7 Months Old

Charlie turned 7 months old Monday!  He continues to be a happy, smiley, laid-back little guy.  He's making more and more noises and has started making some consonant sounds.  His favorite is "dadadadada" but he can also say "babababa."  Mommy is still waiting for that "M" sound.

Our little guy still doesn't have teeth, but every day I keep thinking one will break through.  He's gone through various phases of drooling like crazy, gnawing on everything in sight and occasionally (like the last couple of nights) waking up at 9:30pm crying.  It's nothing a little Tylenol doesn't fix, so we keep thinking "it's gotta be teeth."

Charlie is a pro at sleeping. His bedtime has crept a little earlier and earlier so now he generally goes down about 7:30 or 7:45 and sleeps until sometime in the 6:00 hour.  He sleeps in a sleep sack some nights and just in his jammies other nights.  Sometimes he falls asleep nursing, but usually he's still awake when I put him down and he doesn't make a peep.  This is one easy baby!

Little man is sitting like a champ and can switch to his tummy when he's trying to reach for something.  He pushes himself all the way up on his arms when he's on his tummy and almost gets up on his knees, but not quite yet.  He rolls all over the place and often has rotated 180 degrees in his crib when he wakes up in the morning.  His new favorite sleeping position is on his side with his feet poking out of the slats.  

His most exciting new skill is clapping.  He's almost doing it on command when I say "Yay!"  So, so close.  This video was from a few days ago and today I really think he almost has it nailed.  Tomorrow's going to be the day!  Sorry about the jumpiness; this is from my phone.

This month we added a third spoon-fed meal for Charlie, so he's now eating breakfast, lunch and dinner along with 4-5 nursing/bottle sessions.  My milk supply is still going strong and I have a very large frozen supply still, so I have secret hopes of making it the full year without having to buy formula.  We'll see how that goes - 7 months was when my milk started slowing with Jack and by 9 months I was finished completely, so I'm not holding my breath just yet.

We've found only one food that Charlie is not fond of: mangoes.  He made a full recovery on the bananas and now loves them, but not so much on the mangoes.  He's funny because he'll eat several bites just fine, then on the 5th or 6th bite he starts making a horrible sour face, then he starts refusing bites altogether.  He also added a few other new foods this month: oatmeal, plums, pears, applesauce, plain yogurt, puffs and yogurt bites.  With the finger foods he ends up dropping most of them on the floor or they just get soggy in his little hand, but occasionally he gets one in his mouth and it's a riot to watch him chew it with these big dramatic bites while it quickly disintegrates in his mouth.