7 Months R2D2

In the past month LT (aka R2D2) has mastered sitting up without using her hands for support when placed in a seated position, continued to teethe, transferred to sleeping in the crib, and started to crawl. Not army crawl, but honest to God hands and knees belly off the floor movement. Still no gates up yet, but I am grateful that our family room is a step down so she can move around to her little hearts content in there. Even if it does mean she consistently beelines for the back issues of some magazines I need to relocate.

The crib sleeping is thanks to my enduring several mostly sleepless nights during our family "vacation" at the in-laws beach house before the 4th of July. No room for the rock & play in the car so had to use the pack & play left there from LO's younger days. It sucked, but was better to do it when I didn't need to keep up a normal schedule & DH was there to take point on LO's needs.

A side effect of her sleeping flat in the crib is having to restart the reflux medication. Realized after about a week or so that she was waking up coughing & crying, and arching when crying again. I got her back on the medicine and that has stopped. Glad there is a way to help her but hoping she grows out of it soon!

The two front top teeth have been threatening to come through since shortly after the bottom two emerged but threatening is all they've done. Poor girl. I do believe she'd chew on anything she can fit in her mouth in an attempt to feel better.

She continues to grow; 9 month clothing is starting to get snug and I'm subbing in some 12mo things. On Saturday she wore the 12mo dress LO wore for her first birthday to LO's 5th birthday party. It was only slightly large! Her hair has been coming in slowly, very blonde and much straighter than LO's, and it looks like there may be a slight widow's peak developing in the front. From a distance she still looks bald!

Like her sister, she's a huge fan of food. The only thing she's not really appeared to like are plain green beans - and I can't blame her for that, since they have a bitter edge to me. I've been much slacker about waiting between introducing new foods this time around. Neither DH nor I have any allergies (well, I react to kiwi but not significantly so I just avoid it for the girls), and LO has had no issues with anything so far so there doesn't seem to be need for much caution. Unlike last time, I have made very little of my own baby food - she will only nap on me, and will not transfer elsewhere so nap time is much less productive than I had anticipated. But food equals growth, which leads to the next point...

Growth & wanting to be carried all. the. time. has lead to a diagnosis of De Quervain's Tendinosis on my left hand. My dominant hand. My carrying hand. It's not horrible so far, I'm managing it with a hand brace, ibuprofen & icing, but not doing as much of the latter two as I should to prevent it degenerating further. 

R2D2 really loves playing in the pool - she kicks and splashes and acts like she wants you to let her go so she can try to swim properly. I keep telling her she has to wait until she masters not breathing in the water when she goes under, this displeases her. She also initiates peek-a-boo with available materials, loves grabbing at the cats (they are less a fan of this), things that crinkle, playing in the exersaucer & doorway jumper, and food. She's also had a couple of temper tantrums when non-toys have been removed from her attention - the kind where the air starts getting sucked in, she starts turning red, and you know a massive wail is coming. Those are fun! Not really.

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Today I spent some time packing up the wee baby things from NB to 3-6mo to take over to a friend of mine from college who is expecting girl/boy twins in August. (side note: she used the same RE office I did for LO, but the other RE was her primary.) Unusually for me I was falling into the 'give all the things, get them out of my house' rubric vs. my usual pack-rat tendency. Guess that means we are really and truely done. Which, also, is sad. In a way.

Gotta run, baby cries for a top-up before longer term sleep.