Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Diapers, baby food, and sleep training, oh my!

Where to start? It turns out I’m terrible at this blogging stuff now that I’m a momma. I’ll try not to go four months again.

Ada turns seven months old today! I can’t believe that she’s been hanging out with us this long. While she’s such an important part of our lives, and I couldn’t imagine life without her, it also seems like just yesterday that we were bringing her home.

When she’s not teething, Ada is a happy, healthy little girl. She’s certainly not without her challenges (what baby is?), but she brings such joy to us that it’s all worth it.

Since our last update, Ada has done a lot of growing up. One would hope so, right?

In October we flew to Phoenix to visit all our old friends and show off our little cutie. My best friend and her hubby drove out from California to see us. We had a great time visiting with everybody and showing Ada where Luke’s and my life together started. (Let’s face it, though, she didn’t care.) I don’t know if it was a coincidence, or if the travel really threw her off and set things in motion, but whatever good sleeping habits Ada had before Phoenix, she threw out the window.

We came back and nighttime became a nightmare. My sweet girl, who used to eat twice a night and had no problem going back in her crib, suddenly wanted her momma every couple of hours, all night. Oh, and she didn’t want to sleep anywhere but her swing. I tried some sleep training, but she was just not ready for it. I’ll spare you all the details, but I wasn’t able to start really sleep training her until we moved, just before Thanksgiving. With a lot of patience and tears (yes, we let her cry it out), I’m happy to say that Ada happily goes to bed without a fight, eats just once a night, and sleeps solidly, in her crib, from 7-7! If you’ve ever been there (meaning you’ve had a kid), you know how wonderful it feels to start getting something like a normal night’s sleep again.

Ada has also started eating solids in the last couple of months. I make all her food, and it’s been so much fun to watch her experience new flavors. So far, she’s had oatmeal, prunes, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, sweet peas, carrots, berries, and avocado. She’s a great little eater and has enjoyed nearly everything I’ve given her.

At her last appointment, a month ago, Ada weighed 14 lbs, 3 ½ oz. This made her ½ oz shy of doubling her birth weight, and put her in the 14th percentile for her age. So she’s a little bit of a thing. And this momma is not complaining! I get a lot more use out of her clothes. Today, in fact, she wore a size 3 month onesie.

Ada is getting more curious every day about the world around her. She’s recently developed a desire for mobility. We’re not seeing any crawling yet, but she can scoot around on her back like no other! A few weeks ago she decided it was time to start sitting unassisted. I love it, because it means I can set her down in a lot more places, but I know once she starts crawling, all that will stop. Ada loves to play peek-a-boo, have conversations, listen to music and dance with her daddy. Lately, she’s loved just about anything her daddy does.

We still love cloth diapering, and feel it was the best decision we could have made for our family. It really hasn’t been a lot of work and we’ve already made back our investment in savings. I’ve heard a lot of moms say that their husbands don’t like to use cloth, but Luke’s taken to it quite well. He claims to never have changed a diaper before Ada came along, but he’s a natural.

A friend of mine shares her favorite baby products on her blog, and since I have some new momma friends, I thought I might steal this one and share a few of my own favorites.

- Coconut oil- with cloth diapers, we can’t use traditional diaper creams because of the zinc. So we just slather little miss in coconut oil and so far it has cleared up any bit of irritation she’s had.

- Dr. Bronner’s Baby Mild Castille Soap- A little bit goes a long way, and doesn’t cause cradle cap! Enough said.

- Ibuprofen- I’m a fan of natural products for a lot of things, but when it comes to teething, I’ve decided not to mess around. When my little girl is in pain, we break out the good stuff.

- Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit- Yep, you read that correctly. Ada was fighting her swaddle big time when we started sleep training. This crazy suit is a swaddle transition. It gives her freedom of movement while preventing her from slapping herself in the face. We’ve used it for a month and I’m about ready to wean her from it, but it’s been wonderful!

Since anyone who reads my blog is either family or a friend on Facebook, I’m sure you’ve all seen plenty of pictures. But I’ll leave you with one from today. Until next time!

 

Img_1144