7 months

He's actually 8 months now so he has changed since I first began this post a few weeks ago, but month 7 was a big one.

Here are his 7 month stats:

Weight: 17 lbs. 1 oz.
Height: 26 3/4 inches
He cried when he got his 4 shots, but he calmed down and took a little snooze on the way home. Win is a trooper.



Highlights:

Win is mobile, and I mean mobile. He is crawling on all fours now and rarely reverts to the army crawl.




He pulls himself up on everything: dresser drawers, coffee tables, chairs, chests, laundry baskets, his crib railing, etc.



Food has become his new best friend although I think he still loves the food mommy provides. He has tried all sorts of baby food including bananas (mashed and in the jar), peas, squash, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, pears, peaches (mashed), avocado (mashed), prunes and I think that’s it as far as fruits and vegetables go. He has also had a few bites of watermelon and some orange as well. He also eats rice cereal, Mum-mum rice crackers and Cheerios.



He loves it all. He also really enjoys drinking water out of his sippy cup. He can’t quite manage it by himself, but he really tries.



He just seems smarter these days as well. Win has always sort of understood things, but he is a smart boy. He laughs at things I do now like pretending to eat his food and saying “mmm…” and he is starting to understand what his toys do. He is also starting to drop things and seeing where they land. As they say, he is “testing the law of gravity”. Especially at meal time.

Win learned how to sleep through the night which was a miracle. We let him “cry it out” which was rough, but it felt like right timing. At 7 months old he didn't need me to feed him every 3 hours. He had two crying periods that lasted about an hour each. One from 11:30 pm – 12:30 am (maybe a little less, maybe 50 minutes) and another one from 3:40 am – 4:30 am. Those are estimates, but you get the idea. The next night we didn’t hear a peep until the early morning. I think he found his pacifier and fell back to sleep until 7:30 am. From that point on he slept through the night religiously until we went on a trip to Utah where he decided to cut his first tooth!

That's right. Win gained his first tooth on his lower left gum. He was so fussy at night while we were away. I blamed it on traveling, but I felt his gum one morning and lo and behold, there was a bit of a tooth popping through. Poor little guy. I feel bad we didn't put any teething gel on it or anything. We just didn't really know why he was acting so uncomfortable.

I wish I would have written more down from month 7. I'm just amazed at his accomplishments and how grown up he is getting. More to come in month 8.

6 months

Our boy is 6 months old. I'm not sure how that happened, but it did and we love our blond-haired, blue-eyed baby.

Day 1

Month 6

I don't have his stats because I made his 6 month appointment a little late and they don't have an opening until August 30th. They'll be more like 7 month stats.

Win's Favorites:

-Win loves my water bottle and pretends he knows what to do with it.

-Breast milk is the liquid of choice for our boy. I had a hair appointment the other day and wasn't going to be around for the feeding so Kent was just going to use some formula. Apparently, when Kent put the bottle in Win's mouth Win just let it dribble down the sides of his chin. Eventually, he started pushing it away and I really can't blame him. I suppose it's like powdered milk versus real milk - is there even a comparison? Powdered milk is nasty. Anyway, I had one last bag of frozen breast milk so Kent used it up and everyone was happy.

-He loves the bedtime routine, especially being naked, or at least with diaper only. He chats it up, squeals, screams, rolls around and tries to get up on his hands and knees. He resists putting jammies on though. Not fun for Mr. Win (or Mom and Dad).

-We don't dance around the room as much as we should, but when we do, he really enjoys it.

-He likes to make people laugh. Seriously. If he gets a reaction out of you and he knows he's being funny, he'll try it again. The makings of a comedian.

-Really loves sleeping on his side and still likes having a blanket over his face while falling asleep.

-Out of the songs I sing, Old MacDonald has to be his favorite.

Foods Win has tried:

-Lemon and lime wedges (mean parents), watermelon, carrots and celery. When I say try, I mean sucked on these various items. We have not moved into baby food yet. That will begin this month.

Achievements:

-Mobility: He can move around really well these days. Rolling is no biggie and he can turn himself to face different directions. I think crawling will happen sooner than we know it because he's starting to get up on all fours. He even got himself in the plank position the other day.

-He is also sitting. He occasionally falls back or to his sides, but for the most part he is stable. I still put pillows behind him if I'm not next to him.

-Win can put his pacifier back into his mouth all by himself! It's amazing.

Places visited:

-Both grandmas' houses
-The beach
-A movie theater (only 1x...that was enough)
-Grocery stores
-A mall or two
-Target
-A few restaurants
-Church
-Swimming pools
-Doctor's office
-Pet store
-Houses of friends and family
-Hospital (to visit a cousin)
-The park
-Downtown Disney (really brief)
-Daddy's soccer games
-Two Angels games

There are probably more places, but that's all I can think of for now.

Extra:

Something that cracks me up at the moment is his mad voice. I can't describe it, but he lets us know when he is upset or about to get that way.

It has been half a year of happiness with baby Winston and we're excited to see what the next half will bring.

4 months

I can't believe Win is closer to five months than four. I had every intention of blogging about his fourth month, but somehow between helping plan my mom's 75th surprise party, trying to run and starting work again, the intention got lost. How could I let my documentation slide? It's important. Better late than never I guess.

First off, I have loved Win's fourth month of life. I didn't know I could love my baby more, but I do. He is a joy. Waking up every three or so hours at night to feed him isn't even that bad because he reaches out for my neck now and nuzzles in. It's like a mini hug. We feed and he goes right back to sleep. One of these days I'll try sleep training, but we're not quite there yet.

He does sleep in his crib in the other room now though. I was worried the first couple of nights because he had a cold and I'm always worried about him breathing okay (are all moms and dads freaks about that?), but not only was his bassinet crowding our bedroom, it was crowding poor Win as well. He would reach out his arms and hit the sides. He enjoyed playing with the sides, brushing the fabric with his fingers, but I think it kept him awake. So yes, he is in another room which is one step towards sleep independence. Weaning the night feedings is the next step.

Win is an active boy, his legs are in perpetual motion. Kent and I always say that when he learns how to move around, he is literally going to be everywhere. He has been able to roll from tummy to back since the day before his 12 week mark, but he doesn't roll frequently. I'm not sure why that is. We do tummy time and sometimes he rolls, sometimes he doesn't. He hasn't rolled from back to tummy yet, but he's getting close. He is amazingly content staring up at the ceiling or the bright flashing start atop his play gym, kicking his legs and moving his arms. My mom pointed out to me that he's probably just a content boy, and he is.

Here are some other 4 month snippets:

STATS
Weight: 14 lbs. 5 oz.
Height: 24 1/2 inches
Shots went much better. Only a brief episode of crying and he was fine the rest of the day.

Things he does and some of my favorites:

-Uses his legs and feet like a monkey; he grabs onto my arm with them every time I change him, he uses them to maneuver around the arcs of his play gym and he encircles my water bottle with them when I give it to him for a toy.
-Likes to gnaw on pretty much everything, my chin included.
-Still likes my hair (and dad's); likes to look at it and pull it, thus it is almost always back in a ponytail or bun. Plus, I'm losing tons of it so I don't like wearing it down.
-Still spits up frequently. Not sure when that will end, but we're getting used to it.
-Talks and smiles a lot. I had to take him out of Relief Society the other day because he was talking so loud. Not crying, talking. He's a very social boy.
-He squeals and screams now which makes me laugh.
-He likes to cuddle; when he wakes up in the morning we bring him into our bed and he snuggles right up and sleeps for another 30 minutes or so.
-He outgrew sink baths and now enjoys baths in the "bigger" boy tub (it's a normal baby bathtub). Thank you, Grandma, for finding that for us. -He likes to sit up now and standing is really fun (assisted, of course). I think he sees that the view of the world is more interesting from those vantage points.
-While nursing, he will pause and sit up to see what's going on or merely to complain. Sometimes, he'll just look up at me a smile. Melts me. He also moves his lips when it's time to eat and will play little on again, off again games that he thinks are funny, and they are, most of the time.
-Every time Win laughs a lot he gets hiccups. Funny/sad.
-We introduced him to watermelon and he liked it. Sucked on it for a bit and went in for a second, third, fourth, etc. lick.
-We also introduced him to ocean water at the beach and he acted as if nothing touched his feet. No reaction. Nada. Zilch.
-Favorite animal noises: Monkey and doggie
-The mullet remains, but will be gone in the next week or two. His fluffy, blond hair will be all that is left.
-He has peaches and cream skin with deep blue eyes and rosy lips. His little cheeks get flushed too. Such pretty coloring.

I've said it before and I will say it again, Win is a joy. We love him so much and are so grateful to have this fun, patient, content little boy in our lives.