Observations of my 7-month old

7-Months! My baby is 7-months old!  I can only shake my head in disbelief.  How? Where did the time go?  Why is he not sleeping through the night? I wonder how many diapers I've changed?

The List...


1. My baby is growing up too fast!  I know I say this every time, but it is just mind blowing. A year ago today I was starting my 4th month of pregnancy.  Now I have a 7-month old baby. Full-on insane.  I have learned to cherish every moment, yes even the "Come on my sweet baby it's 3am, you have to go back to sleep, or mommy is going to loose her damn mind," moments.  Everything goes to quickly, I don't want to miss, or regret, a thing.

2. Speaking of, “It’s 3am, please baby go back to sleep before mommy looses it…”  Oliver is still not sleeping through the night yet.  The longest stretch my son has ever slept is 8 hours. Once. <insert a vision of my head exploding!>

For the most part he is asleep for the night by 8pm, up for nursing between 11:30-1 (I usually will dream feed him before bed between 11-12) and then up between 5-7am.  If he is up before 7am he will go back to sleep until 7:45-8:15, otherwise he stays up. Who am I kidding, there is no predictability, and since I said something tonight will be a mess.

3. Routine is key- we have a great routine and we stick to it. I have a generally very happy easy-going baby thanks to this routine.  If you do not have a routine, get one! 

4. Oliver has two meals a day, lunch and dinner. At each meal he has about 4-6 ounces of food, or 1 1/2 jars of baby food.  I usually let him have Rusks or organic melt ways while I make his meals. He has not shown any signs of wanting a third meal. Also, no juice or water unless necessary.

5.  Ollie is over bottles.  Since I nurse exclusively and am home with him all day, he has not had a bottle in a long time.  The other day I pumped him one for a BBQ we went to. When I tried to feed it to him he acted like he had no clue what to do with it.  I ended up taking the top off the bottle and let him drink the bottle in sips.  (He has been drinking water from our cups since 6 months old.)

6. Oliver is 23 pounds and nearly 30 inches long.  My son is massive! We are wearing 9-12 month clothing. 12-month bottoms only.

7. He's nearly got crawling figured out! Two weeks ago he was rocking on all fours.  Last week he figured out the importance of moving the arms then legs, but not all four separately.  This week he is moving the four separately, but not in the swift motion. Next week look for the, “OMG he is crawling and eating cat food,” post.

8. Diaper changing has become a nightmare of epic proportions. NIGHTMARE!  He rolls, kicks, fights, struggles, and makes me want to cry… all in about 30 seconds.  I hate diaper changing now. I have to use the changing table’s tie-the-baby-down straps and toys as a distraction if I have any hope of a successful diaper change. 

9. He squeals when I come into the room.  I love this. He has started to really try to communicate with us.  He squeals and loves when I squeal back.  Sometimes if I mimic his sound, we can keep an exchange of squealing going for about a minute. 

10. He coughs the most ridiculous fake cough when he needs something. Pitiful. The fake cough is just pitiful.  I almost want the raspberry phase back. 

11. He has a very strong death grip. For example, every time I sit down with him in our nursing rocker, he grabs on to the back of it, laughs a scary baby laugh (Almost like a, “haha I’ve got you now thing.”) then tries to pull us close enough to get the edge of the chair in his mouth, smashing me in the process. If he grabs hold of something, it’s near impossible to pry his fingers off.  

12. Still a toothless wonder.  His bottom right front tooth has slightly broken through. The one to the left is visible under the gums. I'm really looking forward to that sweet little baby teeth smile. Soon I hope…

13. We no longer have issues with having to burp him or use gas drops.  He burps on his own and just putts around without screaming. Finally!

14. Around 6 1/2 months we moved him from his newborn carrier/car seat to a convertible back facing "big boy" car seat. His feet were nearly swinging from the edge of the newborn carrier, and when we put him in the car... poor dude was jammed in the seat. He was leery at first about the new seat, but seems much happier now. Plus, he can see out of the window.  (We still have him back facing in the center of the seat.

15. Naps suck. All naps are 30-minutes long.  I cannot get him to sleep for longer than 30-minutes unless I nap with him. Sucks. 

16. He loves to hit and pound on things.  Not great when it’s my face, but funny when it’s other things. He splays “high and low five” with FTD and laughs away. Pots and Pans are his new favorite toy.  (Picture below)  


18. We go for a walk nearly every day and he loves it.  He sits up in his stroller and watches the cars, and yells at the barking dogs. He has not fallen asleep on our walk in weeks, even when it’s close to naptime. He is really absorbing his surroundings.  I’m so proud.

19.He is starting to show signs of separation anxiety when friends come around and want to hold him, or strangers in the grocery approach us.  This is the last thing I want.  I want Oliver to be very well socialized.  We take him everywhere and let friends and family hold him as much as possible.  Hopefully it’s just a passing phase.

20. I am so incredibly blessed.  I know it.  I have no valid complaints right now.  Of course I could bitch away about something, but I know how lucky I am.  I could not have wished, hoped or prayed for a better baby.   I love my little incredibly quickly growing, 7-month old baby boy. 





Two confused parents=One amused baby Hopelessly we are trying raise a baby who is clearly smarter than both of us. April is an award-winning writer and blogger. Her work has been published in over ten countries and four languages. From books to newspapers, to print/online magazines and everything in between, you can find her work. For more on April, Visit AprilMcCormick.com