Matthew: Seven Months!

 

Yes, that's his tongue sticking out. ALWAYS

Height/Weight: Nothing official, and hopefully it'll stay that way for the next few months, but he's certainly getting heavier to carry around (or I'm getting weaker!) and clothes are definitely getting too short, so suffice to say he's growing. 

Wearing: We moved in to size three diapers shortly after he turned six months old, and my only complaint about that is that he is STILL soaking through them at night if he nurses in the middle of the night, which means diaper changes are necessary after middle-of-the-night feedings. Not fun. Otherwise we are pretty much fully into 6-9 month clothes, although I've hung on to a few of my favorite "fall" 3-6 outfits in hopes that it will cool down soon enough for him to squeeze in to them at least one more time.

Eating: Well, even though he technically jumped the gun and started solid food a few days before six months, he's officially made the transition into solid food. And let me tell you, he is loving it. There hasn't been a thing we've introduced that he hasn't inhaled, and believe me when I say we're not just cherry-picking the best things to give to him. The big one that comes to mind is summer squash--William and Garrett both tried this in their sixth month and HATED it, but Matthew inhaled it. Granted, it was a fresh summer squash from Grandma's garden, instead of store-bought, so maybe that made the difference. Even though he's getting solid food at breakfast and dinner, he still has plenty of interest in Mama's milk--he nurses at least five times during the day and occasionally at night. He'd probably nurse more often if I let him, but I try to be pretty scheduled with our feedings.

Sleeping: So (knock on all the wood!) I think we've finally turned a corner with the whole sleep thing. He's started sleeping through the night (most of the time!), and even on the nights he wakes up I only end up feeding him about half the time. So that's a major win. Naps are slowly improving as well, although his morning nap is generally better than his afternoon nap, which means he doesn't overlap his nap with Connor as much as I'd like for him too. And I don't think we are anywhere close to dropping his third nap; honestly, there are some days where we almost need a four nap to get him to bedtime (which generally falls between seven and eight). 

New Stuff: He's officially mobile! He started army crawling mid-August, although prior to that he would (pretty effectively) maneuver himself around a room by rolling. He's also managed to pull himself up a few times, although he's still super wobbly. It's actually crazy for me to look back and see that both William and Garrett were walking (fully supported, of course) at this age when Matthew has very little ability to support his body weight on his legs for extended periods of time. The other main thing that comes to mind as being relatively new is that he HAS to be in sight of Mommy, and generally, if he can see Mommy, he needs to be held by Mommy. On the (rare) occasion he will sit and play on the floor by himself, he will IMMEDIATELY start to fuss if he sees me, and the ONLY way to calm him down is for me to go pick him up. Usually if I sit on the floor with him he'll be more than content to play with a variety of toys for a decent period of time, but if I get up and try to leave it's game over. So my productivity is basically limited to things I can do from the floor (without needing to worry about Matthew getting in to it) or things I can do while holding Matthew. Fortunately, Darrell is really understanding of this phase (especially since he's been on the negative side of it when Matthew--who was contentedly playing with him--immediately starts to cry when he sees me), so I'm trying to embrace the slow down because I know that this time will all too quickly pass.