Garrett - 7 Months Old

Diapers

Still in size 3’s.

This is from Mother’s Day.  It took about 100 pictures to get this one…we couldn’t get both kids to look at camera and smile/laugh.  So this is the best we could get, with Carter having a completely unemotional face. 

Shoe Size

He doesn’t wear shoes yet so I have no idea!

Garrett’s twin cousins playing with him at Nana and Papa’s house.

Clothes

6 months.  He was previously wearing some sleepers that were still 3-6 months but he’s too long for all of  those now, so he’s wearing solely 6 month clothes.  I remember now why all of the 6 month clothes are colored clothes and not white.  Because of solids.  No sense in buying 6 month white outfits, because they will just get completely ruined!

Feeding/Solids

He is still eating 4 times a day (roughly 9am, 1pm, 5pm and 7:30/8).  His food is always either a breastmilk bottle or I nurse (as long as I’m here, he nurses.  He only gets a bottle if I happen to be gone when it’s time for him to eat).  Each bottle is about 5 ounces so I also assume that’s  about what he eats when he nurses.  He still eats cereal with his first feeding of the day in addition to the 5 ounce bottle.  At lunch time he nurses and gets a 2 ounce solid, then he nurses again at the 5pm feeding and at the final feeding, he gets about 4oz of solids in addition to another roughly 5oz.  This month we tried to drop his third nap of the day and keep him up as long as possible from about 5ish to bedtime at 7:30 or 8.  We noticed that he was waking up around 5am when we did this and we do not like that at all…so we gave him his 3rd nap back and he’s back to sleeping till about 8 or 9ish.  The third nap is usually dropped between 6 and 8 months so he’s apparently not ready to drop it just yet.  We’ll try again in a few weeks.  Garrett is DEFINITELY in the distraction phase.  I’ve gotten to where I feed him upstairs in his room before bringing him downstairs because he will look at absolutely everything around him (particularly big brother) and will take forever to nurse.  He’s also pulling at the straps of my shirt now too.  Carter did the same thing at around this same stage. 

As far as solids goes, we have introduced sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, pears and bananas.  As of now, one of his solid feedings is 2oz but the other is closer to 4oz, but soon we’re about to bump them both up to 4 ounces each time.  Also, when we introduce a new food, we buy the packaged food, but once I’m sure he has no allergic reaction, I give him the real stuff.  I get the fresh fruits and veggies and use the baby bullet to make his meals.  The reason we do this is because I need him to like both the real stuff and the packaged stuff.  The packaged stuff is MUCH easier when you’re on the go and is at room temperature.  The fresh fruits and veggies is much healthier (obviously) but isn’t always convenient if there’s no microwave around.  As far as preference of food goes, he doesn’t really have one that I can tell.  He seem to tolerate all the foods equally.  I can’t really tell yet if there’s one that he LOVES.  The cereal is still by far the easiest to feed him and he’s always opening his mouth quickly for that, so I guess he likes that the most.  The hardest one to feed him is the sweet potatoes so maybe he has a small dislike for those.  He’s an EXTREMELY messy eater.  I mean, seriously.  The kid is always waiting until his food is halfway in his mouth and then he turns his head, causing food to go all over his face, and because he doesn’t like the way that feels, he uses his hands to get it off his face, except that he tends to get it all over his face.  So he has the ability to go from beautiful white boy complexion to a face full of carrots and peas in less than 10 seconds.

Schedule

Still on the 4 hour schedule of feed, wake, sleep.   He’s now staying awake for about 2 hours each waketime. 

Garrett has always loved mirrors but I think he’s beginning to realize that the person he sees in the mirror is himself.  He loves to just sit there and move around looking at himself.

Sleep

Still sleeps like a champ!  During most of this month, he was taking three naps a day (the first two were about 2 hours each if not more and the last one was usually a short one, maybe an hour).  Towards the end of the month, we began dropping the 3rd nap (which usually happens around 6-8 months).  On days where he dropped the 3rd nap, his other two naps were longer (roughly 2 1/2-3 hours).   As I mentioned before though, this didn’t last long because he wasn’t ready to drop that nap, so we’re back to the third nap again.  At night he sleeps 12-13 hours. 

Waketime

Still loves doing the same things.  Watching Baby Einstein or the Baby First Channel on TV.  His absolute favorite is Vocabularry on Baby First Network.  It’s a parrot named Larry that goes over basic items in a baby’s life like a table, bottle, toy, etc. (hence the name Vocabularry).  Not sure why he loves it so much but when he hears the theme song for the show he will immediately turn to look at the TV.  He still loves his exersaucer and is becoming more and more engaged in all the things on the exersaucer.  He likes sitting up a lot too so sometimes we sit him up in the bumbo seat with the tray connected to it and put a toy laptop or some other toy that makes noise.  He’s also a champ at running errands.  But above all else, he loves to touch your face and play with you.  He likes when you make him laugh and no one can make him laugh like his daddy.

This was when I went to Seattle to visit a friend who had just had her baby.  It was the first time I had been away from Garrett for more than an afternoon so we did lots of facetime so that he could see me.  And I truly think he sees me in the iphone.  He smiled everytime he saw me!

Mother’s Day Out

Well school for Carter is officially over.  His very last day of Mother’s Day Out was May 14th.  He officially “graduated” from the program (he got a diploma and everything) and begins preschool next year.  But before that, both boys will go to summer school.  Starting June 2nd, they will go Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9am-1pm.  They will do this for the four weeks in June and then it will be back at home with me again until the next school year starts. 

This month, we took Garrett to the pool for the first time.  There was a storm rolling in so we only stayed for a little while though.  I think he liked it.

Statistics

No 7 month appointment (no appointment again until he’s 9 months actually).  From what I can tell, he’s roughly 26 inches long (20th percentile-yeah, he’s a short one!) and 18.5 pounds (50th percentile).   We did take Garrett to the doc for the first time this month for a sick appointment.  He’s been having a super runny nose and at his 6 month appointment the doc told us that it looked like he was getting a cold.  We’d been giving him Zyrtec for a while but hadn’t noticed any change.  On top of that, while I was visiting my friend in Seattle, he began a rough cough.  And a very recognizable cough.  The CROUP cough.  Justin was determined he had croup because he remembered that awful dry seal barking cough.  Carter had croup when he was 15 months old and and it was HORRIBLE.  In fear that this is what was wrong with Garrett, I took him to the doc almost as soon as my flight landed from Seattle.  The doc confirmed that he likely did have croup but that croup comes in two stages.  The first is the dry seal barking cough (the most dangerous stage) while is followed by the healing phase where the cough turns into more of a wet cough.  He heard him cough and thinks he’s getting over croup.  How much of a champ is my kid?  He basically had croup and I had no idea.  So we gave him antibiotics (because croup can sometimes cause ear infections-when Carter had croup was when he had his very first ear infection as well).  The doc could tell I was bummed because I’ve been breastfeeding for a solid 6 months with next to no formula supplement and he still got sick.  Carter was breastfed until 9 months and he didn’t get sick until he got croup at 15 months.  The doc made me feel better.  He told me that it’s completely different when there’s only one kid in the house.  When there’s a big brother bringing home all kinds of germs that he may be immune to but that baby brother may not be immune to…that’s when little siblings get sick sooner than their older siblings did.  Garrett is completely fine now though.  Justin said he was fussier than normal during that time, but he’s back to his normal self again.

I think this was actually the first time Garrett has ever “pet” Gizmo.  He grabbed onto her fur by accident but then couldn’t look away!  He was so interested in the texture.  I’m not sure Giz liked having her hair pulled though.

Abilities

Still doing all the things he was doing last month.  The biggest change I’ve noticed is grabbing his feet.  Lately he is constantly grabbing his feet whether he’s sitting up or laying down.  He’s also “creeping” a lot when he’s on his tummy.  He isn’t crawling yet by any means, but he seems to always be facing a different direction when I come back into a room than the one I put him down in.  I’ve begun working with him on getting him to crawl.  He rocks back and forth on his knees in his crib, but he rarely does it downstairs.  So now I’m working with him on showing him how to get on his knees and hopefully he’ll start crawling soon.  I think Carter started crawling on his hands and knees around 8 months.  He was like Garrett before that, just scooting and turning in circles.

Teething

Still no teeth.  It appears I have a late teether on my hands!  That’s honestly ok with me.  Carter was an early teether so he will lose his teeth sooner rather than later.  Garrett, if he is a late teether, will have stronger teeth so he’ll lose them later.

Discipline

The only form of discipline he gets is saying “no” to him.  And I think he understands too.  The only time I even say no to him is during mealtime when he eats solids.  He has a tendency to put his hands in his mouth (which makes feeding hard as you can imagine) so I’m always saying “no hands Garrett.  No.”  After a while, he started putting his hands down when I said it so I know he’s picking up on it.

Other Notable Things

Likes

• Sleeping
• Car rides
• Pull toys that are connected to his carseat.  He really likes pulling them to make noise!
• Watching brother play
• Watching Gizmo
• Being outside when it’s warm.  He prefers to sit in the shade because he doesn’t like sunlight in his eyes, but he does enjoy being outside
• Seeing himself in a mirror
• When daddy plays peek-a-boo with him or makes him laugh in general
• Sucking on his fingers – he prefers the index and middle finger of his right hand and as weird as this sounds, he prefers to suck them upside down. 
• The toy that is connected to his crib.  It lights up and plays lullabies for a few minutes and then it turns itself off.  We usually turn it on right when we put him down for a nap and he stares at it for a while before falling asleep.  Now that he’s sitting up really well, I will sit him up next to the toy and he will grab at it to try to play with it.
• Baby Einstein Animal DVD
• Still obsessed with almost anything on the Baby First channel, particularly Vocabularry

Dislikes

• Sun in his eyes
• Being kept awake for too long
• Getting bored with one activity-just like his brother did when he was this age, he likes to change up his activities every 15 minutes or so unless it’s a Baby Einstein DVD.  He can usually sit through a whole 25-30 minute DVD pretty easily.
• Missing nap.  It’s when he gets the fussiest.  If he can’t have his nap in his crib we try to rock him until he falls asleep.  Eventually it will work, but it takes FOREVER.  He wants to be in his own bed.  We bought a carseat canopy that helps with this.  This way, he can fall asleep in the carseat while it’s completely dark and listening to his music that he listens to while falling asleep (we have a small lamb that connects to his carseat that  makes noise).