Juno is 7 months old! How she is now closer to ONE than to a newborn is beyond me. These 7 months have been the best of my life and this past month was no exception. I’ve gotten to have so much time with my girl this month and I’m eating it all up. It’s so special to get so much time with her … I will never take this for granted. I wrote most of this post on Juno’s actual 7 month birthday, but I didn’t get her pictures done until now (a week and a half later) so I’ve gone through and added some updates from the last week here and there! Posting this a bit late this month but that is ok!
Juno is now 14 pounds 1 oz and is growing, growing, growing. She is a big fan of solid foods and loves to eat! She loves peas, sweet potatoes, squash, oranges, carrots and prunes. She still isn’t sure if she likes bananas or avocados but we will keep at it. We tried some peanut butter and she had a mild allergic reaction — cue the Benadryl and the on call doctor — so we are going in to see an allergist in a week for some further allergy testing. [Update: We saw the allergist on Tuesday. After a scratch test and blood work to confirm, Juno does NOT have a peanut allergy! We are SO glad because I absolute LOVE peanut butter. She just had a little localized reaction from her first exposure. Apparently babies at this age now have to get their blood taken just like an adult does through the inside of the elbow instead of on their heels like when they are itty bitty. Needless to say, this was awful. The entire medical facility needed ear plugs. She continued to scream and scream and scream until we were all the way home. I had even tried to nurse her before leaving and we made a pit stop at Auntie KKs to try to calm her down but poor thing was not a happy camper] Back to the solids update - we are going to cut back on some specific solids to help her tummy a bit because she’s back to being pretty uncomfortable like she was when she was little and we are making sure to do more prunes and pears and things like that. Her reflux has gotten pretty bad again, which solids should be making it better not worse, so we aren’t sure what is going on, sweet pea!
Juno is still in the same size diapers and clothes as last month - size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes, but we are starting to put her in more of her 6 month clothes that we have since they are more summery — right now most of it is swallowing her up but I’m sure she’ll fit into it in no time. She finally can wear some of her size 0-3 month shoes but they are still big on her … she has the tiniest feet ever. Juno’s hair that all fell out is finally starting to grow back in. We laugh at her “duck fuzz” that is sticking straight up on her head. It’s so soft and fuzzy. We still don’t know what color hair she is going to have — sometimes it is so dark like when she was a newborn, sometimes it looks blonde and other times it is bright red. Any guesses out there? Look at the pictures below and let us know what you think. Juno still doesn’t have any teeth yet but we swear she’s been teething for months now. I guess she is just a drool-y, chews-on-everything kind of baby.
This month we went on another camping trip this time to Grand Lake and we were so much more prepared for this camping trip compared to her first one last month. We had all the things this time - bottle warmer, sound machine, baby monitor, different seats to set Juno down in. While in the mountains, Juno went on her very first boat ride. We rented a pontoon boat and spent a few hours on the lake. The weather was a tiny bit chilly but the day on the boat turned out to be pretty nice. Juno was a trooper - she didn’t like her life jacket at first, then she caved in and took a nice long nap on the boat and woke up from the high-winds (not so fun) on the way back to the marina. Juno also had her first campfire, saw her first moose - a couple of bulls plus a mama and a baby - and went in a baby swing for the first time. She wasn’t sure if she should laugh or cry on the swing! Overall it was a great trip and we can’t wait to go back at the end of the month. Juno also went to the zoo for the first time this month and celebrated her first 4th of July — we went to the pool and barbecued with family then she went down for an early bedtime at Yaya & Papas while we got to enjoy some fireworks with some friends!
This month Juno learned how to sleep at night! (Insert all the praise hands here!) We did two solid weeks of official sleep training and as hard as it was, it worked! Night one Brandon and I turned off the monitor, turned up the TV and settled in for what we thought would be a sleepless night filled with hours of crying. Don’t worry we followed a plan and did check ins at timed intervals so she knew we were still there and loved her and cared about her. We were pleasantly surprised when she cried for less than an hour total that first night and each night got better and better from there. Juno is now sleeping all night with the exception of slightly waking when I go in to give her her two night feedings. Juno’s pediatrician wasn’t okay with us weaning all of her night feedings quite yet and wanted us to make sure she is still getting at least one but preferably two feedings in the night. So while Juno is sleeping for 11-12 hours a night now, this mama still has not gotten more than 4-5 hours of sleep at a time yet and goes in at 10 pm and 3 am to nurse her. When my alarm goes off for her 3 am feeding, it takes all my might to go in and nurse her, but once I have her in my arms I kind of love it. There is nothing like sweet snuggles in the middle of the night and I know I’ll miss it someday - she won’t need these night feedings for long so for now I am going to cherish them. I’ll sleep through the night someday. [Update: I forgot to set my alarm last night for her 3 a.m. feeding, and she made it until almost 5 a.m. before waking up hungry. Making progress!] Since Juno is sleeping so well at night now, on nights that Juno has multiple wake ups we know it’s usually because her tummy hurts. There seems to always be a correlation between her sleep and how gassy she is, sweet girl!
While her night sleep has been a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Juno’s daytime sleep is another story. This girl does not know how to nap for more than 25 minutes unless she is in the car or in our arms. We know that night sleep comes before good daytime sleep so we will keep practicing our good habits (except for when I hold her and rock her during naps like I am right now while typing this — haha!) We can’t complain though because having her sleep so well at night is a dream come true. Naps will come, we aren’t worried about them now.
Some of Juno’s favorite things right now are:
-the pool - this girl loves the water! She also loves bath time and showering in the sink after meals (haha!)
-rolling all over the place
-the dog - she now pets Remi, lays on her and laughs when Remi licks her. She loves my parent’s dog, Paisley, too.
-eating - she loves all the new foods she’s been trying, loves to play with the food on her tray and doesn’t mind being messy in the slightest
-sitting up - within the last week, Juno figured out how to sit up on her own and now she loves it! Before that we would try to sit her up and she would immediately want to be standing. All of the sudden she got the hang of it and loves to sit and play now.
-her mama - she’s definitely s.t.i.l.l. in a mama phase
-walks and the car (these have always been a favorite for her)
-playing peek a boo
-singing and dancing
Juno’s not so favorite things:
-when people she doesn’t know well try to hold her
-when mama leaves her
-naps
-bananas and avocados (must be a texture thing)
-not being held for long periods of time — she would be prefer to be in my arms ALL day long if she could — my solly wrap is still the best thing ever. Strap this girl to your chest and she will hang there forever.
Goodness we love this sweet girl. She has the best laugh and the biggest smile in the world. She melts our hearts all day long.
To start off our 7 month pictures, here is a then and now. On the left was our pregnancy announcement over a year ago when we announced that we were expecting. On the right, here is Juno while camping in the same onesie☺️
Look at this cutie sitting up so well all by herself … this JUST happened within the last week! She’s so proud of herself.
Juno’s big cousin, Elliette, hopped in one of the pictures … she was the one making Juno smile so big the whole time during these pictures.