Sweet Child of Mine: Hatcher is 7 months old!

Yesterday, we celebrated Hatcher's 7th month!! He's grown so much over the past month & has several new "tricks" he can do! I tell you, with every month that passes our love for him grows in abundance & we love watching him grow into a big boy!

While he's still a fan of the jump-a-roo, his Corvette walker is by far his favorite toy! Last week, he started moving all over the house. Every time he's gotten in it prior to last week, he's just chewed on the steering wheel & moved side to side & backwards. Now, he can walk forward in it & can literally go all over the house. He has figured out how to get through door ways & thinks it too funny when he bumps into stuff which is every five seconds! He likes to stroll in the kitchen opening & closing the cabinet doors & often tries hard to reach for things around him. Of course, he goes wherever Dooley is & sticks his hand out for some puppy kisses! It's the cutest thing! Needless to say, I've started baby proofing much sooner than I had anticipated.

He loves to play in his room on a pallet with his toys & is seriously wanting to crawl. He's doing well at scooting & I give him maybe another month before he figures the whole thing out & boy will we be in trouble then!! He loves tummy time now & would prefer that to being on his back. Funny how things change! Two months ago, I could barely get him to do tummy time for 5 minutes. He's sitting up on his own & he can do it well he just would rather be on the move so he doesn't have much to do with sitting up either. Praying he'll do it long enough for his 6 month (really 7 month) photos tomorrow!!

Hatcher is making lots of sounds & has even said "mama" a few times! He tries to mimick what we're saying & we swear sometimes he says "hey!" He likes to pat everything. He pats us, the table, the high chair & that's often what I find him doing when he wakes up from his nap. It's so cute! Our favorite trick we have taught him is how to high five! I started doing this with him about a month ago & then one day after eating his food, I said high five & he did it! I was one proud mommy & couldn't wait to show Johny his newest trick! :)

As I mentioned before, Hatcher has never been a fan of sleeping anywhere for nap time other than my arms or the Mama Roo, which he sadly out grew! About two weeks ago, I started really working with him to set naps at certain times of the day & to make sure he was napping in his crib. I'm happy to report that he's doing great & is napping in his crib three times a day for at least an hour but usually for an hour & a half! YAY!! This mommy misses holding him but boy can I get a lot more done around the house. Now if only he would sleep through the night!! He goes down every night around 8:00 but is awake crying sometime between 1:30 & 3:30 most every night. Typically, the only way to get him to go back to sleep is to feed him. I usually cave just so we can all get some sleep! Hoping once we're done teething, this will stop.

About a week after Hatcher's 6 month check-up, I took him back to see his pediatrician because two nights in a row we were up in the middle of the night with him screaming bloody murder & we weren't able to console him. The doctor wanted to see him to make sure he wasn't getting an ear infection. There was no ear infection but he did say Hatcher was teething his top teeth which was likely part of our sleeping issue. We continued to talk & he remembered at our last visit that I mentioned Hatch was having terrible constipation issues. We began talking about what he was eating/drinking & the doctor told me he felt Hatcher had a milk allergy/sensitivity. Words I was hoping he'd never say! Johny & many of the men in his family have milk allergies & we were hoping it would skip Hatch. We had started weaning him five days earlier to formula. I was like wait a second...this constipation has been going on way longer than that! Basically, Hatcher was allergic to the dairy I was eating & likely the Similac Advance he was having one bottle a day of at that point. So, he put him on Nutramigen which is made for babies with cow's milk allergy. To make the weaning process easier on both of us, I started by taking away one nursing session/bottle a day. I would do this about 5 days & then replace another feeding with formula. Just this past weekend, he started drinking formula at every feeding. I do miss breast feeding but great news is Hatcher is pooping regularly & is much less gassy! I'm so thankful that our pediatrician figured this out & that Hatcher seems to be feeling much better!

Below are some recent pictures of Hatch & his 7 month picture!