7 Months

I'm a little behind in my posts, but I'll do my best to catch up. Gavin is doing great. He's 7 months now and at his dr appt he weighed in at 22 pounds 15 ounces which puts him above the 95th percentile. He also was 29 3/4 inches tall which put him right at the 100th percentile for height. His head remains at the 50th percentile. The doctor said that he looked great and all was well. He did get another round of immunizations and did much better this time. He fussed for only a couple minutes and then was pretty much a happy camper the rest of the day. He was a total trooper.

A couple days after his shots, he started getting up several times in the night. I was really thrown off as to why his sleep pattern (which was going so great) all of a sudden changed. I think I spent half of one night with him on my chest in the recliner. He seemed to be having a combo of teething and a developmental milestone going on at the same time.

This past weekend (at 7 1/2 months), Gavid got his first tooth. It is the bottom front one on the right. He was certainly a higher maintenance kid than usual so we all felt it was coming. But he never had the fever or was drooling like Devin did with every new tooth. We are so happy the first tooth has arrived and hopefully the others will just come on in so we can get back to sleeping better in our house. :-)

Gavin is also sooooooo close to crawling. He can go from sitting, to being on all fours, and go back to sitting. He is getting around but not by a traditional crawl. It is more like a sit, go on all fours, lay on his tummy, back to sitting, and turn to go a new direction. He's very determined to get to whatever it is he wants. I think he'll be off and crawling in another week or so.

He also is eating really well. He has only turned his nose up at peas but they were in a packet and had an odd flavor. He eats the peas and brown rice from the jar (organic of course). He really likes his foods to be very smooth and chokes on the littlest thing. Hopefully he'll get the hang of lumpier foods soon as the pureed stuff seems so boring to me. I have been solely feeding Gavin breastmilk up until this point (the doc said I must be feeding him pure cream as he's a "healthy" boy). But I had to leave on a work trip today and didn't have the 90+ ounces stored in the freezer that would be required to sustain him. So I gave him his first bottle of organic formula yesterday and he didn't even flinch. It was a big relief to me. My hope is to pump enough on my trip to have enough to hold him over for my next business trip starting on Sunday. I feel very fortunate to have been able to provide the best nutrition to my child for over 7 months. I figure a little formula for the next few days in combo with the breastmilk I had on hand would be fine.

Gavin is pretty much in 18 to 24 month clothes. He has a super round belly so his pants get tight quickly. And he is pretty tall so the length of the bigger size is working out well. And he must have big feet because he is wearing Devin's old socks that he wore when he was walking. People wonder why my baby that can't crawl has socks that are a little stained on the bottom (the true sign of hand-me-down clothes). haha.

Gavin in the past three days has really started to pull himself up on things. If I am sitting on the floor, he'll climb on my legs to get himself up. He is very likely to fall over so I have to spot him, but his legs are strong and can hold his weight on his own. And I must say that this kid has the best posture ever. When he sits, he back is straight as a board. It is beautiful.

Devin is doing great as well. He is a good big brother and really helps us entertain Gavin when we are trying to make dinner or drive somewhere in the car. Gavin just loves to watch Devin and I think Devin really likes the audience. The only challenge lately is that both boys want me when I walk in the door. Devin wants me all to himself and Gavin sees me and wants me too. Then, of course, Piper starts howling for attention too. It is a crazy first 15 minutes when I get home and then everyone goes back to what they were doing before I arrived.

I have been taking Devin to school and Rich picks him up. We now have Devin staying for extended care a little bit and he's doing great. Rich picks him up around 3:15 p.m. and he has been able to sneak into the classroom and observe Devin working on a project. He said it is amazing to see what he is doing in class. He can't believe it is our kid he's watching! I am so happy he has finally found happiness at preschool.....what a long road it has been getting him settled. Now when I drop him off in the morning, he runs out to the playground and is so excited to see all the kids. It's awesome.