Baby at Seven Months

Oh my! It seems like I was just writing the 6-month post...days are flying by! I've had a few "downs" this month... I realized the difficulty we were having getting Lucas to take milk from a bottle was all due to frozen milk. He loves fresh milk and will tolerate milk that has been in the refrigerator a few days but he hates the frozen milk... More on that below...and other happier things we are up to including Lucas's current schedule!

Baby Update!

Brothers Playing Together

Lucas is doing great! He just keeps growing. He gets up on all fours and bounces and does a sort of half crawl which will probably be turning into a full crawl soon! It's amazing to me how quickly he can traverse an entire room. He is super observant and wants to get his hands on everything. My husband was eating popcorn while holding him recently and wow did Lucas want that popcorn! He is not quite getting the idea of putting food in his mouth yet. I've been offering him (baby appropriate) finger foods but he just picks it up, plays a moment, and then usually drops it. Or it sticks to his hand lol. He loves my chunky purees though!

Lucas is still shifting between a 2 and a 3 nap day. Daylight savings is coming soon which may change things up as well. Now that he's decided he likes food, he is willing to eat solids pretty much anytime. Lately I've been doing a lunch and dinner feeding. I think I will not add a 3rd feeding until 8 months which is what I did with my first son.

3-Nap Schedule

7:30 Wake and Breastfeed
9:00 Nap
10:00 Wake and Breastfeed
11:30 Lunch
12:00 Breastfeed and Nap
2:30 Wake and Breastfeed
4:30 Nap
5:15 Wake and Breastfeed and Dinner
7:30 Breastfeed and Bed 

2-Nap Schedule

7:30 Wake and Breastfeed
9:00 Nap
11:30 Wake and Breastfeed
12:00 Lunch
2:00 Breastfeed and Nap
4:30 Wake and Breastfeed
5:30 Dinner
7:30 Breastfeed and Bed

We've been having some trouble with the late nap, so I'm really hoping we can get on a solid 2-nap routine soon. For around two weeks, Lucas practiced his most recent skill in his crib: Sitting Up. He'd start crying 1-2 times a night and when I checked on him I would find him with his legs in a sitting position but hunched over with his head between his feet. Luckily, when I went into his room and pulled out his legs so he was lying down again, he went right back to sleep. He also started sitting up and crying instead of going to sleep at his 3rd nap time. 

Practicing new skills in the crib is usually temporary! But I have a sneaky suspicion he is going to be full on crawling around his crib soon. My husband and I have joked that we should place bets on who climbs out of their crib first - Lucas (7 months) or Henry (2 years, 4 months). My money would be on Lucas.

Onto my breastfeeding woes... Breastmilk has an enzyme called Lipase in it. Once the milk is expressed and especially once it has been cooled, the lipase is at work which can lead to the milk smelling and tasting soapy (post from my favorite breastfeeding site). This is a pretty common issue and I realize I'm way behind in bringing it up given my baby's age. But many babies (like my first son) will still drink the milk even though it has a somewhat off-putting smell and taste. I noticed with my first son that fresh breastmilk had no odor, refrigerated breastmilk also had no odor but once I warmed it for feeding it would smell a little, and frozen milk once thawed and warmed for feeding had a similar but much stronger odor. The milk is not bad and my first son drank it on occasion. (Because I am lucky to work full time from home, I mostly just fed him as it was faster than pumping.) I actually had some leftover frozen milk at his first birthday and I thawed it and mixed it with whole cow's milk for a week to start him on cow's milk during the day (I was still breastfeeding from the tap twice a day, morning and night). 

Lucas has been doing great during the day taking bottles of freshly pumped milk or milk that has been in the fridge a few days. We've upgraded him to a stage 2 nipple and he will take his bottle in just 5 minutes. He will drink the frozen milk first thing in the morning, he's pretty hungry after his 12 hours of sleep, but he takes less than he normally would from a bottle, only 3-4 ounces instead of 5. And he absolutely refuses bottles of previously frozen milk if given later in the day. 

I'm a little sad that it looks like I am going to have to throw out my frozen milk. I guess it didn't cost me anything, just my time and energy... :-(

We have a vacation coming up where Lucas is going to need to take some bottles while my husband and I attend a wedding. I have a few options I'm considering:

• Give a bottle first thing in the morning and then pump, scald, and freeze the milk. Do this a few times to get some frozen milk that doesn't taste bad to him.
• Give some frozen milk while on vacation first thing in the morning and then pump to have some refrigerated milk on hand for bottling.
• Buy a container of formula so he could take a formula bottle.

I've never given formula. I understand it's supposed to be pretty tasty to babies though. 

If you have any tips please leave me a comment!!!

My husband tells me I am spending way too much time dwelling on this to prepare for just one day... But that's how I roll.

Mom Update!

I'm doing well. I'm a little worried about our upcoming vacation to Hilton Head Island (I'm a worrier by nature...) but I feel like we are pretty prepared...

I borrowed a second pack 'n play from a generous friend so both my toddler and baby will have a pack 'n play to sleep in. I was considering putting a mattress on the floor for my toddler but as he still sleeps in his crib I think he will do much better in the pack 'n play. We may try putting the boys to sleep in the same room.

My car Vomit Kit has been restocked and modified a little since my son threw up again the last time we drove on the highway :-(.  We discovered a key item the kit was missing - plastic bags! There was a firetruck at the birthday party we attended too and I think my poor boy would have enjoyed it much more had he not puked twice on the way there. Alas, we are stocked and prepared. I've also removed the mirror from the seat back which means I can't see him if we are in the car just the two of us, but I wondered if looking in that mirror was making him nauseous.  

A blog I enjoy recently did two posts on Vacationing on Hilton Head Island. Her toddler is around the same age as mine and she had some great tip on places to go and things to do!

We are looking forward to seeing my mom and sister who are joining us at the beach!

Toddler Update!

We are doing some serious work on sharing lately. Overall, Henry is pretty tolerant of his baby brother. But I have a feeling that will wane some as Lucas becomes more and more mobile. Henry likes to give things to Lucas, but he doesn't want Lucas to take things from him. Here, Lucas is trying to see what's going on as Henry and my husband play a favorite game - Henry draws (scribbles) on this Doodle Pro and then my husband turns the drawing into a picture. The doodle pad is also great for working on short word and spelling recognition. Henry loves to work on words and is constantly requesting, "Another good word" on the doodle pad.

Other things he is loving lately...

Coloring - this Melissa & Doug Jumbo Coloring Pad is awesome. Henry loves animals and there are 50 fabulous pictures on nice thick paper in this coloring pad for only $4.99. He loves to flip through the pad multiple times and work just a little on each picture. We smartened up and put his crayons in a plastic container so they would stop rolling off the table. We have been working on getting him to only take out one crayon at a time. He does pretty well. His favorite color is currently magenta!

A friend of mine has her two year old in a soccer group already. I didn't think my son was ready for something like that. But we ordered him a Junior Soccer Ball (size 3) to play in the yard and he just loves it. He actually does pretty well with kicking the ball and my husband is all about playing out in the yard with him.

Now, if only I could get him to take a nice pic with his brother for our yearly holiday card! Here's the best from a recent attempt...