8 months

Dominick turned 8 months today. I was supposed to work in the afternoon, but got cancelled. Instead of staying home, I brought Dominick to work and Jason and I walked him around and visited with people who haven't seen him in a while. It was nice to show off Dominick in the flesh instead of just pictures.

Here is what's going on with him these days:

• I have no idea how much he weighs, but he's wearing 12-18 month clothes.
• He sits up very well and only falls over once in a while.
• He rolls over both ways, especially in his crib at night. We have discovered him sleeping on his belly a few times.
• He babbles "Mamamama" a lot.
• He eats 3 meals of solids a day and still nurses. 
• He has liked everything he's eaten so far.
• We are moments away from lowering his crib mattress. I don't want to wait until he can pull up to do it.
• He takes 3 naps once he wakes up around 9am and until he goes to sleep around 8pm.
• No stranger anxiety yet.
• Still no teeth, which is fine with me!

I have no new pictures to add. I added them all to the last post. Sorry!

Sitting Up

Dominick started sitting up a couple weeks ago and it's getting better every day. He still needs some assistance. He's rolling over but not to get anywhere. He's pretty content with just staying put for now. Thank God. I'm not ready for a crawling baby.

He's still eating really well. He hasn't turned his nose up at anything I've fed him yet. Grandma gave him his first dill pickle. He was unsure, but I gave him one the other day again and he loved it. He cried when I took it away.

He loves to spend time on the floor with his daddy. The two were spotted watching the Braves the other night. This was not choreographed. I totally found them this way.

Checking in with Dominick

Here's what he's up to these days.

• He's almost 7 months old (holy crap!) and wears 12-18 month clothes.
• He eats 2 meals of purees a day. So far, we've tried avocado, pear, apples, bananas, strawberries, green beans, spinach, carrots, and sweet potato. He's liked them all. We haven't tried meat yet.
• Gets a bath every other day.
• Sleeps through the night from about 7pm-ish to 8am-ish.
• He sleeps in his crib. 
• He likes his mobile when he's in the crib. Aunt Sandy & Uncle Joe gave him the seahorse. It's great when we're out and about and he needs a nap.
• He has no teeth yet.
• He knows his name!

...and as of this weekend, he is babbling up a storm mostly with "da da da da", sitting up with minimal assist, and kind of feeding himself. We tried cooked broccoli stalks the other day. Not sure he actually digested any of it, but it was fun watching him try.

The adventures of solid food

Well we've been putting this off as long as we could. We had made the decision when he was about 4 months that we wanted to put off feeding him solid food until is was absolutely necessary. By the time we reached the 6 month mark he was ready. He watched us eat intently, following the food from our plates to our mouths. He often reached for it. He started to seem hungrier in the evenings and I think my supply was dropping at that time as well.

We decided to start feeding him a meal in the evenings. Our Pedi's exact words were, "If you eat it, he can eat it. Except for honey" No stage 1 or stage 2 nonsense. None of this orange veggies before green ones. This was extremely liberating to hear! I already had sweet potato puree made in the freezer. We gave him his first taste that evening It went fairly well!

First taste of rice cereal at 5 months

First taste of sweet potato at 6 months

So far, he's had sweet potato, avocado, strawberries, mango, carrots, spinach, bananas, apples, and green beans. I make the purees myself. Not really something to brag about. It's very easy. Jason and I are not big vegetable eaters, so learning how and which veggies to cook has been the biggest challenge.

Soon, we're going to start finger foods. That's when the real fun begins!

6 month check-up

Dominick's check-up went great today! He weighed in at 20lbs 8oz and 29 inches long. The doctor said he looks great and he's ready for real food. I already had some sweet potatoes and apples pureed in the freezer waiting for him. He tried the sweet potato and it was so-so for him. I attributed his lack of enthusiasm to the fact he got 2 shots and an oral vaccine today. We'll try again tomorrow.

Thank God for Jason. He held Dominick's arms while he got his shots. I couldn't do it. I considered leaving the room, but I knew I would hear him cry and that would be worse. I'm such a hot mess when it comes to this. I just paced back and forth until it was over. He's in such good hands with Jason and I'm so thankful for that. For the record, I'm just a pansy when he's with me. When Dominick was admitted for an infection at 19 days old, I was the only one with him when he got poked for blood cultures, an IV, an I & D of the wound and straight cathed for urine cultures. I was fine the whole time (although I have no idea how). It helped that the ER nurses were beyond awesome at their job.

So now we begin the fun filled world of Dominick vs food. I'm trying to find things he can pick up and feed to himself. That should be fun!

6 months already?

Tomorrow my baby turns 6 months. I feel like I'm in some weird time warp. I feel like Dominick's been with us for longer than I was pregnant, but I can't believe he's 6 months old already! Everyone was right when they said the time would fly by. I remember when I could rock him to sleep and we could take him anywhere and he would stay asleep. He's so aware and distracted by everything around him. It's been so much fun watching him get this far.

I'm most looking forward to feeding him real food. He's mastered the oatmeal and rice cereal. I've got sweet potato and apple purees ready for him in the freezer. I'm anxious to see his reaction to these. I'm also looking forward to him learning to feed himself. Lots of Kodak moments there I'm sure!