Rylan: 7 Months

I’ve blogged once since Rylan’s six month post. It doesn’t surprise me in the least given the craziness of February but still, time is on warp speed. Between work, ski weekends and some surprise work trips for Mike, I’ll be glad if we make it out of February in one piece.

But this post is a celebration of Ry and his seven month milestone. And what a month he has had!

I am not even sure where to begin. For starters, we’ve mainly adopted the coveted Baby Wise four-hour schedule. So he nurses/has a bottle at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. This schedule really does open up a whole new world. We have more time to enjoy him and naps – in theory – are extending. Ry still hasn’t mastered naps at daycare but if that’s our one big challenge I can’t complain.

We have also moved him to three “meals” a day with solids. He eats breakfast around 8:30 a.m. at daycare. I don’t love that it is so broken up from his morning nursing session but we just could not get out the door at a decent time before. Unfortunately, if I ever want to make a 9 a.m. meeting we needed to switch to daycare feeding breakfast. Maybe that will change when I am done pumping in the early morning as well. He then gets lunch around 11:30 a.m. and dinner when we get home, hopefully by 6 p.m. Dinner is a mad dash and Mike and I rarely get our food ready in time, but I look forward to family dinners in the future.

Since we started solids at four months Rylan has already been introduced to a lot of foods. He doesn’t like all of them equally but since my last post we have added quite a bit, including salmon, carrots, pumpkin, beef, parsnips, yogurt and broccoli. He is beginning to prefer more complex purees and flavor combinations which is super exciting. I think we are moving into the phase of needing to better plan our meals to include items we can break off into bits for him. Overall, Rylan much prefers bite-sized food over purees.

With all of the encouragement I received last month regarding breastfeeding I found myself 100% recommitted in month six. On the weekends I nurse as much as possible and during the week I cherish our morning and nighttime nursing routine. I have decided to maintain a twice-daily pumping routine at work whenever possible but stress less about the days I just can’t fit it in. I have started to notice a dip in my supply but am doing everything I can to drink enough water and snack regularly to keep my body healthy. In my heart I now truly want to make it a full year. We’ll see!

Mom’s seven month favorites:

Seeing Rylan pick and gravitate toward favorite toys. These include Sophie, Baby Paper (a tiny miracle), a Melissa & Doug caterpillar, Fun N’ Fill Water Mat and Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes (we have three, enough said)
Watching Rylan become more intrigued by books when we read to him. In the mornings I have started a routine of pumping while playing with him on the floor and reading at least one book before we scoot off to daycare. It warms my heart every day
Watching him get ready for the next BIG change, crawling. He can push up on his arms, bend his knees and rock forwards and backwards. He has a ways to go but it isn’t lost on me that soon we’ll be at Target buying baby gates
The way he nuzzles into me when he needs to be comforted. It’s really different from the instinctual newborn days. Now, he knows I am his mama and that I want to help him and comfort him. My heart melts every time
How he makes everyone around him smile. Rylan is not shy and gives out smiles and laughs freely. I love watching others light up the way we do. He is simply awesome these days

Dad’s seven month favorites:

Introducing new foods and watching the reaction on his face after the first bite
Watching the lightbulb turn on in his head when he is experiencing new sounds, sights, people, etc.
Seeing him try to figure how to crawl and move around on the ground on his own
Seeing the smile on his face after extended trips away from home
Spending time with him on the ground, playing with toys