7 Months

Our little Madelyn is 7 months old! She still seems little, as compared to Nate, but now she is sitting up on her own and she can scoot all over the place, it makes her feel less like a baby and more like she's becoming a big girl. Although it's all very exciting!

In the past week she has slept so well at night, only getting up twice to eat (usually around midnight and 4am). She still has some rough nights, like last night, which she gets up every 2 hours. I hope that she continues sleeping well and maybe we can get down to one feeding per night soon. I haven't found out that when she is ready to sleep longer, she will. I have tried in the past to let her cry it out so that she will get out of the habit of getting up every 2 hours, but it doesn't work. Her sleeping patterns now are a result of her own will. So I will continue to just "go with it". I think if she's a year old and still getting up I will work on it then, but hopefully it won't come to that.

She still sucks the food off the spoon instead of opening her mouth to eat. She purses her lips just a bit (not enough to shove the spoon in) and then sucks the food off the spoon. It's really quite funny to see. She absolutely loves vegetables and hates fruit. I have never seen anything like it. She will eat peas and green beans before she will eat apples or mangoes. I have tried and tried and she will take a couple bites and then just start spitting if I try to give her anymore. It has become a waste and I think I'm going to lay off the fruits for awhile. We'll try them again in a month or so. She started eating graham crackers and loves them! It's a mess because she just gnaws on them until they're soggy and gets all over.

She had her first bath in the big tub with Nate. It was done out of necessity, because Michael had a conference call (normally he bathes Nate and I bathe Mad in a baby tub in our bathroom) one evening last week and so I needed to get both of them done and didn't want to do two separate baths. She did so well! She did fall back a couple of times but I was right there so it wasn't a big deal. Nate thought it was the best thing ever and just kept giggling and looking at her. Now he requests her to take a bath with him. It's so cute.

And she's still a wonderful baby, so happy and content. I can't believe we are past the half-year mark with her! It is going by so fast!

Babysitting the Boys

Saturday after the retreat, Jaime and the boys came up. Her and Jeremy were going to a military ball that night and I was going to watch the boys for them. It all went so well! I think the most stressful part was doing Jaime's hair and worrying that I wouldn't be able to make it look good. But after I helped with her hair and make-up, they were on their way.

We played and read books and watched movies. It all went surprisingly smooth. I even managed to get them all bathed and in pajamas by the time Michael got home from drill. I think it just gets easier the older they get. I am really looking forward to the months and years ahead, watching them grow up together. And honestly, watching four kids on a Saturday night is not my first pick, but since we don't live as close as I'd like, I am so happy for these moments that our kids get to spend time together and I get to spend time with them.

Finally Free

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to go to a women's retreat, called Finally Free. This was a blessing for so many reasons. First, this was a drill weekend, which are usually long weekends, so I was able to do this and it helped the weekend pass wonderfully. Second, there was childcare. This was the real bonus, because without it and Michael working, I wouldn't have been able to attend. The childcare was awesome. I had no worries with Nate. He took to some of the older kids that were there to help right away, chasing and being chased around. Maddie was my real concern. Except for a handful of date nights that lasted about an hour or two, she is always with Mommy. And she is a terrible Momma's girl. Sometimes I can't even leave the room and she goes nuts. She will be playing fine and see me pass through and start crying. It's ridiculous. But she did so well and the woman there was stupendous, really making me feel at ease to leave her (it was probably as hard for me). I was glad I was in the same building, as this helped ease the pain of leaving her for so long (6 hours). I was only paged out 3 times, and one of them was to feed her. The other two times she was hysterical, but once I got her calmed down and playing again, she was fine.

The retreat was amazing. This was the third and biggest blessing. I'm not going to go into details about my personal experience with it, but if you want to know more about Finally Free then go here: http://taborministries.org/. I will say this about it; I feel like I have a new sense of clarity and a fresh outlook. It has made me view a few different areas in my life differently and I am so happy that I was able to experience this. God is good!

All the Little Things

I haven't been as good about blogging, mostly just if something big happens or Maddie's monthly updates. But there are other things I want to remember and so I am going to try to blog more consistently, so I can remember all the little things too.

Nate started CMO (Children's Morning Out) last week. It's a program at a local church for kids of all ages. It is sort of like school, they learn letters and numbers and all that good stuff, but the big thing right now is Nate getting play time with other kids and some structure from other adults. They have free play, arts and crafts, and story time. The best part is (aside from giving me a break a couple hours twice a week) is that it is Christian based. He was very excited the first day but since then has been reluctant to leave me when I drop him off. His teacher says he does fine, but this is another reason this will be good for him.

Nate is becoming more responsive to his movies, now laughing out loud at some parts (parts that we really don't understand why he's laughing, but oh well). I love to watch his facial expressions as he watches. He is obsessed with watching movies, and to be honest we have been watching quite a bit of tv. It will be nice when it warms up and we can go outside again. I try to do activities with him like painting or play-doh, but it only lasts so long and he wants to watch a movie again. And now his newest thing is now to want his jacket on. When we come home if I take his jacket off it is a complete meltdown. I don't know where this came from...is our house really that cold? :) Hopefully this passes soon.

Maddie has been teething again and last week she had a few rough days and nights. Two nights last week she would not sleep and we both ended up together on the couch. I also got called out of service at church on Sunday because they couldn't get her to stop crying in the nursery. When she doesn't feel good Mommy is the only one that she wants. It looks (and feels) like her top front teeth. Hopefully they pop through soon.

Michael started up a couple more online classes. He has 4 more before he will get his Associate's degree. I am looking forward to that. He stays later at work to do his homework so he has a quiet place and many evening and weekend hours are taken up with schoolwork. It has added a little more to the plate, therefore a little stress. So when we got the opportunity for a date night last week it was much needed! Our wonderful friend Sara watched the kids for a few hours so we could go up to Southport to eat at Longhorn's, our favorite place to get a steak. It was delicious and wonderful to eat without children!

6 Months

A little behind...I figure I better get this done before I need to do her 7 month post!

The topic with Maddie every month always seems to be centered around her sleeping, and so I don't want to ruin the pattern, so we'll talk about her sleep some more! Although now she is doing much better. I never thought I would look forward to getting up every 3 hours, but it is so much better than every 2. She gets up around 12am, 3am, and between 5-6am. The best part is that it is like this most nights. We haven't had an 'up every hour' night in awhile and it feels great. Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to be sleeping all night, or even just getting up once, but I will take this. Some nights I think we could do without the 3am feeding, as she doesn't really seem hungry when she eats, but then we'll have night that she seems to need it. So I'm not ready to try and get rid of a feeding yet. In a month or so we'll see if she's ready to knock it down to 2 feedings a night. {And on a side note, the past 4 or 5 nights she's been getting up an hour after I feed her. She usually cries herself back to sleep and only takes a few moments, but it feels like she's getting up ALL night}

She is doing a lot better with eating from a spoon, although it's hilarious to watch her eat. She barely opens her mouth and just sucks it off the spoon. It takes her a few different times to like the food; she never likes it the first time she eats it. Well, except for mashed potatoes. She loved them the first time she ate them. I think she is ready for human food and says the baby food is for the birds!

I cannot believe she is 6 months old! Why is 6 months feel like such a milestone? I guess because we're at that halfway mark to the one year. Just 6 months from now, a length of time she's been with us already, and she'll be one and toddling around. She's such a great baby and people comment all the time how good she is. She will sit in her carseat or stroller much longer than Nate ever would. It's crazy. She's just so content most of the time.

She is 27 1/4" (95%) and 17lbs (90%). Our big baby girl!