Whoops I didn't realize I hadn't put an update here yet. This last month has been pretty fun and challenging at the same time. I'll break it down.
Sleeping: Locke sleeps from 6:30 pm to 6:30ish am. We had a few weeks where I was trying to adjust his schedule before the time change, and it messed him all up. He would wake 4-5 times during the night crying, playing, rolling around, etc. We finally started putting him to bed at 6:30 and it fixed the problem immediately. It sucks for us socially (really who am I kidding here? We don't go anywhere.) but we like our sleep so this is our life right now. He takes 2 1.5 hour naps during the day plus a catnap in the evenings. I wish he would do the "2 2-hour naps" every day but he has some kind of built-in timer that prevents this. He sleeps mostly on his back at night and sometimes for naps on his tummy.
Eating: Locke nurses 5 times a day, always with the option of feeding him more often if he acts like he's hungry. He has a certain "hungry whine" so I'm pretty good at figuring this out. He bit me several times really hard a few weeks ago when he was getting his second tooth and at one time I yelled pretty loudly at him. Not my finest moment as a parent, thank you Lord for forgiveness! Anyway I got my dues because he wouldn't nurse at all for about 2 days and I was freaking out a little. Self-weaning before a year old is pretty rare and I knew it was my fault. He wasn't taking bottles well either at that time. I prayed that God would give him a healthy appetite and he did! Last week I couldn't feed that child enough. This week we're back to him being distracted and not eating well. I'm going to try feeding him every 3.5 hours and some other tricks and hopefully that will help. Most days I feed Locke table food after 2 nursing sessions, usually around 11 am and 5 pm. BLW suggests working up to feeding them 3x/day. Honestly I haven't done this just because of the mess, but I need to do it. Some foods Locke has recently enjoyed are zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, chicken pot pie, cinnamon apples, and O'Charley's rolls. We took him to O'Charley's and he LOVED that roll and Erik and I were able to enjoy our dinner!
Milestones: Locke rolls all over the place now. If you put him on the floor and walk away, chances are when you come back he'll be across the room. He really loves being on his tummy now. His second tooth is all the way in. He is learning he can grab and hold things with his teeth. Last week he waved to me and my mom and I was confused at first. Apparently Erik taught him how to do it; I certainly didn't. We had our first "play date" with another mom and her kids. A girl I'm in Bible study with and her two girls went to Chick-fil-a with us last week. Locke did ok, but we left after about 45 minutes because it was time for all the kids to take naps. My big boy is sitting up all by himself now. He can do this for a long time unless he decides to reach for something far away and then he falls. Locke has been recognizing his own toys for a while now. If we're sitting somewhere and his toy is peeking out from behind a pillow he reaches for it. He loves Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Gingerbread Man books. He recognizes their covers and gets excited when I get them out. I don't let Locke watch tv so we read a lot of books.
Diapers: I'm using cloth diapers during the day when we are at home but I've been dissatisfied with the poop situation. When he gets poop on the diaper covers, and he frequently does, I have to wash them immediately then wait til they dry. Granted he doesn't get it on his clothes but it's just as much work to clean the covers. I still use disposables when we go out and at night. I try to tell myself that once Locke is eating solids all the time his poop will be different and hopefully we won't have as many problems with this. By the way, I got a great deal at Kroger on diapers so I bought some of the Huggies Slip Ons. Don't waste your money. After an hour and a half of wearing the diaper the gel stuff in them was all over his behind. I'm going to take the unopened package back and I'll stick with my cheapo Luvs.
Daycare: Locke still goes 2x/week so I can sleep/work nights. He is really loved at daycare. He doesn't sleep well at all there and BLW has been an issue but otherwise he is very well taken care of. I will be so sad when he moves up to the next class because I just love his teachers. I feel very safe with him there.
Weight and height: I don't know exact measurements because we haven't been back to the doctor since his 6 month appointment. However on Halloween when I took him for his second flu shot I asked the nurse if we could weigh him and he was 18 pounds 4 ounces. You have to take off a little for his clothes so I figure somewhere around 18. I guess I could get my tape measure and measure him, maybe I'll do that at 8 months.
Taking off his sock after naptime so he can chew on it. Silly boy.
Sitting up.
He loves this book. All I have to say is "Run run as fast as you can!" and he just lights up.
My sweet boy really is a joy to take care of. I love my days at home with him and I wouldn't trade this time for anything. It's flying by too fast. I work on a high-risk L&D floor now and I'm reminded every shift that not everybody gets to take their baby home, and not every baby comes out healthy. I feel very undeserving of this precious gift God gave me in my son.
