Baby Update: 7 Months

I feel like Peter experienced the most growth and hit so many milestones this month.

We got the go-ahead from our pediatrician to explore baby-led weaning. If you're not familiar with it, you explore my Pinterest board HERE. We combine baby-safe finger foods with purees and Peter seems to really enjoy getting to explore foods with his hands. Some of the finger foods we have explored are bananas, avocado, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and peaches.

Peter is officially crawling with his belly off the floor. He's been doing the army crawl for a couple of months, but now that he got his belly off the floor he's unstoppable!

He has also started pulling up on everything. My new favorite thing is going into his room to get him in the morning because he's always standing, waiting on me with a big smile on his face. Of course, now it takes him forever to go to sleep because he's busy playing in the crib, practicing all his new skills.

He can now say "mama" and "baba" over and over and over again. It's super cute!

We recently went to a nearby splash pad with some mommy friends from work. There were lots of fountains and streams of water for the kids to play in. Peter is such a water baby,  I couldn't get any pictures of him looking up at the camera! We'll definitely be taking Peter back again before summer ends.

Baby Update: 6 Months

For six months now we have been blessed with baby Peter. We haven't experienced a dull moment since he joined our family.

At six months Peter has almost mastered sitting up by himself. He's already adventurous and throws himself to the floor from a sitting position to chase after whatever toy catches his eye. Peter is army crawling all over the house and I get a good workout in everyday chasing after him. He's incredibly quick and can get from one side of a room to the other in the blink of an eye.

We recently put an above ground pool in our backyard and it's safe to say that Peter is a big fan. Hubs had the genius idea of putting an umbrella in the middle of the pool and that's made it so much easier to keep baby protected from the intense Texas sun.

Peter's sleep habits haven't been so great lately. I'm not sure if its the dreaded sleep regression or teething, but he's gotten up at least once a night for the past couple of weeks. Thankfully I'm out of school for the summer, so I can handle getting up at night. My fingers are crossed that this phase passes quickly.

I'm trying to get us into a good daily routine, but am struggling to overcome the initial summer laziness that always hits me when school gets out. I'd really like to get in the habit of taking morning walks, and will try my best to get myself out the door in the morning before it gets too hot.

Right now our days look something like this:
Between 6:00-7:00 am wake up and give bottle and baby food.
Play for two hours until Peter gets sleepy.
During his two hour morning nap I wash bottles, pick up the house, shower.
After his first nap he has a morning snack followed by more playtime. Usually he plays more independently during this time either in the pack'n'play, door bouncer, or walker.
Second nap of the day lasts another two hours. I take this time to watch t.v. and eat lunch.
Peter wakes again for another feed. Hubs is usually getting home from work around this time and plays with Peter for a while.
Peter takes one more evening nap. This one only lasts about an hour.
Last feed of the day, a little more play time, then we get ready for bed around 7:30.

I'm finding that now that I'm home I'm not as concerned about keeping Peter on a strict schedule. I obsessed about his schedule while I was working. I guess I wanted to know exactly what he was doing all day and when he was doing it. I also read so many mommy blogs about the importance of schedules. But honestly, neither of us are worse for wear without a strict schedule. Bedtime is the only thing I really try to keep consistent each day.

We are so excited for the upcoming milestones baby will reach next!

Baby Update: 5 Months

I know I say this all the time, but HOW has Peter grown so quickly?!

Peter turned 5 months old on Friday and my mommy brain cannot handle it! He is so alert and active and curious about everything. He is a moving machine and gone are the days of putting him on the floor to run to the bathroom because he will take off as soon as I walk away.

Peter is very close to crawling. He's learned how to get up on his hands and knees and will rock back and forth. I'm guessing that within the next week he'll figure out how to get those hands moving, and then he will be unstoppable.

Peter is eating SO MUCH! I can't even imagine all the food we'll go through when he is in high school. He definitely loves his veggies more than fruits, which makes us laugh, because hubs and I both have a major sweet tooth. But I won't complain!

We are finally getting full nights of sleep. Every once in a while he will wake up and need a bottle to help calm him down, but those nights are far and few between. We have been using Sam's Club brand diapers and have really liked them, but recently realized that part of why Peter was waking up during the night was because his diaper was getting too full. We switched to Huggies diapers at night and have seen a huge improvement in how often Peter wakes up.

I am finally feeling more and more like a normal human again and have started working out in the evenings and doing more things for myself. It is really amazing how much of a difference it makes in my attitude when I take those 30 minutes for myself in the evenings. 

Baby boy, we can't wait to see what the next month will bring!