Seven months

So here we are at seven months. Time is still flying by! One of our friends just had a baby; he is 2 and half weeks old and even just looking at pictures of him around 2 weeks it's amazing just how fast they grow. You forget really quickly!

The big thing this month is moving around and eating.

I have to admit, I'm reading about other babies who are the same age or younger who seem to be doing more than Neil and reaching milestones and it makes me nervous. I did ask the doctor at the 6 month appointment if we should be concerned that he's not really rolling and the doctor said it's fine right now; some kids just don't roll/crawl whatever. But just recently I saw that a younger baby pulled herself up to standing from sitting and I'm starting to worry again.

With that said, though, Neil is really close to being mobile. Just the other day I wasn't paying a lot of attention and he was on the floor and twisted around. I started watching and he's definitely trying to crawl or do something. It's actually fun/amusing to watch. He's on his stomach, and pushing off on his feet, but ends up rolling to his back and just gets frustrated because that's NOT what he wanted to do. You can just tell looking at him.

Neil definitely has personality. It's so fun watching it develop.

Eating wise, Neil now watches as we eat and I'm just waiting for him to grab out of my hands. I can't drink out of a glass with him in my arms because he's grabbing it and trying to put it in his mouth. And this past weekend, my parents were here, and we went to Cracker Barrel. We had been out of the house all day so we didn't bring food for Neil (which we try to do now if we go out to eat so he has something to eat too). Neil was sitting in the high chair between Dave and me, with his hands spread out, opening his mouth and looking at us as we were eating, waiting for his own food. It was cute and made me feel guilty at the same time. It also reminded me of a baby bird opening its beak for food from the mother bird.

Neil does like to eat. So far he hasn't refused any food and he seems to eat as much as we will give him. This past week I started sending an ice cube worth of food to daycare for him for lunch and we feed him at least an ice cube worth most nights in the evening. He has had: avocado, green beans, carrots, sweet potato, pear, and corn. Most of that is homemade from fresh fruit or vegetables. The corn is kind of a pain so I'll probably use frozen from now on, and I bought baby applesauce in the store to try next.

Sleep for the most part is still good. We have our nights, and he seems to cry in his sleep at times, which wakes me up. But I'm used to that now so I don't even look at the monitor anymore unless it continues. I have heard that he is going to have another sleep regression because he's more active and will want to play instead of sleep. I don't think we've hit that yet though. We try really hard to be home in time for his bedtime routine and so far that's working well. Hopefully eventually though we'll be able to easily transfer him from sleeping in the car seat to the crib. But for now I still nurse him one last time before bed and I don't want to cut that out yet.

Sleepwise though I should mention we still don't get him down consistently for naps. He seems to make up for it in daycare and sleeps less during the day on the weekend with us.

Still no teeth. Every month I say he's drooling like crazy (still is) but no teeth. I'm not necessarily complaining though- I'm not looking forward to getting bitten while nursing him.

Neil is a good and happy baby. I don't know how but we were very blessed with that. We get comments all the time about that- people ask if he really smiles all the time, and in restaurants, stores, etc., we are always told he's such a good baby. If he's loud it's because he's squealing or laughing. The times he gets frustrated or upset are if he's hungry or if he's trying to crawl or move.

Neil is definitely saying ma ma ma ma ma but I don't think he's trying to say mom, I think he's just saying the sound. I keep trying to say how about da da da but he really likes the "m" sound. And he's taken to shaking his head a lot like he's saying no.

They did install a badge reader at work! I was going to write a separate post but I've been too busy to even write one up. The key still works and the badge reader is interesting but it is so nice to be parking at my own building again, and to be able to just go in and out without worrying about carrying a key. The only thing I really need that isn't already in the room is my cell phone to keep track of how long I've been pumping, so I can go from meetings into there if they go long instead of going back to my desk to get the key. I'm so happy about this. The day they installed it was hard because someone was in the room. I relegated a conference room on my floor and a female coworker (friend) helped out and made sure nobody tried to come in when I was using it.

Exercise wise I am still struggling. I really thought by this point I would be back into my clothes from before pregnancy. But eating I have to admit, I am not making very healthy choices, and I've been stress eating to some degree. I ran a 5K at the end of July and that is the last time I've exercised. I'm running another 5K this weekend so we'll see how that goes.