I’m going to make this a quick one, because I’m very sleepy.

Last month, we were in the throes of teething, but a bit after Anneliese turned 6 months old, those two bottom teeth popped through her gums. After a few more days of pain, she seemed much more comfortable. And sharp.

Seriously, don’t put your finger in there.

So now she has two teeth, and I thought I would be sad that the “gummy baby smile” was gone, but apparently Nature designed things to ease mamas into it… because I hardly ever see those teeth! And when I do, they’re CUTE. I think it’ll be weird when the top ones come in though.

And enough people have asked me that I should probably write about it a little… teeth shouldn’t really affect breastfeeding. Now and then she nibbles a little (mostly when she is sleepy or distracted, and the nursing session was really over anyway) but I just say, “OW!” and she stops. She doesn’t really do it often, and she hasn’t CHOMPED or anything. And when she is nursing well with a proper latch, I don’t feel her teeth at all because her tongue covers them. When she gets the top ones, they won’t affect nursing either. If you can feel the top teeth “hanging on” it’s probably because baby isn’t close enough to you, and doesn’t have a big enough “mouth full.” If the baby has a good latch, again, you won’t even notice the teeth. I’m not worried about the top ones coming in.

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I was a solo mama most of the past month, since my husband was on a ship doing work-ups for deployment. I had this whole big list of things I wanted to get done. And, well… here’s what I got done:

• Hang pictures in the hallway, incorrectly.
• Buy materials to make a top for the washer and dryer, but not actually make it.
• Get photos printed and in our “Family” frame. (It’s in quotes because the frame says the word, “Family”, not because it’s not really our family.)
• Keep the baby alive.
• Get very, very sick. (Stomach bug / food poisoning… went out to dinner with three other girls, and we all got it.)
• Vomit while the baby cries. (It was so horrible. She wanted to nurse, which made me thirsty. I’d take a sip of water, and then have to vomit it back up… so I would have to unlatch her and run to the bathroom to do that, and she was scared and crying… and when I came back, she wanted to nurse for comfort again. Repeat ad nauseum.)
• Recover. Thank you to my sweet friends – Christina who brought me water and crackers, Joni who brought me yogurt and coconut water, Amber who brought me yogurt, bananas, and applesauce. You made my week-long quarantine possible, and contributed greatly to my recovery. I really appreciate you all. </Oscar acceptance speech>
• Nurse, a lot.
• Keep the baby from eating my food. Even though she wanted it. Because her papa wasn’t home to see.
• Eat food. Some of it cooked.
• Take out the trash once.
• Take out the recycling twice.
• Install curtain rods in the living room and hang curtains (woo hoo!)
• Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Playdates at Starbucks.

And as soon as my husband returned? FOOD for Anneliese! Yes, this is Anneliese with a FAKE carrot… but I promise, we gave her real food. We started our Baby-Led Weaning adventures with mashed hard boiled egg yolk. I know BLW isn’t about mush and purees, but how else do you eat an egg yolk? And she fed it to herself with a spoon, so it was still baby-led.

Do you want to see Anneliese eat food? Want to see her make faces? Want to see her generally be adorable? I started a new blog called Baby-Led Weaning Blog (I’m very creative, you see) just for that! Except that unlike Joyful Abode, it’s a multi-mama blog where several of us are sharing our Baby-Led Solids adventures! If you want to see just my posts though, click to see Anneliese’s Baby-Led Weaning Foods.

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And this? I think this might be why she’s sleeping so horribly lately. She’s trying to figure out how to get from a sitting position onto her knees… so she does this sideways half-kneely thing, puts her hands in front of her on the ground, and rocks a liiiiiittle forward. Not far enough to actually get on her knees, but I can tell she’s thinking about it.

Please, please let her learn how to crawl quickly.

Not because I want her to be all over the house in the blink of an eye, but because I need her little mind to be at rest so she can get some sleep! I truly think that’s what “it” is lately… I swear we were in a more normal sleep pattern a week or two ago. She was taking naps and sleeping for a few hours at a time at night. Maybe not the most ideal (naps could be longer, night sleep could be longer) but it only took about 20 minutes to get her back to sleep when she would wake up at night. And she took multiple naps per day. Today? a 30-minute babywearing nap, a 20 minute nap at home (which took me about 45 minutes to get her to sleep for), then when she went to bed, she woke up half an hour later. A couple hours later, and she’s woken up 2 more times… hopefully she’ll sleep longer this stretch.

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Anyway, enough about sleep. My baby girl is SEVEN MONTHS OLD.

I’m about to post an awesome video of Anneliese eating a lemon at Baby-Led Weaning Blog. You should come check it out.