Our sweet little Isla is 7 months old!

Milestones & Sleep:

She is still pretty bald with no teeth yet, but she can crawl backwards, loves to stand, sits like a boulder, and is very chatty (and likes to screech). She has suddenly stopped sleeping as hard and will wake up very very easily - even though she sleeps through the night still, she will wake and cry a couple times a night but isn't fully awake and falls back into a slumber on her own so we don't have to pick her up or do night feeds, she just wakes from small movements like moving the blankets or Meadow jumping off the bed. It is time to soon transition her to her own room...I am feeling more ready. I was really dreading it as it's just so comforting to have her right there beside me and to hear every movement but now that our movements are interrupting her sleep, I think she is starting to show us she is ready to transition to her crib. She is currently in her dockatot grand inside the playpen next to my bed and still swaddled with a pacifier. The transition to her crib could be challenging because we shouldn't swaddle her anymore and she is such a fidgety baby if she has her arms out. It will be an adjustment for sure...but I am sure she will adjust well.

Eating:

We are finally seeing some real improvement with solids - she just wasn't sure what to do with food at first but with patience (which for some reason is especially hard in this area) she has started to really come around and now likes to feed herself. We are doing a bit of purees, cereal, rice rusks, and some BLW too...whatever we feel like. Anything we do with BLW is something that turns mushy when she eats it so she handles it similar to a puree. The food area was so confusing for me and I heard so many varied opinions about all of it. My advice is be open to whatever works for your baby, expect the transition to solids to be a little confusing and challenging, and also just try to have fun with it and relax. Also expect your dinner to get cold...lol. It's been lots of fun though and she is doing really well. I could leave her to feed herself if she didn't throw her spoon or food off the highchair to a much delighted dog waiting on the floor. Meadow already chewed one of her spoons and I am also pretty sure they have an agreement that Meadow has dibs on half of Isla's rice rusks lol.

Cloth Diapering:

Since we introduced solids, cloth diapering has changed a little bit. The baby poops are occasionally now less water soluable so sometimes we need to spray them before putting in the wet bag for washing. Our sprayer is now installed to the toilet. You may remember our change table and diapers and wet bags and everything are in our bathroom which makes all of this so simple. I know that setup won't work for everyone but wherever you have the change table, to be able to have your wet bag near your toilet is helpful. I didn't want my change table in the nursery since I didn't want to have a diaper pail smelling in there. Our set up has gone really well. I know cloth diapering sounds like a lot of work and effort but I honestly feel really lax and positive about our whole experience and will definitely do it with any future kids too. The laundry is just an extra load (that you have to run through two cycles) every 4 days on average. It's really not a TON of laundry, and I wash our receiving blankets, wet bags, changing pads and wash cloths with them too so really it's laundry I would be doing that often anyway, just bigger loads which is more worthwhile. I put all the inserts and wash cloths and receiving blankets in the dryer and hang our diaper covers, change pads, and wet bags to dry since they have the waterproof fabrics in them that shouldn't stand too much heat. It's a great routine, saves us so much freaking money, and Isla has literally never had a diaper rash since being born. I only use Young Living products on her - we have their wipes for when out and about, their diaper cream and their baby oil and love them all! So gentle and smell amazing. We use natural disposables when out for long periods of time so we don't have to keep dirty diapers in the car - just a preference. We found we kept forgetting them lol! 

This month marked my 30th birthday which was a blast...and meant so much to celebrate with Isla by my side. I also led the organization of my town's Santa Claus Parade which Isla also attended with us. Now we are all geared up for Isla's first Christmas and lots of holiday festivities at Emberly House!

Merry Christmas everyone!