Cheese!

I put this on facebook but since some of you aren't there I thought I'd post it here too. We do a lot of puzzles and they seem to rank much higher than books... this is a typical of an afternoon post nap.

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Chomp!

 Can you see them???  In the last couple of days, they've come up even more.  Slowly, they are coming all the way through.  On August 29th, I saw two slits in the bottom of his gums.  Ugh.  He'd had a runny nose and I thought it was either a cold or possibly teeth.  Deep down, I'd hoped he wouldn't get teeth until closer to 12 months.  Biting scares me to death and I want him to stay a baby forever.  I have no problem admitting that out loud.  Sue me.  I also want to be pregnant with him again.  Not with another baby.  And I want to be in the hospital having him again.  Yes, I do.  I want him to be pink and wrinkly and tiny and new.  Forever.  You could be right if you think I would change my mind one day, but right now, I want my baby to stay just that.

 Someone at work recently said that most people want their first child to do everything soon (i.e. crawl, talk, eat, walk, etc...) and then the second child is the one they want to keep small.  Not me.  I want Oliver to stay tiny. He'll always be my baby, sure.  But I want him to be just that.  A baby forever.  I really, really do.  Tell me I don't all day long, but you're wrong.  WRONG!

(Mom, typing in all caps means you are yelling.  I yelled that.)

Should I mention that I watched videos of him when he was tiny earlier tonight?  I did.  I cried.  He is so big now!  Look at these teeth!!  TWO teeth!  I'd say it happened over night, but it's been three weeks. :)

 Three weeks of less sleep than the regression we were already challenged with... three weeks of trying to find a new routine through the discomfort.  (We didn't find it by the way.)  Three weeks and he's taken to pacis.  Ones with handles to be exact.  Just today he actually figured out how to keep it in his mouth.  He mostly just chews on it and holds it like it's forever friend (...but it won't be.  Boobs are his forever friend... have you met this child?  For real.).

Actually, I've been meaning to chat about his necklace so since I'm posting about his teeth... I'd read about Baltic amber and its healing properties and how necklaces made from the amber can help reduce pain from teething.  I was really skeptical, but ended up ordering one because I really didn't want to have to use medicine.  Aside from obvious discomfort at night, I really didn't, and still don't notice Oliver being in pain from his teeth.  So I kind of doubted that the necklace did much.  

I decided to order one for myself.  I didn't blog about it, but a couple weeks ago I had a horrible pain in my ribs.  It was so bad and so sudden that I thought I may have pleurisy.  I'd been coughing from a cold for weeks and didn't want to chance anything so I went to the doctor.  Xrays showed nothing so they said it was a muscle.  It was horrible pain and hurt to breathe even.  Anyway... after wearing my necklace for just two days, I noticed a huge difference.  I am convinced that Baltic amber works.  How it's helped Oliver is still questionable, but I do believe that it has healing properties and I'm glad I got his necklace.  We both wear it every day and take it off for bath/shower and at bedtime.  

And another thing... I'm not one to take herbs and when I have in the past, they didn't really work, (Except peppermint oil for tension headaches, breathe it in deeply and headache is gone for 20 minutes!) but a month or so ago Chandler drove all over Virginia on a Sunday morning trying to find I bought Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle (and Mother's Milk Tea) to boost my milk supply after Oliver was sick.  After just a week I noticed a difference and now swear by using that combination.  Initially the tea was a little ick, but after a little sugar (ok, a whole spoonful), it was really good.

So.... in a nut shell.... my baby disappeared and has been replaced by a giant child with teeth.  I kid.  He's actually quite small for his age.  BabyCenter has him ranked in the 10th percentile.  I like him small.  It means he can wear the same clothes he wore five months ago.  They were big on him then.  They are not quite too small now, but are pushing it.  

Teeth.  TEETH!

7 Months

 7 (SEVEN) months!

We've been busy with laundry life.  Oliver is now SEVEN months and eight days old.  Sigh.  

In the last few weeks he's started to think about crawling (this is the most he does though)!

We've not had his 6 month appointment yet, but on our scale at home he is right around 16lbs.  I don't attempt to check his length.  I'm sure it's no more than 26" though.  I'll be sure to post when he has his appointment this week (at 7.5 months, that's just how we roll 'round these parts lately).

Speaking of rolling - we love this weather!  Safe to say we hate the fact that the sun goes down earlier, but we have so enjoyed going for a walk in the evenings after dinner.

Oliver is (surprise, surprise) still wearing 3-6 months clothes along with 6m and 9m sizes.  I should take the time to post pictures of him at 2 months and now at 7 months in the same outfits.  It's really funny to see a tiny baby and a big baby in the same outfit!  Of course, it was big on him then and fits fine now, but still cute to compare the difference.  He is wearing 3-6m in Gymboree and 6m and 9m in Carters.  9m is really too big, but not so big that he can't wear it.  He looks somewhat ridiculous in some 9m because it really is that big on him.  

We're still going strong with our cloth diapers - although admittedly, I took a week break when we introduced solids (more on that in a minute).  We're still using a disposable at night and we've switched to Earth's Best (separate post on why we're not using 7th Generation).  He can do a size 2, but we've made the switch to a size 3 just to be safe.  Now that stools have changed, I've found that I like bumGenius and GroVia better.  Go figure.  Something about the fibers seem to wash off better.  We have to use a sprayer now.  Sigh.  I hate solid poop diapers.  Thankfully he doesn't go but once or twice a day at most, but still.  Yucko.  I can't imagine NOT having the sprayer.  Thank goodness for the sprayer.  

A typical day now includes a morning nap that is about an hour or so, along with a nice, long 2-3 hour afternoon nap.  He's getting up pretty consistently at 7:30 AM and we start the bath, pajama, book routine between 7 and 8pm.  Dinner is usually around 5:30 and then we go for a walk.  (I realize that last part was totally out of sequence.)

Oliver experienced his first hurricane this month.  These are the pictures for documentation purposes...

We had no electricity for a few days... and this was during the storm so the light was horrible upstairs.  He wouldn't stay still so I used the flash... see photo below:

HA!  Proof I never use a flash.  His face cracks me up!  He had NO idea what was going on with the camera flashed - it was SO funny!!!  I had the timer set to take a few pictures and his face is like this in every single one of them.  We laughed SO hard when we looked at them.

We caved and bought a generator.  It was horribly hot and the lack of well, everything, was making us a little nuts.  Our rain barrel was overflowing and the garden didn't make it.  Boo! 

At 7 months, Oliver is LOVING his toys!  He is having a great time finding new pieces to each toy.  He's really into wheels and puzzles right now.  He will sit and play with toys for quite a while by himself.  I love that he is able to have some independent play time.  I love playing with him, but it's important that he's able to entertain himself for short periods too.  As long as he can see me, he's fine for about 15 minutes at a time.  

What else is new at 7 months?  FOOD!  He'd shown every sign that he was ready and while I would have been a-okay waiting another month, I had to admit that it was time.  We started with avocado.  Yum!

I thought it was yum at least.  He actually liked it. :)  This is a photo from the rice cereal.  We are doing a combination of finger foods and mush.  We weren't going to do mush at all, however he seemed a little picky and I knew this to be untrue based on little bits of things I'd given him tastes of - we use the rice cereal to serve as a base to mix small amounts of other things in before he gets a regular amount.  

So far he has had too many things to list.  He loves sweet potato, avocado and pears.  He's not a fan of bananas, but I'm kind of okay with that because they stain worse than sweet potato and other rich-in-color foods.  Go figure.  He loves playing with pear chunks and is a great eater.  He also loves Baby Mum Mums and the Gerber puff things.  He eats banana flavor in both of those - deep down, he likes banana.  It's been a challenge to plan our meals so there is something he can eat with us that doesn't require extra steps to cook.  I'm a big fan of family meal times and we always eat together at the table.  So far, so good.  

Another big milestone at 7 months - TEETH!  

I noticed a runny nose a week before he turned 7 months and thought, okay - a cold or teeth.  The next day, I saw two little slits in his gum.  :(  It was kind of sad for me.  A physical sign that he is a big boy.  I won't lie either, I was also fearful for my nips.  So far so good though.  One friend said when she noticed her baby teething, the teeth were up by the next morning.  Another friend said about 36 hours.  Oliver?  It's now been more than three full weeks and his teeth are still not all the way up.  They're about half way though, if that.  There are two more that I suspect will be starting to show soon on either side of the bottom two middle ones.  No signs of any from the top yet - although his nose started to run just today so I'll be checking those daily now.  You know, for safety's sake.

To help with teething, we ordered a Baltic amber necklace.  I went back and forth about ordering and just a few days before I saw his teeth, we ordered one.  I just wasn't sure if he could pull it off.  I couldn't tell a huge difference so we used tylenol a couple times at night when he was obviously uncomfortable.  Since then though, I ordered a necklace for myself.  I am convinced, hands down, that it helps!  I'd pulled a muscle over my ribs so bad that I was at the doctor getting x-rays because we thought it could be pleurisy from a lingering cough I'd had.  Yeah, that bad.  It was so painful.  Anyway - after two days of wearing my necklace, I could tell a HUGE difference in the pain.  So while I still don't notice a big difference in Oliver, I do believe it makes a difference and am all for Baltic amber.  

We go to the library once/month and get anywhere from 30-40 books.  On this particular day, we brought a bag of books and toys outside to celebrate cool weather!  

He still won't take a bottle and I've packed them up along with the pump.  Oh well.  Maybe next time.  We've bought a few different types of sippy cups and will try those.  I stopped wasting milk in them though and now use water.  He's gotten about a teaspoon from one once.  

Did I mention he loves toys?  And is really into wheels?!  

Yoga baby?  I think so!

I feel like I'm forgetting something I usually mention during his monthly posts.  He is still the sweetest baby.  Since having teeth, he's enjoying chewing on washcloths and pacis.  Although he still won't suck on a paci.  Fine by me.  He does look pretty cute with it in his mouth, but it doesn't stay in long.  He's still a mama's boy and is increasingly snuggly at night.  Now that he's bigger, he is very intentional on where he sleeps and will often roll until he's right in the crook of my arm. It's so sweet!

He is pulling up on everything.  He'll scoot on his belly towards us and then pull up on our legs.  While he's assumed the crawling position, I wouldn't be surprised if he just pulled up and walked in a few months, skipping the traditional crawl all together.  If he does crawl, something tells me it won't be long before he's walking.  I can't believe I'm talking about MY baby walking.  He often goes from sitting to laying on his belly, but can't go from his belly to sitting up quite yet.  I've not even seen him try to maneuver that.

In honor of the sprayer and solids - we bought a new diaper.  GroVia with planes!  I'd been eyeing it for some time and finally turned in my stash cash for one.  I definitely prefer the hook and loop on GroVia.  The snaps are backwards and I just don't like it as well as the other style.  I'll probably order another hook and loop version of the planes.

HAPPY 7  MONTHS BABY BOY!

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Nurse walking/Walking nurse

...this is the equivalent of a drive thru for babies. Yay for low zipping tops and snuggly warm babies when its chilly outside.

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My love...

... my sweet, sweet love is getting so big.