7 months

Wow that month went fast

Updates on:

Sleeping:

If you see my posts on facebook you probably noticed me getting excited a few times this month about his sleep progression.  After letting him figure out how to get himself to sleep on his own, we all found out he is a tummy sleeper.  This made the unswaddling very easy because his arms can't wake him up when he's on his belly.
Even though he still won't give us two nights in a row of great sleep, he does give us every other night. Funny kid.
I usually give him about 5 minutes to get himself back to sleep and to listen if his cry is needy or not.  Usually its not and he goes right back to sleep.
One night (sorry for the redundancy facebook friends) he fell asleep at 9 after nursing, woke up briefly at 1:30 then quickly fell back asleep on his own, then didn't wake up again until 8:20!  I call that a successful night.  While I don't anticipate another night like that for awhile, I'm hoping nights like another more recent night become more consistent.  He went down at 9, woke up at 6:30 to nurse, then quickly went down for another 3 hours.  I am totally okay with that!

Our tummy sleeper

Naps are a different story.  He is starting to nap around the same time everyday which is nice, but I still have to bounce/rock him for 2 of the 3 naps.  The long nap in the middle of the day we nap together in my bed.  He goes right to sleep on that one.

Sweet baby napping with me

Eating:

Solids!  We haven't taken out any nursing session and he still rarely stretches the time in between nursing.  That is his #1 priority when it comes to food.  He has started lunging for my shirt when he wants to nurse.  This kid knows where his food is at.

We have tried:

Sweet potatoes: liked after a couple tries and still liked it when we went back
Peas: hated it.  I tried putting in garlic, salt, you name it he still gave a stank face... until I put in some bananas
Butternut squash:  Liked after 3 days
Carrots: Liked the second day
Green beans:  Tried it once, hated it.  Went on to other solids.  Tried it again, hated it.  Added salt, no, added a little apple sauce... yes!  (I hope he doesn't get used to only eating his green veggies with a little something to sweeten the deal)
Pears: loved day 1
Prunes: chowed down and cried when it was gone
Chicken/Turkey/Beef (ground up baby food):  full on gag.  I don't blame him, i've tasted everything he's eaten and I almost gagged too.
Greek yogurt:  liked it with bananas

I was able to make everything myself of the food he has eaten now except for the pears, prunes, meat, and yogurt.  Makes me feel pretty proud, and thrifty.

Loving the yogurt

He got wayyy backed up.  I think it was all the bananas.  So we stopped bananas and went to simple foods until his bowels regulated.  I had to go up there a couple times and help him with the hard stuff.  Poor guy, that was not fun for either of us.  Today he pooped and I've never been so excited to see his poop... normal!

Play:

No crawling yet, this boy likes to be on his legs.  He gets plenty of floor time.  He's really good at spinning around in circles and rolling around to get where he wants.  I feel like he might start an army crawl soon.  You can see he wants to get places.

David is so good at playing with him when I need to take care of things around the house.  The other day I caught this

Playing ball!

His johnny jumper is still his favorite toy.  He uses it and a way to get around the area most of the time. He is able to walk around in it.  We've had to move everything off the side of a little desk thing because he gets to good at pulling things off.  We now put his toys up there to see how far he can reach.

He's a tricky guy

Likes:

Blowing raspberries!  He has done this non stop almost all week.  Its fun to watch even if he does get spit everywhere.
Pulling my hair.  If there is hair within reach, he goes at it.  Especially when he's nursing.
Jumping.  His #1 activity.  If you stand him up, he will jump.  If you sit him on your knee he will try to jump.  If there is any possible way he can make the jumping motion and move, he will do it.
Putting everything in his mouth.  Good thing we have a decent vacuum.
Pulling up on things.  This boy is getting strong!

Saying "Mom" over and over and over.  He's probably not aware what exactly it means, but he does seem to say it when he needs something, so I'm going to say he knows sometimes.  He has said something that sounds like "Dad" a couple times so David feels pretty good about that.

I wish I had more pictures of all of his facial expressions.  He has some new very funny and very intense expressions that have popped up.

Mom:

With him sleeping better I'm starting to feel more of myself come back.  I still think I might need to see my OB and just talk things over.
I was able to go to the gym.  It was only once but it really resets things.  I love a good sweat.
I'm back to my pre-preg weight!  Its still not where I'm used to because I gained a little bit before I got pregnant, but its definitely something I'm proud of.  Thank you nursing and good eating (for the most part).  I was at Gap the other day and the clothes actually looked good on me again.  I was soooo happy!

Family:

We took some family pictures at Sears.  We can't afford much else (I prefer doing photos outside in natural lighting), but at least we got it done and we had a gift certificate that paid for it.  They did a black backdrop, which I also don't like but beggars can't be choosers.  Daniel was so good during it.  Then he conked out after, being cute is exhausting!
We put our Christmas tree up!  I was debating putting it up because we don't have any floor space but then I wised up and realized that Daniel needs a Christmas tree for his first Christmas!  So I moved some stuff to behind the couch and we put the tree up.  Luckily he doesn't see it as a toy (yet).
2 weeks until our California Christmas!!!!!  I don't know if I can get any more excited.


This last month this kid has exploded with personality and it is so fun to watch.  He is so caring but you know he loves to have fun and explore too.  He really is a good baby.  I used to only be able to say that about him during the day but now that his nights are getting better its easy for me to say it about him all the time.

He is starting to grow out of his 12 month clothing.  Dang kid.  He is 23 lbs now and probably close to 30 inches.  He is just right for us.

From us Fosters to your family, we wish you all a Happy Holidays!!!  Be safe and have so much fun!