Addison is 7 months old!!!

Oh wow, here we go again! Another month down. Our sweet Addison is already 7 months old (a few days ago!). The pictures this month turned out AMAZING. Addison has finally let go of her "beef" with the camera flash and actually smiles for pictures. I love it!! This was a big month for our precious girl developmentally. She is now a stable sitter. She sits up and plays with toys on the floor and moved to her bath chair in the bath tub too! She also went to Target and sat in the cart like a big girl! She normally did shopping trips in a baby carrier on my chest, but not anymore! She can move with ease between sitting and crawling and back. And that's another big step for her - she now crawls on her hands and knees, instead of the army crawling she had been doing. She looks so cute crawling around with her little butt sticking out:). And, lastly, Addison started pulling herself up to stand recently. This was an incredible shock to me...since Jax didn't do this for another couple of months. But pull up she did. And now she is constantly doing it on EVERYthing, including us. I was in the kitchen working with something on the counter and she pulled herself up on my legs and was standing there and sticking her head between my legs looking up at me - so sweet! I am amazed at what a different baby she has become this month. She is doing so much more now!

However, in the eating department, we seem to be stuck. Addison continues to refuse baby food half the time. We are lucky if she eats 1-2 Stage 1 jars a day. We attempt to feed her baby food 3 times a day. She often snaps her mouth shut and stares at us as if to say, "Do you REALLY think I'm going to eat that?!" We know she likes it because sometimes she'll eat an entire jar in one sitting. The only thing we know she hates is the meats - she gags the minute we put those in her mouth. I don't blame her, that stuff looks and smells nasty! I try to sneak cereal into her fruits and veggies because she also refuses to eat that, and I know she needs the vitamins. She is nursing about 4 times a day and 2 times a night and seems to be getting enough to eat. I guess we're just going to have to take it slow in the food department. I'm wary to even move her to Stage 2 foods because she may not make it through a whole jar before I have to throw it away. Oh well.

And as for sleep, Addison is doing ok. Overall, I'd say we're pretty lucky. She now goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up between 7 and 8am usually. BUT, there are also 2 feeding times in the middle there. She has been getting up around 11pm or so and then again around 5am. It's not fun. But, I often remind myself that at least I know she is ok when she wakes up and it is special quiet time that she and I spend together when she nurses in the middle of the night. I know one day, she won't cuddle much at all with me. Jackson already just goes to bed and sleeps through the night, and I often miss him and wish I could go in there and snuggle with him. So, I am trying to be patient and just enjoy those mid-night feedings, even though I am so tired I can barely hold my body up! And then Addison takes 2 naps a day, usually around the same times Jackson does thank goodness. They are usually around 11am and 3pm and last anywhere from 1.5 - 3 hours. Not too bad at all!

I look at Addison sometimes during the day and tears spring to my eyes because I honestly cannot believe I have her. There were so many nights I cried for hours because I didn't know if I'd ever be able to stay pregnant, to have a baby. And then we lost two babies. And then she surprised us at a very inconvenient time, lol! And then the HCG levels didn't rise, and I thought I was losing her. And now here she is, 7 months old, GORGEOUS and perfect in every way. I actually just squeeze her and smell her and remind myself that she IS real. I feel like the luckiest woman in the entire world every day. Happy 7 months, sweet girl. I love you so, so much - more than you'll ever know.