7 months, already! Nolan easily experienced the most number of "firsts" this month, mostly due to our trip to Vermont with all the cool, new things he got to do. He is still so happy and giggly, and we love being able to see him smile every single day and find new ways to make him laugh (still the best sound in the world)! He continues to grow his vocabulary and has started with a variety of screams and screeches. He loves his vowel sounds and will mimic "Aaaas" back and forth with you, as one of his favorite things to do.
Nolan has become much more active and is constantly wanting to stand against furniture and with help. He still loves to sit and still hates his belly. He finally figured out how to roll from his back to his belly (July 22, 2014), and continues to do so regularly during playtime. I encourage him to crawl by placing him or rolling him to his belly and enticing him with toys... but this stubborn boy wants nothing to do with it! I'm almost positive he will go straight to walking since he has zero desire to learn to crawl! He has also learned to creep forward while sitting into the belly position, and mostly does this when a toy is out of his reach. Once he gets the toy and flops on his stomach, it's an instant roll back over to his back. He fusses after being on his back for a while during playtime, since he would much rather be sitting up and gets frustrated because he can't get there himself.
He spent the majority of this month with his fingers, fists, and anything he could get his hands on in his mouth, so teething really picked up... and all for good reason, since he cut his first two teeth! His firth tooth came just before we left for our trip to Vermont on July 28th (his bottom left tooth) and then his second tooth peaked through just as we returned from our trip, on August 7th (bottom right tooth). He looks super adorable with his two little pearly whites when he smiles!
Nolan still has "stranger danger", but our trip to Vermont seemed to help a bit by forcing him to be around a ton of unfamiliar faces. Although it was a bit much and overwhelming in the beginning, by the end of our trip he was content with everyone and wouldn't cry at all around family. Now he has started nestling into Mommy's neck and playing "shy" when seeing people for the first time again, rather than just crying and being scared (although he does still cry, sometimes). Even though he continues to have this stranger danger, it does seem like it is improving!
He has also learned to throw temper tantrums, and decided the best time to exhibit his very first one would be on our flight from JFK back home to Las Vegas! He was completely exhausted from the trip and the delayed flight and just simply wanted to fall asleep. Yet, Mommy's arms aren't nearly as comfy as his big crib (since big boy likes to sprawl out while he sleeps, or be strictly on his side!) and completely melted down for about fifteen minutes, thrashing his body, arms, legs, and developed the "tantrum cry". He finally calmed down and fell asleep for the remainder of the flight, but his first tantrum has led to lots of tantrums now... which comes with the age, of course, and should be no surprise to us! Most often, these tantrums happen when he is frustrated, such as being on his back and wanting to sit up, getting put in his carseat or highchair, and fighting to go to sleep. I know this is only the beginning when it comes to temper tantrums, I just didn't realize they started so early! Either way, we're ready for them!
The biggest news and change this month for Nolan was the start of his helmet journey! You can read all about Nolan's plagiocephaly in this blog post, but we started his treatment on August 13th, and have plans to be in the helmet for at least four weeks to a few months. He has adjusted well to it so far even though it hasn't been too long since we've had it on. We'll hope it stays that way!
Here's some more of what Nolan has been up to this month:
Height, Weight, and Sizes:
No well-check this month, but we did make a trip to Dr. Reddy's office because Nolan had a little cold from our traveling on the airplane. We wanted to make sure it wasn't anything more (it wasn't), but we did get a weight and height measurement, clocking him in at 18 pounds even and 27 1/2 inches long. He definitely grew in length a TON since his last measurement, which was less than a month before. He is currently wearing 9 month clothing in shirts and onesies, 6-9 month shorts, and 9-12 month pajamas, although getting snug (all same as last month). His little waist seems to never grow, so his bottoms are less likely for him to outgrow (even though his belly sure does grow)! He is also still in size 3 diapers, and now that he is regular on his solids diet, has stopped blowing out of most of them (thank God!). Hopefully he stays that way with the big boy poop, cause I sure could do without those blowouts!
No well-check this month, but we did make a trip to Dr. Reddy's office because Nolan had a little cold from our traveling on the airplane. We wanted to make sure it wasn't anything more (it wasn't), but we did get a weight and height measurement, clocking him in at 18 pounds even and 27 1/2 inches long. He definitely grew in length a TON since his last measurement, which was less than a month before. He is currently wearing 9 month clothing in shirts and onesies, 6-9 month shorts, and 9-12 month pajamas, although getting snug (all same as last month). His little waist seems to never grow, so his bottoms are less likely for him to outgrow (even though his belly sure does grow)! He is also still in size 3 diapers, and now that he is regular on his solids diet, has stopped blowing out of most of them (thank God!). Hopefully he stays that way with the big boy poop, cause I sure could do without those blowouts!
Feeding:
Nolan continues to eat all purees, but has moved from Stage 1 solids to Stage 2. This makes the texture a bit thicker, the amount larger, and also introduces him to mixing purees, so we have a variety of new blends that we've tried! His favorites are still pears, but also enjoys the mixture of Garden and Mixed Vegetables, Apple Blueberry, and Banana Carrot Mango. He still loves Mum Mums and also is working hard on his pincher grasp, because he still gets pretty frustrated with eating Puffs. We introduced Nolan to the famous Creemee while in Vermont, which gave this little guy his first taste of something sweet and sugary! I let him try my raspberry creemee, and he was just okay with it. I was shocked! I thought for sure he would go nuts over it... but apparently he likes his veggies and fruits better! Good boy.
Also while in Vermont, we got rid of his dreamfeed which normally took place around 10:30PM-11:00PM. Since we kept him on West Coast time, that would have meant waking him at 2:00AM (East Coast) to give him his dreamfeed, which we really didn't want to do. We hoped it wouldn't affect his sleeping, especially since we were on vacation... and he did AMAZING with it! He continued to sleep right through the night and didn't even miss it. So now, he is down to 4 bottles of milk a day, following the same E.A.S.Y. schedule we've been on for the past few months. His bottles usually total about 6-7 ounces each feed, so he is getting at least 24 ounces of milk daily, along with his consistent solids at breakfast and dinner.
Finally, another change I made during our trip to Vermont was switching my pumping sessions from 4 times a day to 3. This was a perfect time to do it since I wanted more free time to spend with family, and my body adjusted well to it. It feels SO great to get an extra half hour out of my day... it doesn't sound like much, but between the actual time pumping, washing parts and organizing bottles, it gives me just a little extra time to get other things done (or take a nap.. ha!)
Sleeping:
Not too much has changed with Nolan's sleep schedule, as he still follows the same 4 hour E.A.S.Y. schedule as the past few months. He has been lengthening his naps to about 2 hours every time, with some days taking a catnap for 30 minutes, other days not needing one. While in Vermont, everyone couldn't believe how well he slept and how great his sleeping habits are! We are really lucky to have such a great little sleeper on our hands... hopefully he enjoys it forever!
Not too much has changed with Nolan's sleep schedule, as he still follows the same 4 hour E.A.S.Y. schedule as the past few months. He has been lengthening his naps to about 2 hours every time, with some days taking a catnap for 30 minutes, other days not needing one. While in Vermont, everyone couldn't believe how well he slept and how great his sleeping habits are! We are really lucky to have such a great little sleeper on our hands... hopefully he enjoys it forever!
Like stated above, we got rid of his dreamfeed at 10:30PM, so Nolan now sleeps through the night from about 7:30PM-6:30AM. We do still move him into our room in the Pack N' Play when we go to bed. This is strictly a "Mommy oops", as I know it will backfire for me later when he's older... but I just can't part with him from our room, still! Plus, with his cranial band being put on this month, I wanted to monitor his sleep and be close to him while he's adjusting to it.
He continues to fight going down to sleep for about five to ten minutes, by either wiggling his body like crazy, making noises, spitting out his pacifier, or throwing a quick tantrum. I think this is just his age and a developmental commodity, since he is becoming more active, he of course wants to stay up and play, and hates that he has to go to bed no matter how tired he may be.
Nolan is quite the mover in bed now, and loves to sleep on his sides. He will roll back and forth to find a comfy position and will move all over his crib during both naps and nighttime sleep. He started throwing his paci out of his crib, and then moved to throwing his arms and legs out of the slats, so we thought it would be best to put the breathable bumper on. Now he can't do either but doesn't seem to mind that it's on. He also started rolling completely over to his stomach and sometimes sleeps with his face down, which freaked us out completely at first, and had us flipping him over every time. Now, we just check on him a gazillion times to make sure he can still breathe, but it's definitely not worth moving him every.single.time we find him like that, it's just too often! Sometimes I will find him on his belly, arms pushing his body up, with his head looking around the room when he wakes up. He does a cute little booty shake of excitement when we come in to get him when he's in this position. He still loves to wake up and talk to himself and can entertain himself for a while before we come to get him.
Firsts & Milestones:
-Rolled back to belly (July 22nd)
-First tooth (bottom left on July 28th)
-Playing in the rain
-Creeps from sitting to belly laying
-Makes silly smile (scrunching nose)
-Gives low fives (double)
-Can stand against furniture with no assistance for 30 seconds
-Airplane ride and trip across the country
-First time meeting family in Vermont
-International travel (Canada)
-Taste of ice cream (creemee)
-Visit to a farm, seeing and petting farm animals
-Celebrating and attending a birthday party for another baby (Everette's 1st birthday)
-Swinging
-Seeing and touching leaves
-Taking a real bath (without a baby tub)
-Second tooth (bottom right on August 7th)
-Scan and fitted for his first cranial band (helmet)
-Baby Einstein aquarium crib toy
-eating solids and making messes on high chair
-cousin Everette and Milann
-leaves and grass
-tissue paper and exam table paper at the doctor's office
-MAM teether
-soft crinkle blocks (obsessed with these toys)
-stand up toys (Activity table, Sit-to-Stand at Everette's house)
-when Daddy snaps the board books closed
-Still obsessed with Harley and always wants to pet him
-Taking big boy baths and splashing
Dislikes:
-Still has a bit of stranger danger
-Still has a bit of stranger danger
-Being stuck on his back or belly when he wants to sit
-Peaches (liked them at first, now he won't eat them)
-Being put to sleep, wants to stay up and play!
-Taking toys away or moving him away from something he has been doing
-Teething
Here's to another month of little man learning, growing, and warming our hearts SO much! We love you, buddy!
No comments