishments this month!

Teeth - two of 'em to be exact!  Within three days of each other.  We made it through with minimal fussing and really the only reason I knew it was coming was because Madelyn couldn't keep her fist out of her mouth.  The first one popped through and I thought, that was easy.  Out of nowhere the next one popped through.  Wow!  Didn't see that coming.  She seems to love her new chompers as it has made eating a lot more enjoyable which brings me to my next subject....

Solids - Miss. Madelyn L-O-V-E-S solid foods.  I'm trying to get beyond the mess factor and let her eat more often throughout the day but ugh the girl loves to create new rockin' hair styles with peaches, sweet potatoes, avocados, you name it.  Also - note to new cloth diaper mamas out there - solid foods stain diapers on the outside!  A couple of our beloved Fuzzibunz have permanent stains on them and that makes me sad.  Still no stains on the inside though!  Since I hope to sell the diapers one day, we had to adjust our strategy.  Our new method involves a naked baby, bumbo seat and plain old prefold diaper sans cover.  The warm weather helps here and so far it is working.

Breastfeeding - this is getting more challenging since Madelyn is so easily distracted.  She's always been a fast eater but we're talking 2-3 minutes per side (if I can even get her to eat off both sides).  And if there is someone else in the room or the TV is on, forget about it.  She's only nursing 4-5 times a day and once at night.  Her stats keep going up so I guess she's getting what she needs.  The chompers have been a bit of an issue.  Yup - she bit me.  And my reflexes smacked her little mouth.  Now relax, she didn't even cry and really I would call it more of a tap.  She actually pulled off and stared at me as if to say, "what - not a fan?"  Since that incident she's been kind enough to gently "test bite" as if she's seeing whether or not she'll get away with it and I just pull her off at that time.

Diapers - my chunky monkey is getting to the end of her size small Fuzzibunz and I hadn't really planned beyond that stage.  I really like our current diapering system so I want to continue but I'm now scrambling to get some mediums into our rotation before her current diapers start cutting off circulation in her baby thighs.  My price point is $10.00 or less per diaper.  I am also going to try a few of the one size diapers since I figure the bulkiness won't be as much of an issue at this stage.  I've also started line drying the diapers and am always amazed at the power of the sun.  It had gotten every.single.stain out her diapers.  It also has gotten stains out of some of her clothes that sadly were recipients of blowouts here and there.  And there is nothing cuter than a bunch of diapers on the line.  Love it!  I was also pleased to see that the sun got out old stains as well.  I was concerned about drying the diapers all winter and then trying to sun them but it hasn't been an issue.

Rockin' and Rollin' - She's not crawling yet but man alive is she close!  She rolls everywhere and has recently started getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth.  She has also mastered crawling backwards which works well until she backs herself into a corner, literally and then freaks out until you move her back to her starting position.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Madelyn has had a couple face plants into the floor when she's tried to move forward but she keeps trying.  I feel bad for her because she's clearly getting frusterated at not being able to move yet but I also am slightly dreading the day she figures it out since we will be chasing her from that point on.

Toys - Madelyn has started to get interested in her toys and there are some real front runners.  She loves Sophie and her Nuby teether for chomping on.  She loves pulling the blocks out of her sorter and I love asking her to find the "green circle" in the pile as if she understands what I'm even talking about.  She also loves any toy that makes noise and will squeal while she reaches out to hug it.  She also loves books!  Anytime I sit down to read with her she starts jabbering and flailing her arms around like a crazy woman.  We had to invest in some cloth books since as soon as the story ends, she wants to eat the book.

Classes - I started taking classes with Madelyn when she was about two months old.  Ann Arbor has a great program called First Steps that offers tons of different classes for babies from birth to age five.  We started with the Baby & Me Together class which was about 25 minutes of massage, songs and activities.  The rest of the time was discussion for the moms which was my real reason for signing up.  That and it was nice to have a reason to leave the house.  We took that class twice since the next one up was Wiggle Worms and she wasn't quite there yet.  This summer we are trying Music Together.  I've already been playing the CD for a few weeks and the songs are pretty cute. 

Madelyn has also started taking swim lessons!  She is a natural in the water and loves every minute of it.  I'm so glad I started taking her as early as I did because she is much more relaxed than the older kids in the class.  For example, at one point we work on getting the kids used to going underwater.  The method for Madelyn includes singing Ring Around the Rosy and at the completion of her song I blow into her face which causes her to hold her breath.  I then ease her under and pull her back up.  She is startled when she comes back to the surface but quickly goes back to whatever she was doing before she went under.  Not one tear or sign of fear or discomfort.  There is a little boy, I assume is around 18 months.  Same method but after the fact, he is crying for a good 10 minutes.  There is also a 3 year old in the class and her mom spends 5-10 minutes trying to convince her to even try.  Madelyn knowing how to swim in extremely important to me and I really believe if she grows up in the water we can hopefully skip any fears of the water.

Carseat - We upgraded to her convertible carseat!  After many, many, many hours of research, discussion and opinion gathering we decided on the Britax Advocate 70 CS.  It was not a cheap carseat by any means but I was able to score it for $150 less than retail by combining a sale with a coupon code which made the pricetag a bit easier to swallow.  At the end of the day it came down to this - Madelyn can't be in the center of my car as per the manual plus I can't use the LATCH system in the center seat either.  As a result, side impact protection was a biggie for me.  The difference between the Advocate and other Britax models comes down to these plastic bumper type things on the outside of the carseat.  It cost an extra $40.00 or so but it is supposed to serve as some protection for other backseat passengers.  If we could spend a little extra money but provide some protection for Ben, it seemed like a no brainer.  Hopefully we never need to be glad we "splurged" on her carseat but I rest a little easier knowing we've done what we can to ensure she is safe.

Lastly, we found out Madelyn's next BFF is going to be a Miss. Lily Eaton due sometime in October!!!

And now I leave you with this...a little glimpse into what our house sounds like these days....