Nathan - six to seven months

(I'm combining 2 months because I've been 'gasp' falling behind on my posts)

Half a year has flown by with our sweet guy.  One of the biggest things that stands out to us with his personality now really developing is just how emotional he is! (Sorry, older Nathan if you're reading this 15 years+ from now! hehe). There's really not much you need to do to get a smile and belly laugh out of him and he "flirts" with just about anyone who glances his way.  On the other end, he also seems to be effected negatively by things pretty easily too (i.e. Mommy walking away from him God forbid).  He's a TOTAL Momma's boy (again, sorry Nathan. But for me it's the best feeling in the world)!  

This is such a fun age with him sitting and interacting a lot more, and even starting to make some word sounds.  I have an adorable video of him saying "Dada"!  He's obsessed with studying Gwen, and she's just infatuated with him.

OK, here are some updates:

Sleeping

This has been a challenge from the start.  I've been much more willing to bring him into bed with us than I was with Gwen.  I'm not sure if willing is the right word.  The sheer exhaustion of having a toddler and a newborn made it so that I didn't have much of a choice.  I would basically just fall asleep nursing him and any time I tried to stay awake to put him back in the crib after that first middle of the night feeding, he would just cry so I'd end up just bringing him back in anyway.  With Gwen, we had a bit of trouble getting her to fall asleep initially but once she was asleep, she was out.  It has been the opposite with Nathan.  He falls asleep almost immediately (yay for my sanity), but then he wakes himself up throughout the night.  He just moves around so much, kicks his legs and scratches his head (to the point where it breaks skin) and wakes himself up.  Thankfully now I'm starting to see a change in that and I think we're heading in a good direction here.  At seven months now, he's starting to just wake up once at night.  And now, tonight I'm not expecting to get much sleep because I just typed that out loud.

Nursing

I don't think I've posted about this since he was born.  Let me tell you, nursing the second is a WORLD of difference from the first.  The pain wasn't even close to as bad.  Plus, I was totally SHOCKED at how often I needed to nurse Gwen in the beginning but it was much easier the second time around knowing what to expect.  Nathan latched very easily from the beginning and he's much quicker than Gwen was so each feeding isn't taking as long as it did the first time.  I'm also not keeping track of each feeding on my phone so I think it has put less pressure on me and I've just been nursing him whenever I think he seems hungry.  At this point I think we're down to 5 or 6 feedings per 24hrs.  We're at that annoying stage though where he gets distracted by everything so keeping discreet while we're out just isn't possible.

Food

We started solids a little after 5 months and we're up to 3 times a day now.  I've made some of the food but I'm doing mostly store bought organic which I did with Gwen too.  He's had a variety of fruits and veggies (sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, carrots, green beans, spinach, avocado, apples, bananas, peaches, prunes - ahem, Lord knows we've needed them!, apricot, pears, blueberries, and I'm sure there are others I've forgotten.  No meat or dairy as of yet).  He seems to like everything pretty equally with no real obvious favorite but he does prefer the thicker purees.  He usually makes a disgusted face after the first taste of just about everything, but then once he gets used to the taste he'll gobble it all right up.  He wasn't a fan of the homemade peas or avacado but I'm thinking that's because I wasn't able to get it pureed as smoothly as the rest.  

6 Month Photos & Stats:

Weight: 16lbs 5oz 40th %

Height: 26.25in 58th %

Head: 17.25in 62nd %

7 Month Photos

nine months

How is this possible? My daughter is 9 months old! I could've made a whole other baby by now!! :)

At her 9 month appointment, Gwen had to have her blood drawn for the first time - I was all stressed out because I've heard how bad it can be.  Justin was able to come to the appointment which I was happy about because I definitely needed some support.  So the pediatrician had Gwen sit on my lap while she looked for a vein and [of course] said that she has "hard to find" veins - she went back and forth looking on each arm a couple of times before she finally found a good one.  The Dr had me hold her arms down while she drew the blood and, to be honest, I think being restrained was worse for her than the actual needle.  The whole thing was over in a few seconds and my little trooper calmed down in no time.

Some 9 month stats:
Height - 29 inches, 94th % (seriously?)
Weight - 18lbs 3oz, 50th %

Monthly Updates:
I've already mentioned that she's pulling up and cruising (walking while holding on) around her activity table.
Although she's not crawling, she's starting to be able to get where she wants to go by bringing her knees under her hips and pushing herself forward with her feet - now she just needs to lift that belly off the ground :)
She DANCES! Whenever she hears music, she rocks her body back and forth. It's seriously the cutest thing ever.  I have a video that kind of shows it but the song was too short for her to really get into it. I'll try and get a better one.
She is now obsessed with finger foods (cheese is by far her favorite).  To the point where she's giving me a tough time with the purees that I normally give her - she purses her lips together and blows raspberries.  So I'm thinking about starting to mostly give her what I eat.  The pediatrician told me the only foods that are off limits are shellfish, nuts, and honey.  Bring on the messy meals - good thing Jackson does a good job with the cleanup ;)

six months

Happy half birthday to my babe!

Gwen had an awesome 6 month checkup!  I was dreading the vaccines because I had heard from a mommy friend that the this checkup is the 2nd worst one because there are 3 shots.  To my surprise, she took the first 2 shots without even making a peep (I was shocked).  She cried on the 3rd one but it wasn't even a bad cry, she was back to her normal chatty self within less than a minute.

Some highlights from the appointment:
She weighs 16lbs 5oz (70th percentile), and is 26.5 inches tall (87th percentile).
Her strength and control while she's sitting is equal to an 8 or 9 month old!  Even though we only started solids a week ago, we got the go ahead to feed her a second meal.  She was chatting up a storm to the pediatrician, and it turns out that as part of their literacy program she'll get a new book at every visit from now until she's 2 years old (and books are her favorite)!  I spoke with the Dr about the fact that she has been rolling over very infrequently, but she assured me that some babies never roll at all and it's nothing to even think twice about.  (Braggy mom alert:) She said the fact that G holds herself up while sitting so well this early on, and has been for over a month already, is more exceptional.  Yay Gwen!

Just in the past 2 weeks, she has developed so much.  I am loving this 6 month period, she's so much more interactive, chatty, happy and just a joy to be around. <3

Sweet potatoes for my sweet potato

We started solids...yaaaay!  At Gwen's 4 month visit, her pediatrician told me that we could start at any point between 4 and 6 months.  I was caught off guard because anything I had read or heard said to wait until 6 months, especially for breastfed babies.  In the last week or so, Gwen seemed to be showing me signs that she was ready to start solids.  She didnt seem as satisfied with nursing alone, she started waking up earlier for her middle of the night feeding, and it just felt like it was time.  I found a great website: Wholesome Baby Food  that helped us decide not to use rice cereal as her first food (which seems to be the norm).  We decided to start her on sweet potatoes.  I have been wanting to make my own baby food, but I wasn't sure how it would go over, so while I was at Whole Foods last week, I picked up a package of organic sweet potatoes from Sprout Baby Food (I was pleased to see that the only ingredient listed was "organic sweet potatoes").  I'm not sure if she actually swallowed anything on her first attempt, but we wanted to keep it a positive experience, so we didn't push it.  Then yesterday morning she ate the entire amount I gave her!  Given that positive reinforcement, last night I broke out the immersion blender that Kristen gave us, and whipped up some organic sweet potato baby food of my own - it was actually really easy!!  I fed it to her this morning and of course she barely ate any hah!  I have determined that it had to do with the fact that I didn't mix in any liquid (of course it couldn't be my cooking that she didn't like).  So tonight I mixed in some breast milk to thin it out a bit and we'll see how it goes over tomorrow.

she wanted to feed herself :)

Here's a video of her eating and talking - don't judge me, it's hard to feed her and record it at the same time :)