Happy 7 Months Old!

Happy 7 Months Old, Camille!

The morning of May 5, 2011

Patrick was all like, "Take a picture of Camille sitting with me in the truck!"

Camille’s 6 month was a CC-C-A-A-A-Razy time for the Bozeman’s!

First let me say, I’m a self-diagnosed VOLUNTEERitis survivor. As many of you know, Volunteeritis is a crippling disease which causes you to volunteer your time and talents to many different causes and as a result you stretch yourself too thin. The side effects are: neglecting housework, McDonald’s for dinner, consume unhealthy amounts of coffee and Red Bulls, stress, jaded toe-nail paint (for weeks), cursing the alarm clock, and worst of all- GUILT!

As long as I can remember, I’ve had that “Leader Spirit” and with my absolute best intentions at heart, I’m always the first to raise my hand, “I’ll do it! --- You can count on Christy!” Pre-motherhood that was an admirable trait and I prided myself in being the “Project Manager” of everything. Now, it’s just TOO hard to be involved in TOO much!

Recently, I apologized to one of my bridesmaids who didn’t participate in my bachelorette party festivities because her baby was a few months old and she was still nursing… and I was all like, “PUMP and get a babysitter!!! GahLee- what’s the BIG deal?!” I was a Bride BRAT and appalled because she wasn’t making her best friend top priority. I say all of this to reiterate that life is SO different when you become a mom and you don't realize how much YOUR priorities change. You give up fun times for diaper changes and feedings. You don’t care that everyone is out having a blast on a Friday night because you’re having one too… it’s just that your night doesn’t include JagerBombs and the Cupid Shuffle it consists of Prune Juice and  Peek-a-Boo!: )

I haven't missed A BEAT with Camille! I’ve done ALL that I have wanted too… and she’s been in my back pocket right along with me. Looking back at the past month, I wouldn’t have done anything differently: Participating in our community theater, becoming a CITY SLICKERS Relay for Life Team member, and organizing a Flash Mob--- No, I WOULD NOT change a thing because Mommies need fun times too!  But, in the future I will be more careful not to have SO much going on at once.
(I will do posts on all the above mentioned in the next few days)

Here are the 6 month check-up stats: weighing in at 18 lbs. 6 oz. and 27 inches long with a 17 inch head circumference she is the 75th percentile and was one brave baby as they gave her those awful shots!

IN her sixth month, she:

• Began eating stage 2 foods. (OH, some more words I’ve eaten: (“I will be pureeing and making all of her foods organically because I WON’T have my baby eating processed foods”) Yeah, ROIGHT--- that lasted about two weeks. Maybe if I was a SAHM, I could have pulled it off. But, the very last thing I want to do on the weekends is slave over a stove and puree baby food to store for the next two weeks. Besides, I have tried all of her baby foods (minus the meats- and I’m not ready to give her those anyways) and you know what?... they ALL taste pretty good!
• Claps when singing, “Patty Cake…”
• Mimics singing
• Sadly… no “Mama” yet!
• Gets on her hands and knees to scoot across the living room rug and I am proud to announce on Friday, April 28, 2011 right before I left to get ready for Putting on the Ritz, Camille did ONE, singular crawl… which I captured on video. She did a crawl: one arm out, one leg out, looked at me, smiled, rolled onto her back and clapped. I’ll get around to posting the video soon.
• Her favorite thing is to get her legs and butt stuck under our couches
• She prefers green beans over sweet peas
• Grunts and loves to hear herself yell

And the BIGGEST accomplishment of all:

Dum! De! Du! Dum! Dum! (Let the trumpets sound!)

CAMILLE is sleeping in her crib!

Applause. Applause. Applause. (Clap your hands, that’s a huge accomplishment!)

She’s been sleeping right next to me in a co-sleeper since the night we came home from the hospital. At five months she was becoming very restless at night time, and our pediatrician encouraged me to move forward with the BABY WISE concept. I have implemented many of the BABY WISE principles, which is the name of a book I read while pregnant. To me, it seemed SILLY for her to be in another room… I don’t know why- it just did. P-Daddy and I made the decision to move her into the crib because she is trying to pull-up … it was time for crib jail. We’ve put it off for WAY too long -- it was time -- so we started the process of: Let’s put her down AWAKE and let her cry it out for 5 minutes… then 8 minutes… then 10…. You get the drift. Well, the first night she conked out at 7 minutes the first night and she’s been sleeping in the crib ever since.

The idea is to teach your baby to put themselves to sleep. At first she cried almost every single time but by the third week she stopped completely. AND NOW when we lay her down it’s like she knows, “Alright, it’s time to close my eyes and I’m just gonna lay here until I do because crying and fake coughing is absolutely pointless, ‘cause all my Mom and Dad will do is come in here and re-assure me I’m loved by kissing my forehead and pat my bottom for a minute or so then leave again… so, yeah- I’m just gonna lay right here, get comfortable, look at this stupid bird mobile, listen to this lullaby/trance music… until I fall asleep.”

I thought it was going to be a difficult change but I’m sleeping so much more sound since I’m not counting Camille’s each and every breath. We wouldn’t have been successful with transitioning to the crib without a video baby monitor (which I scored at a yard sale for 20 bucks, while I was pregnant-YAY!). You see, Camille FAKE cries and if I didn’t have her on video to see her pitiful attempts for attention, I’d run in there every time she made a sound. Patrick and I watch her on the monitor (sometime while eating popcorn *wink*) and its pretty humorous… especially her pitiful fake coughs! I swear she knows we’re watching her; she sometimes glares right at the camera light and snarls at us.

I know many parents struggle with babies sleeping through the night. As parents we can guide our baby but ultimately, I feel, it depends on the babies’ personality as to how easily it is for them to sleep through the night. Camille has been an “EASY” baby… extremely easy… It’s almost like God said, “You know what? That Christy hasn’t had it so easy in her 27 years of life … so, I’m gonna give her a break!” AND Voila! Camille was born.

Here are some more pictures from the 6 month.
Her very FIRST Easter

 After church, she opened her basket... and of course she liked the grass best of all!

 Below is my absolute most favorite picture with my baby.
This photo was taken the last night of "Putting on the Ritz"

My nephew Taylor turned THREE!

and I think this picture sums his Birthday Party perfectly :)

Camille with PawPaw :)He's home and doing well!

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On Mother’s Day, Camille sat up all on her own… this technically happened in her 7th month and in front of a friend on the Friday before Mother's Day, but my dear friend (Elise) didn't know to push her down till I was in the room to watch! SO, her first time to do it, in front of me, was on Sunday. I'll post a video of that soon too :)