Oh my goodness! I have a 7 month old daughter! These monthly updates are coming up quicker and quicker. Hope celebrated her first Easter this weekend. We spent it alone as a family and we had a wonderful day. We BBQ'd and watched movies and just spent nice quality time together.
Hope has a whole bunch of new milestones for this update. Lets see... She is crawling all over, pulling up and standing up, saying dada and almost mama, bouncing and she has two little teeth poking in! Once she turned 6 months all her development just went hyper speed. Her pediatrician says she is very advanced for her age. She was only 12.9lbs at her appointment which is only the second percentile. So she is below average in height and weight but she is developmentally ahead as far as her mental and physical milestones are going. He said she is approximately in the 9 month range developmentally. Basically she will be walking in the next two months... Her ped was not concerned about her height and weight in the slightest. He is a realist (love him). Her dad and I are not huge people by any standard. When I'm not large and in charge from baby weight I am petite and I was a generally small baby too. Not nearly as small as my sisters and Hope is right along the lines of what their growth patterns were. She is so strong, so healthy and so happy. I am just so blessed with an amazing little baby girl.
She is still exclusively breastfed. She has to this day never had a drop of formula and rarely rarely ever gets a bottle. Its not something I'm against its just something that has never been a part of our lifestyle. I am still nursing about 6 times a day and then once or twice in the night time. She gets solids twice a day and her favorites are peas and sweet potatoes :). I add coconut oil and mama milk to up the calorie and fat content to her solids. She loves her some food! But some days less so than others. I get the "your still nursing?" every so often too. Im so confident in it that I am proud to say HECK YEA! I will nurse her as long as she wants. If she doesn't wean by 3 or 4 so be it. When she starts Kindergarten this will most likely be when it stops naturally. Babies benefit greatly from DHA until they are 2-3 years old and so on into adulthood like ourselves. There is no greater source that they can get it in the composition necessary for absorption than straight from mamas milk. When she is tired, cranky and upset it is an instant comfort and pacifier.
Is there any place safer than nestled into your mamas arms? We come from a generation of "independent" parenting. Our parents were taught to parent us in a way to make us as independent as possible from as early on as possible. So as babies we were laid in our cribs to cry. Much of our lives we were placed on time out when we were hard to handle. The goal was to always teach us to be alone and to become content with that. Some of us took to this easier than others of course. The attachment parenting style is you never withhold love and affection. When your baby is crying you cuddle and/or nurse. When your toddler is throwing a temper tantrum you cuddle/and or nurse. When your child is feeling insecure and sad your cuddle and/or nurse if they haven't self weaned. You give love and they will become secure and outgrow needing mommy. They will "I want to do it by myself mommy" eventually on their own time. Is it hard? Yes motherhood is hard. Its a sacrifice. More of a sacrifice than I ever could have imagined. Hope is a wonderful and happy baby but she is a pretty high needs baby emotionally. She needs mama to soothe her to sleep right now. She needs mama with her at all times and I am glad to do that for her.
It is no secret I am a research junkie. Before motherhood I was naive to every single thing. I was going to repeat ways I grew up seeing things done because everyone else does it they turn out fine. Im not saying the research and conclusions I have come up with is right. But it is what I believe. I don't know many mothers like me and sometimes that is hard. Its hard being the "odd man out". My own family thinks im a nut job sometimes. I know in my heart I am doing what I think is best for her. All we can do is our best and pray we made the right decisions. So in conclusion up to this point at 7 months. We are cuddling to sleep, co sleeping, breastfeeding, non medicating and not using any sort of schedule...
What is your parenting style. Be loud and proud of it!
