Liam at 7 Months

We're officially entered into the second half of our year with Liam!  It seems so long ago that we celebrated the 6 month milestone, and yet, it seems like it went so fast.  We've accomplished a lot in the past month!  We took our first vacation together as a family, focused on encouraging healthy sleep habits, and started solid foods.  We celebrated Memorial Day, my birthday, and Fathers Day.  The theme of this past month has been MOVEMENT - physically and energetically.  Lots and lots of movement!

By the way, I will also admit to the fact that while I wrote the text for this post over two weeks ago, I've been procrastinating on posting because I didn't feel like I had the "right" 7 month photos yet.  It's been difficult to get good photos lately, because Liam is moving so much and often lunges towards the camera whenever we bring it out.  Then, I went back and looked at some of the photos that we've randomly taken recently, and realized that they didn't need to be perfect.  They just needed to capture what Liam looks like at this moment in time.  So, here we are. 

Growth & Appearance

I'm not exactly sure how much you weigh or what your length is right now.  Your Dad (and the doctor) is in charge of all the measuring, and since we didn't go to the doc this month and your Dad has taken a brief hiatus from personally making sure you're growing, we don't know what your current status is.  But don't worry, I got your Dad this for Fathers Day.  I'd expect we'll start tracking your growth more closely in the future. 

No new teeth this month, so you're still rockin' those bottom two!

Eating

I finally got over my fear of feeding you solid foods, and we just jumped in with both feet.  We're following the baby led weaning philosophy, and you seem to be into it so far.  Your first food was avocado, and other than a brief sour face in the beginning, you ate two slices of that avocado (i.e. - some of it went in your mouth, most of it went on your shirt, and a lot of it ended up on the floor).  You've also sampled cucumber, sweet potato, broccoli, sugar snap peas, banana, pear, apricot, quinoa, and today we had scrambled egg for the first time!  You really enjoy eating, and it's so fun to watch you explore and experiment.

We're still nursing 7-8 times per day - When you wake up, before and after each nap, a snack in late afternoon, before bed time, and once in the middle of the night.  

Sleeping

I'm happy to announce that as of today, I have had two lovely nights of at least 6 hours in my bed by myself.  It's been a bit rough around here - not going to lie.  As I've talked about before, we gently coached you into a more structured schedule and taught you how to fall asleep consistently by yourself.  As a result, our day time naps solidified.  But at night, you were still waking up every 2-3 hours.  Torture. 

So, first step - I had to move out of your room.  Second step - your Dad started responding to your first and last awakenings so you wouldn't get frustrated if I wasn't nursing you.  I took the middle awakening, where I would feed you.  Last Sunday, you woke up at 6:30am, after keeping us up most of the night.  We were spent, and, sorry, but both your Dad and I put the pillows over our heads and tried to pretend you weren't crying for about a minute.  We promise - only a minute or two went by - and then we realized, you weren't crying anymore!  I grabbed the monitor, and saw you fast asleep.  Bliss!!  We just bought ourselves another hour of sleep!!!  Even more importantly, we realized we may be responding to you TOO quickly.

So - new rule:  When you wake up in the middle of the night, I wait 5 minutes before going in to get you.  Sometimes I feel badly about not getting you right away, but then I have to remind myself that I can't get too involved.  The exception to this is when you awake between midnight and 2am, when I will feed you because I still think you need a night time feeding.  Every single time I've waited, you've been upset for two or three minutes, and then put your head back down on your mattress and drifted off to a blissful sleep for another few hours.  Gold.

Your current routine/schedule:

• Wake between 7-7:30am
• Play while I make breakfast
• Eat breakfast
• Play a few more minutes
• Nap at 9am
• Wake up between 10am - 11am
• Play/take a walk/see friends
• Nap at 1pm
• Wake up between 2 - 3pm
• If you have shorter naps, I'll put you down for a third nap in the afternoon, but in general, if you sleep until 3pm or later, I'll keep you up until bedtime.   
• Dinner at 5:30 or 6pm
• Bedtime - 7 or 7:30pm

Development

More big news - you're crawling!!!  It happened the day before you turned 7 months.  In recent weeks leading up to this big development, you had been pulling yourself around by planking, and then using your arms to pull your whole body forward.  I love that you're crawling, but honestly, I'm going to miss the plank stage.  Sometimes, you would plank to reposition yourself when you were concentrating on a toy.  And it was so incredibly cute.  We're going to miss saying things like "Oh, Liam's just planking around" when people ask us what you're doing.  We're also going to miss announcing "PLANK!" to each other every time you did it.

You're beginning to use various tactics to get my attention.  For example, we were at an art gallery the other day, and I was in the middle of chatting with some people.  You strategically dropped your toy to get my attention.  Over and over and over again :)  And then on the way home you said "Mama".  Now, I won't assume you connected the sound "Mama" with the meaning, but it was so heartwarming to hear you say it.  Now that you're crawling, you also like to follow me around the house.  A favorite image that I never want to leave my brain is you peering your little head around the side of the big leather chair in our living room to watch me change out laundry in the hallway washing machine. 

Favorites

You're obsessed with little plastic eggs, and love chasing them around the room.  You've recently discovered bubbles, and I think we could occupy an entire day with my blowing bubbles, and you attempting to touch them.   Unfortunately, some of your other favorites are things you're not supposed to be getting into, such as exploring electrical wires and cords.  (We really need to baby proof).  You also love the big green yoga ball that is currently taking up residence in your room, and we always spend a few minutes playing with that before bed time.

My favorite part of your current favorites are that you love looking at our wall of family photos in the hallway outside your bedroom.  In the morning and after your naps, I'll bring you out into the hallway to gradually let your eyes adjust to the light.  We spend a few minutes of every day looking at our photos and talking about each of the people in them.  You always have the biggest smile on your face when we do this, and often reach out to grab a photo off the shelf.

Nicknames

Two new nicknames you have this month are "Nug", short for "Nugget".  And "Little Crab", because you look like a crab when you crawl around the floor.


Books and Songs you Love

• Before each nap, we read The Napping House
• Each night before bedtime, we lay out three books for you to choose from.  Every single time, without fail, you pick The Big Red Barn.  Your Dad and I have both of these books memorized by now.