" 7 MONTHS ALREADY?!"
Oh my! It doesn't even seem possible. Can you really be 7 months already? I know people say this all the time but it feels like I just brought you home from the hospital.
Boy this journey to motherhood a 4th time has really thrown me for a loop. My son, you are quite the handful. I may have said this here on the blog before but I'll say it again. If you had been my first baby you would have been an only child. I've often thought that maybe you had colic. Around your six month birthday it seemed to hit its peak and then you looked to be mellowing out a bit. I was thrilled with this up until two weeks ago when I could feel that familiar chaos creeping back up on us. I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt or a new teefer coming in, but you're just not happy.
Eating: You are quite the eater as we can tell by your thigh chub. At 6.5 months you weighed 18lbs 15oz and were 29 inches long. Big boy! At 6 months we started you on jarred baby food. To be honest most days you could care less about it. You're shaping up to be a pretty picky eater so it's a bit frustrating. We started with sweet potatoes and you loved them. Then we did pears and those were also a hit. Then we tried bananas and twice you broke out with red cheeks so I think we'll steer clear of those for awhile. Then in no particular order we tried peas (hated), green beans (hated), carrots (liked), prunes (liked), mangoes (liked), country garden vegetables (hated), blueberries and apples (liked). Notice a pattern? You, my son, do not like vegetables. I've considered trying to make my own baby food so that we can try things like cauliflower, avocado, broccoli etc. etc. We shall see how it goes. You are now drinking 7 oz 3 scoops formula. That's watered down 6 ozs. You're constipation is still a minor issue so we're keeping with the extra ounce of water. Your eating schedule looks like this most days:
5:00am- 7 oz bottle
9:00am- 1 jar of fruits/yogurt and 7 oz bottle
1:00pm- 7 oz bottle
5:00pm- 7 oz bottle
7:00pm- 1 jar veggies
8:00pm- 7 oz bottle
That totals 30 ounces of formula a day. I'd like to cut that down a bit as you start eating more baby food. You have tried Walmart brand baby Mum Mums but they don't seem to dissolve as quickly as I remember the name brand ones so I'm very weary about giving them to you. I've had to fish them out of your throat a couple times. Much too scary for Mommy!
Sleeping: This is a bit of a touchy subject for me right now. My awesome sleeper has recently disappeared and the bags under my eyes have reappeared! Your big sister hasn't helped matters either. I put you both to bed by 8:30pm. Most recently you've been stirring around 12:30am but I don't usually go in to soothe you. Luckily you fuss, toss and turn a bit and roll to the side and fall back asleep. Then by 3am your sister is crying and searching for her binky. I go in to help her as quickly as I can so that she doesn't wake you up. She goes back to sleep without a fight. If I'm lucky I get to sleep until 5am which is usually bottle time. Some nights like last night you wake up one or two more times but fuss for a minute or two and drift back to sleep.
I'm totally in love with your recent attachment to sleeping with the Cat in the Hat stuffed animal I bought for your nursery when I was pregnant. When I first bought it my intention was to sit it on a shelf somewhere just for decoration. When I got it and realized that it's arms and legs where so thin and flimsy I realized it would never sit up nicely so I put it at the bottom of your crib. A couple weeks ago when I was putting you to bed I handed it to you and you immediately cuddled up to it and hugged it tightly. From that moment on you were in love. Every time I hand it to you you start kicking your feet and mushing your face into it. I've always hoped to have a baby that used a lovie or a stuffed animal and you seem to be that baby.
Diapering: You are now wearing size 3 diapers. I've considered buying size 4 diapers for nighttime, but have managed to avoid that by not changing your diaper and putting you in your PJ's until right before I put you to bed.
Clothing: It makes me sad to admit that you fit nicely into 12 month clothes. You can even pull off an 18 months shirt. Shopping for fall and winter clothes has been an adventure. Every stores clothes seem to run a bit different which makes me have to try everything on you.
Carters- Currently you're wearing size 12 months. Onesies fit great and the pants are a bit big, but
doable. I'm hoping you continue to fit into 12 months for fall and then when it gets even chillier
you'll probably need 18 months.
Old Navy & GAP- Currently you fit into 12-18 month shirts comfortably, but 6-12 month pants.
Anything that can be worn baggie and that I want to fit you for awhile I buy in size 18-24 months.
Children's Place- Currently you're wearing size 9-12 month jeans and 12 or 18 month shirts. The
shirts will fit for awhile, but length wise I will have to be buying 12 month jeans for late fall.
So as you can see shopping has been fun!
Bath time: Sometime around 5.5 months I bought a bath sling that made bath time much easier. It allowed me to bathe you with Alexa. This was great until I realized that the bath sling took up 3/4 of the tub and left little swimming room for Alexa. We made the most of it until this past week when I dug out the bathtub ring. You have been sitting very well lately so I knew you could handle it. Like I suspected, you love it and bath time is now a blast.
Outings: Our outings have become much more enjoyable with some of your latest milestones. The first milestone that made everything easier recently was when you learned to hold your own bottle. This now means that when we're out shopping I can easily hand you your bottle when it's time to eat. I don't have to do the "one handed double stroller push" which is next to impossible (especially with the stroller malfunctions we were having). The second milestone that made outings easier was learning to sit up unassisted. I can now sit you (with the shopping cart cover) in the top seat of the shopping cart. This makes you much happier. You love being able to see everything going on around you. Oh yea and we have officially switched our sit and stand snap and go stroller into just a sit and stand. You love your permanent seat in the front. We also bought a new single stroller for days when I feel like
Awake Time: This past month we added two new pieces of baby equipment to our baby arsenal. We bought a used walker and piano exersaucer. You love them both and spend quite a bit of time in them. Your favorite by far has to be sitting in the walker and pushing backwards outside. You LOVE being outside! If there's ever an especially cranky time of the day I can cheer you up with a quick walk in the stroller or even just by sitting outside on the porch in our chairs.
As I mentioned before you are an excellent sitter now. You rarely fall back anymore and playing with toys has a whole new meaning now. I've had to invent in some more baby toys for you to sit and play with. Rattles and chew toys will just not suffice when you have learned just how fun it is to sit and play with musical light up toys.
We have seen you roll. We do know it's possible, but it is definitely not your favorite past time. You haven't quite learned that by rolling you can get to the things you'd really like to explore. Soon buddy, soon. You have made some advances towards being able to move around. The other night after bath time I dressed you in your PJ's and left you to play in your room on your belly. When I walked back in you were up on your knees rocking back and forth. You have learned to push backwards and can back yourself into a corner like a champ. I'm in no hurry for you to learn these things. I want to enjoy each and every stage of your development.
I have noticed you have started to find your voice. Most of your life your noises have consisted mostly of crying. Ugh! But lately you've been screeching and yelling more. I often say to you "Babababa" or "Dadadada" in hopes of hearing you copy me but not yet. You do copy me though when I blow raspberries and you think it's hysterical. You love sticking out your tongue too!
Well Jax, or JJ, or Jackson, or buh-eee whichever you prefer, you are keeping me on my toes, but I couldn't love you more. Your smile and your dimples get me every time. In fact I hope you don't soon learn to use those dimples against me. I melt with every smile. I love looking into your brown eyes and seeing bits of myself. It's been awhile since I could do that. I love you munchkin!
