Preemie Life - Seven Months, 4 1/2 adjusted

Nothing cuter then cellulite on a baby's bum.   We are at seven months now or 4 1/2 months adjusted.  I've stopped thinking about Cheetah that way.  She is a little on the tiny side for seven months, just over 14lbs and she has the smallest little feet and hands I've ever seen.  I think those under five food great-grandmas on both sides might be contributing genes here.  Everything else about her though is caught up.  She never stays on her back anymore.  The second you lay her down she flips over to her stomach.  It is her preferred place to sleep as well as play.



She is a champion sleeper.  Well at least at night.  We get a full nights sleep out of her.  Her daytime naps are much harder to squeeze in.  Each kid gets a progressively worse nap schedule.  That first one has two regimented naps a day.  The second, got one.  The third slept in the car while I was picking kids up from school.  The forth is lucky to catche some zzz's while nursing.  Yesterday she didn't fall asleep until 5:30.  When Dr. J came home from work to change she woke up. "Do you know that is the first time she got to sleep today," I whined in a sort of frantic high pitched voice.  It must of sounded desperate because he was quick with a million, "I'm sorrys."  "Tell the baby," I said as she screamed her little heart out.

 We are moving all over the place.  If you put her on a blanket on the floor you will find her someplace else.  I wouldn't say she is crawling but she gets up on her toes and arms and then pushes herself forward until her body slams forward onto the ground.  Then she starts the process all over again.  With that and rolling she can slowly get pretty much anywhere she needs to go.  The bed, top of the stairs, and the changing table have become much less friendly places, as have table and chair legs.  Her jerky little movements mean she has a good chance of slamming her face into anything at head level.

Inch worming isn't her only mode of transportation.  Thing 1 and thing 2 are often found carting her around.  They have both been expressly forbidden from carrying her on a daily basis and yet I continue to find them, guilty faced carrying Cheetah around.  Yesterday Captain E brought her down the stairs to me.  I said, "Why are you carrying that baby down the stairs."  He said, "Dad told me to bring her to you.  She needs to nurse."  GiGi is just as bad.  I've caught her running through the house, baby bouncing in her arms.  I also saw her put Cheetah in her play and pack.  She hung her over the edge, rocked on her stomach muscles and the edge of the play and pack, legs going up into the air.  When the baby reached the mattress she let her go, her legs instantly dropping with the release of the counter weight.  It was horrifying and fascinating wrapped into one.  We've yet to have any major accidents but I'm keeping my fingers crossed just in case.

Milk is no longer Cheetah's only food item.  This week we introduced rice cereal.  Every first bite goes like this first blurry one, captured by dad, but then she settles in for the long haul.  I have not had a single child who likes rice cereal but this one eats with gusto.  Hands wave everywhere and cereal is soon covering her face, hands, chair, bib.  We give her a little spoon to try and distract her from the one entering her mouth but it somehow manages to get covered as well.