The Hill Family Saga: Declan is 7 Months Old

Weight: 17lbs 9.6oz, chunking up!

Height: 27.5 inches

Clothing: He is in exclusively 6-9 month or 9 month clothing. Many of the 6-9 month sleepers are getting too tight and we will have to move into 12 month sleepers in order to have enough. He has also been able to wear many of his 9-12 month t-shirts.

Who needs clothes when you are this cute naked?!

Diapers: We moved him up to the middle rise this month and he seems to be doing well with that. He isn’t pooping as much now that he started solids, so we are changing mainly for wet diapers.

Cute cloth booty

Eating: He is nursing 4 times a day and on the rare occasion that there might be 5. He also began solid foods this month, December 22^nd. We started with only once a day, but by the end of the month we were up to 2 times a day with solid foods. I decided to go ahead and start with purees again with him, but we will be moving into chunks of food sooner than we did with Alethea, especially with veggies. We started with Bananas which he loved just like his sister. He also tried sweet potato, apples, pears, avocado, oatmeal, green beans, prunes, pumpkin, and peas. He isn’t as big of a fan of the veggies, but he will actually eat them fairly well. I am going to work really hard to continue to offer food better with him instead of giving up so quick like I did with Alethea. J So far he pretty much eats what is served, but will really go to town on fruits if given the opportunity.

Christmas dinner

Just a little excited!

First food, bananas

Smiley boy in his chair. :-)

Friendships: He still mainly has exposure to family and then a few others at church or the library story time. Alethea continues to draw much of his interest, although we are having more issues with her trying to play with him too roughly so he is getting knocked over a bit more than he cares to be. He also met a bunch of Ben’s family and friends when we went up to New York. Though, he isn’t a fan of new people at first typically, he warmed up quite well to most of them.

buddies

They love each other

playing in the bubbles together

Mobility: He is still not crawling yet, which comes at such a surprise. He has all the strength and skills needed, he just hasn’t been coordinated enough to piece it all together. He gets on all fours like a champ and reaches for things like crazy, but only ends up going backwards. He is able to get himself back up to a seated position from his tummy, which I thought was a skill they didn’t learn until after crawling, but I guess not, lol. He can also pull up to his knees like a pro and does quite well up to his feet for brief periods as well. Maybe he will just walk instead of crawl. J He loves to pull up to his feet in the bath, which can be a bit scary at times, but overall he does well. He is mobile, and very intentional with his mobility but, unfortunately for him, it involves lots of backward or circular movement.

So close to crawling

proud of himself

so good at pulling up

He can't go forward, so often he ends up stuck under things, lol

Sleeping: With all of the traveling this month, we have been a bit more flexible with sleep, but he is still taking 2 naps a day and sleeping through the night most nights. We are dealing with very random night wakings periodically which can get a bit frustrating. Most of the time he is back asleep within 15 minutes or so on his, but he is still super loud so my sleep is always disturbed. Strangely enough we have had a few middle of the night feedings (12am or 1am) which we hadn’t had since he was teeny tiny. He has also been waking up slightly earlier in the mornings as well which is possibly due to his bedtime schedule being messed up due to travel and busy evenings. I am hopefully that this is just a growth spurt or phase and will pass quickly!

Not feeling well

So he fell into a food coma :-)

Being able to finally bring himself to a seated position in bed makes sleep a whole new ballgame :-)

Playtime: He still loves Sophie the giraffe! And he is a general fan of chewing and exploring life via his mouth. He is a big fan of teething rings, bracelets and necklaces, and he loves how they sound when they clank against something. He also really enjoys blocks, mostly chewing on them, but he doesn’t enjoy knocking down any towers built in his vicinity. To Alethea’s dismay sometimes, he loves baby dolls too. He seems very intrigued by them and he also thinks their feet and hands are quite tastey. Basically anything that he can bang with/on, he is a fan of. He also loves to be near anything that he can pull up on, especially the learn and groove toy. We have had to make sure it is up against a wall though because of a few mishaps where it moved and he lost his balance. He still loves books too. We have taken to giving him books to keep him occupied during diaper changes and he loves it! He still bangs on the pages most of the time when we read, but he will sit through age appropriate stories.

He loves to play in his tub

spoons are yummy

and so are socks

Communication: Thankfully he has backed off on the screaming just for the sake of screaming, but he still goes from 0 to 1000 in seconds. He is very dramatic and quite sensitive so it seems that his feelings get hurt quite easily. Crying is still his favorite way of communicating, but we are hearing more sounds from him during his play. A favorite is “da-da-da” or “duh-duh-duh”. He also makes a sound that I guess is best described as “uh-guh” which he is quite fond of when just sitting and playing.

Teeth: Still no teeth yet, but possibly some pre-teething going on. No signs of any coming any time soon though! He finds apples and carrots to be excellent teethers so far J

Random: Though not exciting, he went to his first funeral (celebration of Grandaddy’s life) the day he turned 7 months old. He celebrated his first Christmas and loved all the wrapping paper. He went to see Lights Under Louisville too. Went on an 11 hour drive to NY and did surprisingly well. He has started pulling up, often to his feet, in the bath tub. He loves to be naked. December 7^th was his first night going to bed without nursing because he took a bottle while we were off at a Christmas party for Ben’s work.