Brittlynn was 7 months old from July 6th through August 5th. It was a BUSY month in the land of Brittlynn!!!
Eating: Girl can GRUB. She lovessssss eating solids and will chow down on anything I give her. It’s fun being creative! I am still very much loving Baby-Led Weaning and am about 99% sure that we’ll do this same feeding method with baby #3 someday!
I have MANY favorite things about my sweet girl but one of my top ones has to be how she already crosses her ankles like a little lady. She does it every time she eats and it’s such a dainty, feminine thing to do. It’s precious!
Watermelon is for sure her favorite food…she shares her fav with her brother!
More eating pics from this month:
Girl loves watermelon so much she would not let go of it for bath time!
Beef Stroganof
After her “6” Month Well Visit and the news that she dropped in her percentiles for growth I did decide to start giving her rice cereal. I know it’s considered by many to be the “must have” baby food. I mix some up with some jarred baby food at dinner time and let her eat it along with her other foods. I buy jarred foods that she doesn’t have in her normal diet (prunes and pumpkin so far). She seems to enjoy it okay…def not a favorite food but I figure it might help her in gaining some weight and getting the nutrients she needs.I first started giving it to her on July 20th
At the start of dinner
After dinner!!!
So glad Daddy handles bath time 😉
Eating the rice cereal mix
She does really well with the sippy. This month I kinda switched it up with the brands and rotated through three different brands. I couldn’t really find one where she was able to figure out to TIP IT UP. Nothing really worked. I just always help her? I figured once she weans from the breast and only gets her milk with her meals she’ll figure it out so I’m not stressing about it. One day we were out and I gave her a bottle but when we got home she still had some bottle left so I offered it to her with her lunch in her sippy. She did fine having the breastmilk in the sippy and didn’t mind drinking it from there at all!
Mobile Baby!!! Brittlynn crawled for the first time on July 10th. She had only turned 7 months old four days prior. Um. What happened to my BABY?!?! Zach and I both were super, mega disappointed that we missed the big event. He was in Atlanta on business. And I was in Atlanta visiting my friends. She didn’t just crawl a little…she went from not crawling to going across the room! She crawls then stops and sits up then crawls again. She is a speed demon and it’s CRAZY how quickly she can go!!! She also will put her legs straight while in the crawling position like she’s already trying to stand up! Here’s the first video of her crawling (Mr Rusty sent this to us on our phones while we were gone…). I took this video soon after her first time…she took a bit of coaxing! Kye wasn’t too big of a fan of her crawling…here’s a video of him trying to stop her… Here’s a video I took of her going at full speed!
Sitting Up: Last month Britt started being able to sit up on her own and now I find her in her crib sitting up ALL THE TIME.
How I would find her at the end of naps 😉
She would always try to stand and got up on her knees a lot like in this video.
I missed the first time she crawled…and I missed the first time she pulled herself up to standing! I left to go on the girl’s trip with Mrs. Charlotte, Courtney, and Casey on July 27th and Zach called about an hour after we left and said “has she been standing up? b/c she just did it.” Ugh!!! I hate missing stuff! Thankfully she didn’t do it again and I got to see her do it the next time 😉 Once she started pulling herself to standing we now always find her in her crib like this!!!
Here’s a video of her standing in the crib…I love how bouncy she is!
Actually now right when we lay her down to go to sleep she rolls over (I still lay her on her back even though she’s a tummy sleeper!!!) and crawls to the side of the crib then pulls herself to standing.
Schedule: For most of the month she still had the same schedule as she did at 6 months old, which you can see here.
I’m not so amazing with transitions. I just kinda JUMP into stuff with my kids. Yes, it takes longer to adjust but we get through it. On July 30th our washing machine broke and I HAD to do laundry. We went over to Mr. Rusty and Mrs Charlotte’s house after the kids afternoon naps so I could finish up the loads I had started and we stayed for dinner. I put Britt down for her 5:00 cat nap but she BAWLED. Like SCREAMED. My child does not cry for naps or night time sleep. She was so upset I ended up going in and getting her. We realized she probably thought I was leaving since she so often spends the night with them when we are out of town (like I was a bit this month…for Atlanta…and for the nights Mrs. Charlotte kept the kids so I could do my dr appointments). She was old enough to go ahead and drop her evening cat nap so I decided to let that time start then! I didn’t do a slow wean to get her to drop it…I mean it was only from 4:45-6 anyway! So I just dropped it all at once and haven’t looked back. Here’s what her schedule looked like from July 30th on:
6:45-7:15: Wake up, change diaper, nurse then breakfast with Kye
After breakfast: Independent Playtime
8:35ish: Bible Story time
8:45-9:00: Down for nap (Kye has room time during her nap)
10:45-11:15: Up from nap, change diaper, nurse (Kye usually watches movie while I nurse her for this feeding)
After nursing: Independent Playtime while I fix kids lunch
After independent playtime: Solids while Kye and I eat lunch
12:30ish: Start getting ready for nap, read story and say prayers with Kye
12:45-12:55: Down for nap
2:45-3:15: Up from nap, diaper change, nurse
After nursing: Enjoy alone time with Mommy
4:00: wake up Kye with Mommy
4:00-6:00: Playtime with family
6:00: eat solids while family eats dinner
6:40: Bath with Kye then ready for bed
7:00: Nurse
7:20: Family story time, family prayers
7:35: Brittlynn down for night
7:45: Kye down for night
Not having the evening nap is ONLY a benefit when we go out places. Which isn’t often. So it’s basically a pain. Haha. I mean WHAT do I do with her while I cook?!?! Especially since she is so fussy during this time as she’s adjusting to not sleeping. We spent the rest of the month doing quick baths, nursing her early (like at 6:45 instead of 7) then putting her STRAIGHT to bed. So she typically missed out on prayers and story time. But she needed the extra sleep. I also started letting her sleep a little longer at the 3:00 nap. If she was really asleep I’d let her go until 3:30 then wake her because the last thing I wanted was for her to be EXTRA fussy during an already fussy time of day!!!
Toys Selecting: One memory that always stands out to me with Kye as a baby is just hanging out in his room while he played with his toys. He used to ALWAYS pull himself up to his toy drawer and pick out the ones he wanted. Well now Britt does the same thing! 🙂
She also has toys in her closet she likes to play with
Here’s a video of her getting the toys in her closet
Here’s a video of her getting into her drawer!
She can open the drawer and will often bare too much weight on it so it shuts on her fingers 🙁 I rig some toys up so it can’t shut now! Here’s another video!
Activity Table: Now that Brittlynn is mobile, able to sit herself up, and able to pull herself to standing (has this been a developmental leap month or whhhhhhat?!?!) she doesn’t have much interest in the jumperoo. She is OBSESSED with our activity table. I got it for Kye when he was about 9 months old (remember?) He loved it and she does too. Of course she’s much younger than he was but this child is just insisting on growing up quick. I think she’s in a hurry to catch up to her Big Brother 🙂 Kye has done well sharing the table. Since he’s older now the table was in his playroom but he rarely played with it. It’s the first real toy that he knows was his so it’s a bit tough but I just explain to him that he’s a big boy now and that he has lottts of big boy toys that Britt can’t play with so we need to have a happy heart (thanks Rach!) and let her have the baby toys 😉 Here’s some pics of her enjoying the table this month…and she will crawl over to it and pull herself to standing to play with it!
Here’s a video of her playing/dancing with her table…you can see how awesome her balance is!!!
Climbing: Kye was never much of a climber…but Brittlynn is going to be I think. Of course with Kye we didn’t have stairs either 😉 But the way our stairs are set up we can’t put a baby gate at the very bottom. This leaves 2 steps open. We find Britt on many occasions attempting to climb the steps. She hasn’t mastered it yet but I’m sure she will soon. I wouldn’t mind so much if we didn’t have TILE floor at the bottom of them!!!
Here’s a video of her stair attempt
Busted 😉
Independent Playtime: I’m so thankful I do independent playtime with my children. Kye was never overly attached to me but it still helped him. With Brittlynn, it’s essential. This child would cling to me 24/7 if I let her. This month we struggled with Independent Playtime again. She screamed and cried a LOT during it. It may seem obvious to some but I FINALLY realized why she didn’t do well with it…she could HEAR us. Back when Kye had independent playtime as a baby I would always go in another room so he never heard me. But with Britt she could hear Kye playing or interacting with me. We started whispering when she had independent playtime and Kye does GREAT about making sure she can’t see him or hear him. It started going WAY better! She had her first GREAT time on July 27th 🙂
Drama Queen!
Jumperoo: Honestly, I should pack it up and save it for baby #3 at this point. I can’t BELIEVE how quickly Britt grew out of it. I still highly recommend buying one, but hopefully our next baby won’t start being mobile as young as she has. I only really put her in it now when I can’t keep an eye on her. She only lasts a few minutes before getting upset and frustrated though. I save it for when I need to vacuum or when I need to discipline Kye as I firmly believe that discipline should be done in private when possible.
Friends: Poor Britt. With Kye I had lots and lots of play dates. With Brittlynn, I don’t. We went to visit with Crissy’s crew during this month and it was nice for Brittlynn to have someone to play with her age for a change. Of course she and Olive didn’t interact much but we did snap a few pics of them together 🙂 I know as they get older they will be buddies! I need to make more of an effort to seek out friends who have babies Brittlynn’s age and to actually make time to have play dates with them!
Spanking: Brittlynn got her first spanking this month. I know that may seem young to many…I encourage you to read my post on Why We Spank if you have any questions about this. Once our babies are mobile we stock up on hardware store paint sticks that we use as spank sticks. She got her first spanking on July 13th. I will never forget Kye’s first one…it was for playing with the fan cord in his room. Brittlynn’s first spanking was for playing with the cords in her room (isn’t that funny???) I told her “no ma’am” multiple times and removed her from the temptation but she was persistent and continued to crawl over to them and grab them. So I got the paint stick and popped her on the hand saying “no ma’am” sternly. Um. I had to pop that child three times until she finally cried. I think she may just have a delayed reaction to stuff??? The spankings are already working though as she has learned what “no ma’am” means and will flinch when she sees the spank stick.
Crib: Brittlynn is still a wonderful sleeper. Since she started pulling herself to standing we went ahead and dropped down her crib mattress. Just to make sure she won’t be doing any escaping anytime soon 😉 She always sleeps on her tummy. Sometimes she is face down and sometimes her face is to the side. I cannot stand that she sleeps this way…but I’m also a tummy sleeper so I can’t really fault her for it. We still use the Angel Care monitor so I can sleep without worry. She sucks on her two fingers while she sleeps and I watch her sometimes on the video monitor and see her use her other hand to rub the sheets. It’s interesting because she rubs the sheet with her palm open the SAME way Kye rubs his monkey friend he sleeps with.
Crib with dropped down mattress
Back Hatred: Child HATES being on her back. As I mentioned, RIGHT when I lay her down to go to sleep on her back she flips over. She does the same move when I go to change her diaper. I always try to give her one or two toys to hold to semi-distract her but it doesn’t work for long. She wiggles and squirms and it drives me insane. I say “no ma’am lay still” and force her to lay still. I wonder if I should spank for this???? At this age I only spank for touching things that shouldn’t be touched…but she IS disobeying by rolling over when I’m changing her???
this dog toy is one of her favorites, so random!
Couldn’t resist putting this up…awesome facial expression!
Bath: Pretty much every single night (and yes, we’re every night bathers in our house!) Britt and Kye bathe together. Zach and I trade off Wednesday nights for Bible Study with Kye so on Wed nights she gets to bathe solo (and Kye skips bath those nights). I enjoy when I get to bathe her. She loves it so much! She is IN LOVE with the tub duck she has (thanks Ashley T!!!). She seriously wants to hold it/chew on it non-stop and it often ends up going with us when she’s done with the bath 😉 The tub seat is still going great…I do recommend buying one if you have more than one baby as it frees up your hands more and you don’t have to worry as much. Duh, I still keep a constant eye on her but she’s a little safer than if she was just sitting in the tub solo.
This is a super cute video of her in the tub 😉 Love her!
Happy Girl!!!
Intensely chewing 😉
Daddy loves bath time!
Swing: We often go out to the backyard swing set and Brittlynn cracks me with with her swinging. Kye LOVES, like legit LOVES, to swing so Britt does it often as well. She kicks her little feet over and over again like she’s the one making it go 😉 She’s liking it more now than before…and her constant look of surprise is pretty hilarious!
Arms Out: Britt constantly crawls a little, then sits down, then puts her arms out to her sides. it’s like she’s trying to keep herself balanced or something???? Sorry for the wet hair in the pics…she had been a MESSY eater 😉
She will hold her arms out and wave them around in a “yay” type way 😉 Like she’s so proud of herself!
Annoying Little Sister: We’ve entered the obnoxious sister phase! I knew it wouldn’t take long!!! Once she got mobile she also started getting into everything. Poor Kye, he’s so patient with her. She especially LOVES Jingle. Kye doesn’t mind one bit sharing Jingle with her. I always make sure to tell him how sweet and thoughtful it is and how proud it makes me (and God) to see him share with his sister and have such a giving spirit with her. She often cuddles with Jingle when we say our nightly family prayers.
Jingle Kisses
Britt and I have alone time after she nurses at 3 and before Kye gets up at 4…I cracked up when I spotted her. She raced over to Kye’s train track and messed it up then just kept going like no one would notice. Look at that guilty face!!!
Pirate Girl: We got each of the kids Pirate shirts while in St Augustine…and I forgot to post the pics of them in them with the trip posts. I love Britt’s little shirt 🙂 So legit!
Toy Stations: I am a big believer in boundaries. Therefore, I do my best to keep my babies in set areas, always the places I am. I have toys in each area of the house to keep them entertained. Britt has most of her toys in her bedroom. But I also keep age appropriate toys for her in Kye’s room, my bathroom, the living room and the kitchen. The kitchen opens up LOTS of easy toy solutions…hello measuring cups 😉
This face is cracking me up! I keep a little basket of toys in her pack and play in the dining room for her independent playtime so I’ll grab that when needed as well!
Mama’s Girl: Brittlynn ADORES me. I know a lot of people have said “enjoy it while you can b/c once she gets to be a teenager she’ll hate you.” Ya know what? I don’t think that’s true. I feel that my love of the lord and my desire to raise my children up in him will keep us close in the future. I know many parents whose children never went through that stage. Courtney and Casey have always both adored their mama so I try not to let comments like that get to me! Brittlynn will crawl over to me and climb up on me for me to hold her. She’ll also wrap her legs around my hips to hold on tight (Mrs Charlotte says she “hooks her legs”). She basically begs for me to carry her ALL the time. She is as happy as can be as long as she’s with me. It can be annoying at times (hello…cooking dinner one handed ain’t easy…) but Kye WORSHIPS the ground Zach walks on so I don’t mind having one of our children being a little obsessed with me for a change. Plus my arms are getting a good workout…my dad even commented on how they look the best they ever have when I saw him in Atlanta! Whoo hoo! Thanks Britt 😉 Britt started playing with my hair when I nurse her and it’s the sweetest thing! She also REALLY cries whenever I leave her with someone…even Zach. Anytime I leave and he keeps the kids he always says that she fusses pretty much the entire time I’m gone! I may have missed out on a few firsts this month but I did get the first legit kiss. She leaned in and kissed me on Aug 2nd for the first time 🙂
Favorite Toy: Brittlynn prefers soft toys over hard ones. She especially likes smaller toys that she can hold in her hand while crawling (or nursing or having a diaper change..basically the child always likes to have a toy in her hands!). Her favorite toy of all is this little dog rattle I got from one of my baby showers.
I promise it’s her favorite toy…but I’m her favorite person and this is the reaction when I put her down haha
She enjoys getting to play with her big girl toys too!
Here’s a video of her with her blocks and another video with other toys.
I even take her up to the playroom on occasion for her to play now!
First time in the ball pit
Brother Love: Even though she may be starting to get on his nerves more often now that she’s mobile…I can also see their bond developing more. On July 7th she reached out and held Kye’s hand during our story time together. It totally melted my heart! She prefers his toys to her own and will immediately crawl over to whatever he’s playing with! She thinks everything he does is so interesting…she loves when he helps wake her up like in this video! Kye’s favorite game is playing the “Brittlynn game” with Zach where he plays the role of Brittlynn’s protector 😉 Here’ s a video! Before bed every night we all get super crazy…here’s a video of Brittlynn “dancing” with Daddy and Kye trying to stop her. (and another video of the dance a little better!) I love the crazy times we have together!
Had to have a couple pics with brother this month!
More That Britt was Up To During Month 8:
- If Brittlynn is fussy we will take her outside…she LOVES to be outdoors.
- She also does best around lots of people…she likes to be where the action is at 😉
- She does not have a super long attention span. She gets bored easily and boredom = fussiness!
- She started pursing her lips together
- Britt chews on her fingers now as well as sucks on them…must be the teething?
- Britt LOVES the animals. She lights up when they are around!
- She doesn’t really enjoy story time…she basically wants to play the entire time instead of listening to the story
- Britt is a TRUE girly girl. She is in love with anything shiny and always has to touch all of my jewelry.
- I no longer put Brittlynn in her bouncers at all. They have just become things for her to try to pull up on 😉 Like in this video!
- She has a very girl little yell she does…it’s a little “AH!” sound
- This month we switched her over to 9 months clothes fully. Either size 9 months or size 6-12 months depending on how the brand does their sizing. Kye was in 9 months clothes at 6 months old so she’s a little behind him
- Due to eating solids her poops are a lot more solid now and always have chunks of food in them
- One night her video monitor went out and we couldn’t figure out why. We went into her room and she had unplugged it somehow and pulled down the camera and was CHEWING on it. Thankfully we got it from her and rearranged how we had everything hooked up!
- She has started pulling the breast to her mouth with her hand while nursing
- She signed “all done” for the first time on July 16th, here’s a video!
- We now brush her teeth with a little finger brush and baby toothpaste. She LOVES it. I think it feels good on her teething gums
- She’s for sure teething as she is so fussy, wants to sleep a LOT. No fever though. And hey, I’ll gladly take a baby who WANTS to sleep over all the stories I see on Facebook about teething babies who won’t sleep at all 🙂
- She LOVES the texture of our game storage trunk…here’s a video of her trying to pull herself up on it earlier in the month.
- I’m probably strange but I still nibble down her finger nails…she can’t STAND it though.
- When she was born everyone commented on her HUGE feet. Well guess what…they haven’t grown since!!! Child is still in a 3-6 months/size 1 shoe! (Not that she EVER wears them but I pulled some out just to see!).
Now that Brittlynn is mobile I just feel MORE connected with her. I know so many people say “life gets tougher when the baby gets mobile” but I don’t agree. I think it’s EASIER. She can do more. Play more. Has a more developed personality. She can interact more. She doesn’t seem as breakable. She’s more fun!!! Here’s some more pics of my cutie from this month:
Pursing those lips!
I LOVE how girly she looks here!
Update on ME: FINALLY I started feeling more like MYSELF again. I gained some confidence back for SURE. Doing the Advocare 24 Day Challenge was a life changer. I honestly never believed I’d be able to get back to my normal sized clothes (size 4s!) while still nursing, if ever. I actually worried that I may just need to break down and buy a bunch of size 8’s. My milk supply increased big time thanks to all the water I started drinking and the supplements too! My overall health improved. I just FELT better. No more daily headaches. Things just didn’t bother me as much. I felt like I had a better grip on stuff and didn’t get stressed as easily. The fact that Britt dropped her evening nap…was fussy HARDCORE every evening and I still never got a headache and never started pulling my hair out is HUGE. I’m a true believer in Advocare products and am SO thankful that they developed a 24 day challenge for nursing moms!!!!! Not only was I feeling great…and feeling more confident but I also looked better too! No denying these results am I right?!?! I finally found a solution that worked for me!!! 🙂
Many people think postpartum symptoms end within 6 weeks of having a baby. Um no way!!! I’m 7 months out and helllllo baby bangs!!! I honestly think it has to do with the challenge too. The omegas I take now make my hair SO healthy and thick and help it grow faster. These little guys popped up and grew in quick. I seriously didn’t have any of this a month ago!!! I was hoping I’d get to skip the baby bangs this time around but no such luck. Don’t they drive you nuts?!?! I use a dab of hairspray on my finger to hide them. It seems to work!
Also this month (August 1st to be exact) I got my first legit post-baby “friendly visitor.” I guess introducing solids made my body wake up from hibernation? With Kye I started my cycle 6 weeks out (even while exclusively breastfeeding him) but my “friend” decided to stay away a lot longer with Britt. I’ve been on the birth control bill that’s safe to take while nursing since my 6 week postpartum visit but I still got my “visitor” in the middle of my pill pack??? I assume that’s normal? Ugh…after over a YEAR of not having it…it sure isn’t fun to welcome back!!! Guess that means we could start trying for #3 if we wanted huh? Don’t hold your breath people!!!
As you can tell this was a HUGE month for Brittlynn. She hit so many milestones and is really turning into her own little person…I am LOVING it!!! You can look back at her Month 7 Summary here and at Kye’s Summary of Month 8 here!
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I can't believe how much she just TOOK OFF in development this month! It's like she just said – hey! I'm gonna be 5 years old now!
I know I agree with Robyn. I am so sad Brady seems SO BEHIND. He doesn't even like to stand up. LAZY