Seven Months

Distracted... so typical of his personality right now :)

Milestones and Firsts...

• He has two teeth that popped through on the bottom, both at the same time! I saw them peeking through his gums two weeks ago on February 14th. He has done pretty well with it. I bought every teether out there and the Hyland's teething tablets, but breastfeeding seems to comfort him best. Those little teeth are so darn cute when he gives us a big smile.
• He is still on breast milk, but I am supplementing one bottle at daycare with formula right now. I beat myself up about it, even though he does fine with it and he still gets lots of the good stuff. Despite pumping as much as I can, my supply is steadily decreasing. I just cannot keep up with the four 6 ounce bottles a day he takes at daycare. He is also getting less interested in breastfeeding. He is easily distracted and wants to play instead. Silly kid. I always breastfeed him when he is with me so he's just a hybrid eater now :)
• Poor sweet baby contracted RSV. He did have a fever for one day, but otherwise he is just coughing a lot. He is getting nebulizer breathing treatments and they seem to help loosen things up in his chest so he can cough it out. He hasn't been sleeping well at night, poor thing. I have been a zombie at work.

• He is eating solids three times a day - fruits and veggies at daycare and another meal in the evening with us. He loves everything he tries. He seems to spit up orange foods, so we are avoiding those for now. For purees, he has had oatmeal, apples, bananas, peaches, peas, plums, sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, spinach, blueberries, raspberries, spring veggie mix with brown rice, chicken with brown rice, turkey vegetable dinner. He has also tried some regular foods: avocado, zucchini, bananas, lemons, carrots, mashed potatoes, and salmon. He has also had vegetable puffs and he really likes them. I love Plum Organics baby food - I just picked up some new combinations to try that look delicious: cherry/sweet corn/greek yogurt and zucchini/banana/amaranth.

Check out his mashed potato hillbilly teeth hehehe. That happened on it's own. We were all laughing so hard.

• He loves to sit in the shopping cart. All smiles.

• He is army crawling all over the place. He is constantly on the move. Even if you are holding him, he nearly jumps out of your arms when he is excited or when he sees something he wants. He also gets up in a regular crawling position all the time and rocks back and forth.
• He throws his toys across the room. I've almost been knocked out by a flying rattle a few times.
• He is still putting together consonants and vowels. He says "wa, wa", "ba" and "ma." I am still waiting for "mama"
• He has mentally grown up a ton this month. Examples: when I am sitting at a red light, I will talk to him and peek over the edge of his car seat, and he will look up at me and give me a big grin. When I pick him up from daycare, he spots me walking in and gets very excited and anxious to see me, and does his shrieking squeal and starts jumping. He watches what Daddy and I do and wants to be involved in everything.

Video of that shriek/squeal I love {and Mr. G Hopper, one of his favorite toys}:

• He is sitting up really well. He still tips over sometimes, but he is pretty darn sturdy now.

Valentines Day

Other tidbits about being 7 months old...

• He loves bath time and sits in the bathtub now instead of laying down. I need to schedule his last five swimming lessons. I miss those.
• He loves to be outside. If he is ever fussy, sitting outside is a sure way to make him happy. I am really looking forward to this summer, spending time at the pool and at the lake. Our new house has a membership to a wonderful lake with a beach and picnic areas. I am so excited!
• He hates to lay down on his changing mat. He would rather roll over and lay on his tummy. It makes diaper and clothing changes a challenge.
• His laugh is still my favorite thing ever. I could spend all day making him laugh.
• Besides the vomiting from the RSV, the spitting up continues to improve.
• He is sleeping better at night. Most nights he goes to bed at 8pm and gets up around 5am, with the exception of this past week with RSV. On average, he takes two naps every day. He is sleeping less and less during the day.
• His hair is getting thicker and longer. It's very light with a reddish tint. We both have dark hair, so I wonder how his will end up.
• His eyes are still a dark blueish with some green/brown toward the center.
• He is wearing 6-12 month and 9 month clothes.
• He is wearing size 3 diapers.
• He weighed 18lbs 2oz. at his doctor appointment a few days ago.

We love you to the moon and back!!!!!!!!! Being your Mom is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I wake up every day happy and thankful that you are here.

xoxo,
Megan

It's official - we found a house!

Just a quick Tuesday afternoon update: We found our perfect house. It was actually one that we were a backup offer on. We love it to pieces, we have purchased all of our new furniture and lighting (so exciting and fun!!!) and now we are just waiting for it to close. It's supposed to happen by Friday, but it may push to early next week. Fingers crossed.

My sweet baby Grayson is fighting RSV right now so I am running on little sleep. My company is having some crazy drama. And that's pretty much life right now, in a few sentences. I will be back on Thursday with G's seven month post.

Here is a picture of the new house's ginormous master suite. Our first house had THE tiniest master bedroom you have ever seen, so we are super excited. It even has a fireplace!!!!

xoxo,
Megan

House Hunting. Ugh.

Our house officially closed escrow on 1/31 and we moved into my parent's house. It's been pretty chaotic adjusting to a new routine with all of our stuff scattered everywhere, but it's getting better.

We have the money in the bank now and no contingency on the sale of our house. Perfect for making offers! Except there is a huge shortage of houses on the market. We are being picky too because we want to live in this house for a very long time. We don't mind waiting for the right house, but we also have to be careful how long we wait because interest rates are already rising and because of the shortage, home prices are too. And when we do find the right house, we will be competing with other buyers to actually get it. We have made offers on five houses so far. Three sold to other buyers and we are back-ups on the other two. Our search continues....

I had to share this picture. How is he so darn cute?! Neither of us were ever this cute! We bought him an outfit for our family photo shoot I have planned in the near future. This hat goes with it :)

xoxo,

Megan

Grayson and his zebra

His poor zebra is shrinking :)

Six Months

Six months old. I can't hardly believe it. Already half way to one! I would be crying if it wasn't so much fun to see him learning new things all of the time.

Milestones and Firsts...

• He takes his bottles at daycare like a champ! Yay! And he isn't picky about which bottle either. He is still exclusively on breast milk - bottles at daycare and breastfed with me. Still going strong and very proud :)
• He sat in a shopping cart for the first time a few weeks ago.

• He also sat in a high chair at a restaurant for the first time a few days ago. He loves it and wants to grab everything off the table.

• And one more first - lots of "firsts" going on right now - first time he slept on his tummy. He must have rolled over in the middle of the night. This is how Nick and I found him in the morning, snoozing away:

• He wants to crawl SO BAD! He gets up onto his knees and has been since just after his 5 month birthday. He can scoot pretty far. In the past few days, he has started getting up onto his arms better. He almost crawled off the exam table at the doctor on Monday - the doctor was surprised. She recommended baby proofing the house right away and lowering his crib. 

Video of his army/scooting crawl:

• He figured out how to jump after a couple times in his jumper and he absolutely loves it! 

Video in his Graco Bumper Jumper:

• He swings his toys around and still loves to grab everything in sight, especially our faces and hair. He also hits the table with his hands. Time to get him a drum set.
• He loves to talk. He is putting together consonants and vowels now. He says "wa, wa", "ba" and "ma." He also squeals and does a grunting sound. He loves to hear himself ;) He is very aware of where sounds are coming from. He turns his head in the correct direction to see what the noise or voice is. He also knows his name. 
• He blows bubbles a lot and drools all day long. He wears bibs still anyways because that pesky spit up is still happening.
• He loves to watch what everyone is doing around him. He is so curious. The other night Nick was eating nuts out of a jar. Grayson would follow his hand into the jar and then up to watch Dad put it in his mouth. He did that over and over and over. He was cracking us up!

• He is laughing more and more. Sometimes just a certain look from me will crack him up. Those are some of my favorite moments, watching him enjoy life so much. He is such a happy baby. A few of our friends who see his pictures on FB and who hang out with us on the weekends swear he never cries. Of course he does, but he has them fooled :)
• He sits up well, but he still needs support. I usually sit him in the Boppy for practice. They do the same at his daycare with a flatter Boppy-like pillow. I also have him practice with no support and help him when he gets wobbly. I think part of the reason he is unstable is that he likes to move so much and would rather hold onto his toys than hold himself up with his hands.

• Solids are going okay. He had rice cereal for several weeks and now he has oatmeal, just once a day. He does great with the oatmeal - he opens his mouth for the spoon and really enjoys it. He has also tried sweet potatoes, apples, peas and bananas but he seems to spit up more when he tried those so I don't continue them. I am not in a big hurry so we are taking our time. I also gave him a big piece of avocado and a piece of zucchini. He wasn't a huge fan of the avocado, but he gnawed on the zucchini for a while. Once his new high chair arrives, I am going to start giving him more table foods.

Other tidbits about being 6 months old...

• He cracks up laughing when Apollo or the kitties are nearby. Apollo is getting more and more friendly with him and wants to lick his hands and face. The kitties will let him pet them, but he tends to grab their fur and pull so we are working on "gentle" already. Now that he is "crawling", he goes straight to Apollo. It melts my heart!

• He is sleeping through the night about 50% of the time. The other nights he wakes up once to eat. And when he is badly congested and coughing from a cold, he is up three times or more at night. He naps two or three times a day. Boy, does he fight those naps!!!
• His hair is still getting thicker and longer.
• His eyes are still a dark blueish/gray with some green toward the center. I am wondering if they will stay this color. The pedi said it's possible and she would call them hazel, like mine, at this point.
• He is wearing mostly 9 month clothes.
• He is wearing size 3 diapers now.
• He weighs 16 lbs 11oz (50th percentile) and is measuring 26 inches long (25th percentile)

I miss you every day at work, baby boy. I wish I could spend every single minute of every single day with you. You are our everything and we love you SO MUCH.

"Before you were born I carried you under my heart.  From the moment you arrived in this world until the moment I leave it, I will always carry you in my heart." Mandy Harrison

xoxo,
Megan

This is why I am happy that I blog...

I love to look back and reminisce. It's one of my favorite things to do.

One year ago today, I graduated from the RE. I remember that day so well. I called my Mom after the appointment to tell her every little detail about the ultrasound and how baby didn't fit on the screen any longer. I remember buying those first pair of maternity pants. I remember all of the very specific things I was in the mood to eat. I remember the anticipation of feeling the baby move for the first time. I love going back to old blog posts and reading them.

I can't believe that a year later, I have a 5 1/2 month old baby boy. Life is crazy.

Breastfeeding Update

I am half way through month five of breastfeeding. I look back and wonder how I made it through that first month. It was so damn hard for me in the beginning. The engorgement. Grayson losing weight. The burning pain. Learning to use my pump. I was so ready to give up, but Nick and my Mom wouldn't let me. They kept pushing me and I'm so grateful they did. Because now I cannot imagine anything else. The bond I have with Grayson is amazing and it feels so rewarding to be growing my son.

After his morning nursing session, he rolls onto his back after he is done and gives me a giant smile. I imagine he is saying "thanks for breakfast, Mom!"

Every night before bed, I nurse Grayson to sleep in our glider. It's peaceful and quiet, and just him and me. He takes his little hand and strokes my arm while he nurses. I wish moments like that would never end.

He gives my life a whole new meaning. I feel complete.


xoxo,
Megan