The Best is Yet to Come: Seven Months Old

Caitlin,

You turned 7 months old last Sunday (Dec 26th). I am pretty late posting this because we have been busy celebrating the holidays and spending some wonderful quality time together with family and friends. In the back of my mind, I think I am also hoping that if I put off posting about you turning 7 months, I might be able to cause time to stand still and stop you from growing up so darn fast! I can hardly believe that we are more than halfway through your first year. You are closer to being a one-year old than you are to when you were born. Once again, we've had a great month with you! You are our little peanut, but I think you are really growing these days. We go to the doctor on Friday to get your second flu shot, and we plan to have the nurse weigh you so we can see how much you've gained since your 6 month appointment. You are wearing size 2 diapers and size 6 month clothes, but I suspect that we'll be moving up a size sooner than we expect. Your hair is growing like crazy! It's still light brown with blonde highlights and in some spots, it's starting to cover your ears and the back sometimes touches your collar. The back seems thicker than the top though. You eyes are still absolutely beautiful, but we still can't figure out what color they are. Some days, they look blue. Other days, they look green. I've even commented to Daddy once or twice about how I can see little specks of brown in them.

Let's talk about my favorite topic, your eating habits. I finally let go of my pride and have given up nursing you full-time. The only time you nurse is first thing in the morning when the milk is readily available for you. I am basically pumping exclusively, and you are drinking 3-5 oz. bottles during the day and a 4 oz. bottle at bedtime. This seems to be working so much better than you fighting with me when I was trying to nurse you full-time. It was so awful to hear you cry and mealtimes with you are so much less stressful on both of us now. We also have made the decision that we are going to use what I pump, but if it's not enough to cover all your bottles, then we will supplement with formula. So far, my freezer stash has covered the shortfall, and we haven't had to use any formula. I am really hoping that we'll be able to make it to your 1st birthday without having to use the formula, but if that doesn't happen, it won't be the end of the world. We introduced solids right before you turned 6 months old, and you've been doing really well with it. You ate 1 meal a day at first and are now eating 2 meals of solids. We also gave you cheerios and introduced a sippy cup with water in it right before you turned 7 months old. You were not at all thrilled about either of these options at first. I am happy to say that you love Cheerios and are taking sips of water from your cup. We are still working with you to hold the sippy cup on your own.

What are you up to this month? You finally rolled from your back to your stomach while playing on your activity mat one morning. Of course, I was in the kitchen and completely missed it! I looked up and you were on your belly. The next day, you rolled over during naptime and couldn't figure out how to roll back over, so you just went back to sleep on your belly. I guess you've done it a few times since, but it's not a regular occurrence. You mostly sit and play with your activity mat now (as opposed to laying down on it and looking up at the animals). You still love your exersaucer, and that is generally your main form of entertainment if we aren't playing on the floor with you. The exersaucer is also what Daddy and I call the "poop machine". More often than not, when we put you in that thing, you start grunting and before we know it, one of us changing your stinky diaper. You have also starting experiencing a bit of separation anxiety this month. Whenever we're around "new" people, you take a little while to warm up to them. In most cases, when someone else holds you for the first time, you either cry or immediately turn and look for me or Daddy to make sure that we didn't leave you. When you are playing on your own, either on the floor or in the exersaucer, if we walk towards you or walk by you and don't pick you up, you make all kinds of noise to let us know that you're still there and yes, you would like to be picked up. You are still a drool machine and will put just about anything in your mouth. Your first 2 teeth popped through this month, the 2 bottom middle teeth. You had a slight fever after your 6 month shots, and we weren't sure if it was because of the shots or because you were teething. While those teeth were coming in, you were a bit more fussy and clingy than normal, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. You absolutely love standing with our help! If we hold out our fingers, you'll grab them and pull yourself up. You also love trying to take steps when we are holding your hands like this. When we sit with you on the floor, you try to pull yourself up using the exersaucer. A few times now, you've been sitting in Daddy's lap near the exersaucer and you pulled yourself up to standing. You love to stand by the exersaucer (holding on, of course), by the ottoman, or on your activity mat holding onto the cross bars. You have officially perfected the raspberry. It's so cute when you do it! Often times, when we put you to bed, we hear you on the monitor blowing raspberries until you fall asleep. You still love playing peek-a-boo, and you love it when Daddy tickles you. So far, we've figured out that you are ticklish on your ribs, under your chin and on the inside of your legs.

One of the biggest things we did this month was celebrate your first Christmas! We celebrated with Nanny & Pop-Pop and Aunt Crystal & Gary the week before Christmas and then went up to PA for Christmas to celebrate with the Cuneos/LeNoirs. You did really great with all your family, and everyone just loves you! Daddy and I even went on a "date" to church on Christmas Eve while you stayed with Aunt Alexis. You obviously didn't really understand what was going on at Christmas, but you loved helping Daddy rip the paper off of your gifts. And, then the paper would go in your mouth, of course! You were completely spoiled by everyone and you received some really great stuff including books, teething toys, toys for the carseat, your first camera, bath toys, new clothes, a cookie jar shape sorter, a puzzle, Baby's 1st Christmas ornaments, a tea set (Daddy can't wait to have a tea party with you), a baby doll and stroller, and a Radio Flyer wagon. Santa brought you a walker, and so far, you seem to like it. You haven't really figured out how to walk forward in it, but you are good at going backwards and you like to be pushed around the house in it.

There's not much to talk about when it comes to sleep. You are still doing a great job sleeping through the night for about 12 hours, and we are so proud of you and thankful for a good night's sleep every night! You are going to bed around 6:30 or 7 most nights, and there have even been a few occasions on the weekends where you have let us sleep in until 8am. You still sleep with you Bunny, and you are always chewing on some part of it, usually his arms or his ears. You are still taking 3 naps a day.

We've had another amazing month with you, and we cannot wait to see what the next one brings. We are so proud of you, and we love you so much!

Love you like no other,

Mommy

Here are your 7 month pictures with your bear.