In the meantime, enjoy this brief update on Ms. Vivian, who continues to delight everyone she meets. She's still got a pretty easy temperament, but beware removing something from her grasp without giving her an upgrade. She can screech just like her bigger brother. She adores the box of balls and will spend lots of time sitting on the floor and playing with the contents, taking one ball out after another until they all get away from her. Then she wiggles until she flops over and gets stuck and the fun starts all over again. She is also still in love with her bunny block. She knows the exact sound it makes and will spin in her exersaucer or rotate until she sees it. She often drops it shortly after but every time it makes a comeback she is just as thrilled to see it again.
Another sound that Vivian has identified and responds to every time is the sound of o's hitting her high chair tray. She loves picking up food and eating it. So far o's are her main source of finger food, although we have started peas and occasionally tiny bits of apple as well. Her diet also includes avocado, oatmeal, bananas (still her favorite), sweet potato, applesauce, pears, yogurt, mango, cottage cheese, and rice is next on the list. She's totally ready for crackers and teething biscuits except that she hasn't been introduced to all the necessary ingredients. She can catch o's between her thumb and finger now, and even can shove three (or more) in at once if she gets them all in her hand. The second and third ones are incidental but she appears pleased with the results. If she's hungry, she can eat an entire banana in one of her three daily meals no problem. If she isn't into eating, I lay out a few o's and squeeze bits in as she picks up an o and opens her mouth to insert it. She's also started formula, but she isn't super enthused about it. She will take a bottle of anything (breastmilk or formula) only if it's about hot as it can get without burning, she's in her room in the dark with the noise machine on and she's wrapped up in a swaddle, with bouncing and shushing. Under those exact circumstances it's fine. Otherwise she will fight or play with the bottle but heaven forbid she eat from it.
As of yesterday we aren't swaddling her for sleep anymore. She had gotten to be an expert at removing herself and I got tired of trying to contain her. We left one arm out for about a week and then I switched over to the sleep sack. It hasn't affected her sleep any, which is to say it didn't get any worse. She goes down between 7 and 8 at night and will sleep up to four hours in that first segment of the night, although two to three is much more common. After that she is up every two hours or as often as every forty minutes for a snack. She's been getting up much earlier too, as early as 5:35 and 5:45 a.m. I blamed those early wakings on soaking wet diapers from all the overnight nursing. She's currently sleeping in a disposable at night until we get the go ahead to start weaning her off night feedings. That has gotten her to 6:45 or so, and sometimes as late as 8 a.m. to start the day. She can make it on two naps per day, one in the morning and one midday, but still does better if she had the third nap in the late afternoon or early evening, usually around 4:30 or 5 o'clock. She can and will skip the final nap if we are out and about. And earlier naps will be shortened to about twenty or thirty minutes tops if she is not at home in the crib. At home a nap is usually at least an hour, and can go as long as two hours every once in a while.
Oh, and she has a crib in our room now, having graduated from the bassinet. She's still up much too often at night for me to consider putting her in with her bigger brother. She didn't seem to notice that transition either, and still spends more of the night than I would like in the bed with me anyway.
Vivian has some good consonant noises now like b and d, and still loves to babble. She will talk to just about anything but is also completely content to play on her own. She adored both the ribbons and the wrapping paper from the holidays. She preferred to eat the paper and would do so every time anyone turned their back on her. When she Skypes with relatives, she looks around at the doors waiting for them to come in when she hears them. Otherwise she isn't much interested in the computer. But other electronics look very promising if only she could get her hands on them. She has been exposed to TV at other houses and only seems to notice when football is playing.
Vivian sits quite nicely on her own now. The main dangers to her stability are her older brother and when she reaches, leans, or twists to acquire an object that's out of reach. She doesn't show much interest in rolling as she does not like to be on her tummy. She is okay resting on her back but won't roll onto her stomach, only onto her side to retrieve something and then return to her back. If placed on her tummy, she rolls ones to correct the situation. Vivian loves to stand up. She particularly enjoys being placed in front of a sofa or a coffee table as there are always interesting things on those pieces of furniture for her to enjoy. She definitely loves the Johnny Jump Up, and will spend a good deal of time in it if allowed as well.
Vivian has decided that baths are not all bad. We started putting her in the tub with Theo. For the first time, she didn't cry when she went in. On all other bath occasions, she has cried for a bit before realizing that baths, bath toys, and big brothers can be fun. Now she seems to remember that baths are fun. And her memory is excellent. If you take her into the bedroom where the noise machine is on, she just starts crying. She can be consoled once she realizes it's just a diaper change or something else, but she makes it clear she does not enjoy being put down in there alone.
Vivian has, as far as we can tell, no teeth and no signs of teeth at seven months. She has another checkup with the doctor at the end of this week, so he can give us his professional opinion on that. Expect to hear more about that in Vivian's next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment