R 6 & 7 month updates
Raffi’s 6 month birthday came and went with little fanfare. I thought nothing had really changed from the 5 month one so I had nothing to say. Well, I was completely wrong.
Everything has changed.
Here are 15 things to share about months 6 & 7:
1. Raffi’s mobile. He’s a crawling machine! He only does a few slow passes on his hands and knees before flopping to his belly and scurrying away. I think he gets frustrated that he can’t move as fast on his hands and knees so he goes back to his classic army crawl. He took his first real crawl at 6.75 months (army crawl across the room slowly) and has been unstoppable since.
2. Two teeth popped through 4 days after his first crawl. I had just been saying that he was still our gummy little baby, and the very same day I saw two little white dots in his mouth. To be honest, it was the first time I cried over Raffi growing up. One minute they are tiny infants who barely stay awake, and all of a sudden you turn around and they are crawling with little dagger teeth while babbling to their toys.
3. In that very same 4 day stretch where Raffi first crawled and then got his first teeth, he also really, truly slept through the night. His longest stretch up until this night was 11.25 hours, but one night he slept 11.5 hours straight. Since then Raffi sleeps at least 8 hours but usually more like 10-11. Sometimes he wakes up, eats, and goes back to sleep. Other days he doesn’t wake up until after 5:45 AM and we just keep him up until his first nap. I actually prefer when he wakes up around 5 to eat and go back to sleep because he will sleep until 7, and 7 is a lot easier to see on the clock.
4. Raffi is still nursing around 7 times a day. Here is an example of what a day looks like:
6:45 AM Wake up
7:00 AM Nurse
8:00 AM Breakfast.
9 AM Nurse
9:15 AM naptime routine
9:30 AM-11:00 AM Nap
11:45 PM Nurse
2 PM Nurse
2:15 PM Naptime routine
2:30 PM – 3:45 PM Nap
4:00 PM Nurse
5:00 PM Dinner
5:45 PM walk/play outside
6:30 PM bathtime
6:45 PM Nurse then snuggles
7:00 PM-5:00 AM Sleep
5 AM Nurse
5:30 AM-6:45 AM Finish overnight sleep
He is probably ready to drop one feeding since he eats very little at 1 of the 7 feedings, but it’s a different one every day. The first (7 AM), second (9 AM), and seventh (5 AM) feedings are the ones where he eats the most.
5. Raffi only cries at night when he’s hungry. I never ever leave him when he is crying in the middle of the night, and he always goes right back to sleep after taking in a full feeding. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, and now and again when I check him on the monitor he is awake talking to himself and rolling around playing with his monkey toy. I sometimes watch until he falls back asleep because it is fascinating to me that he can do that at his age. He always goes back to sleep and that makes me a proud mom.
6. Separation anxiety has begun for him (I already had it weeks ago). If I put him down across the room and he needs me or misses me, he speedily crawls over and tugs on my socks while whining until I pick him up. He doesn’t panic when other people hold him or spend time with him, but if I’m in a room he looks for me to check in every now and again to know I’m there. I absolutely love it, although I can see how it can become a problem. He does the same thing with Trig now. This weekend Trig put Raffi down in his play area and walked into the kitchen and Raffi crawled over and plopped himself in between Trig’s legs, not moving until he was picked up. It was adorable.
7. Raffi has a first word. He says “ahBAH!” We have no idea what it means, but it means something to him. When he is talking with his stuffed animals he says it as part of a conversation. It’s obviously not an actual first word, but I think it’s cool that he has his own little language right now that means something to him.
8. Not only is Raffi a crawling machine, but he can now pull himself up to stand. I flipped over a bin and put a toy on top to see if he would do it, and he grabbed on and stood right up. His facial expression displayed that he knew he did something cool, so after he plopped down he immediately tried to get back up again and succeeded.
9. Solids aren’t going so well. I decided to pull back a bit since I was getting stressed and mealtime was not fun. I have decided not to do baby led weaning and we are focusing more on finger foods with the occasional puree. I stopped worrying that if he didn’t eat enough solids he wouldn’t sleep through the night and started focusing on the fun parts of solids. I thank some of the comments in this post for their advice to just take it easy.
10. Life is really great right now. This is a fun age. As some of you might remember, the first 4 months were really hard for me. Things have continually improved since then, and I am so happy and thankful.
11. We still lay in bed and look at Raffi photos and videos every night. I look forward to when Raffi sleeps as a little break, but as soon as he’s asleep I miss him.
12. I rarely put Raffi down asleep. If he is really pooped and in need of extra snuggles I will attempt to nurse him until he falls asleep (or hold him in my arms). However, about 90% of the time I put him down awake and he cries to let off some steam before he falls asleep. It’s hard to listen to, but I’ve come to accept that it is his way of winding down and I need to respect that. You can read more in this post.
13. Raffi suddenly refused a bottle and had me panicked for a few days. However, we have now introduced normal cups with a straw and he will drink out of that when I’m away. He even drank 2.5 oz with me while at the park. I am relieved. He also loves water and if I have a glass or water bottle in sight I have to be prepared to have one for Raffi too. I let him take sips whenever he wants. Sometimes he laps the water like a kitty cat and other times he drinks it like a big boy.
14. Socks never stay on his feet anymore. The minute he’s in his stroller or car seat he grabs his socks and pulls them off. Luckily summer is around the corner.
15. The kid is scared of grass. See here.
Random facts:
6 month weight and height: 15.5 oz (10-25%) and 90% for height
Favorite non toy toys: his socks, my iPhone, the remote control, any water bottle (my Thermos one or any plastic one), metal spoons, bread
Must haves at 6 months: soft book, links, Sophie the giraffe, Baby Grooves instrument set
Must haves at 7 months: gates, alphabet links, blocks, crawl & go snail, John Deere corn teether, EduShape balls, anything with a face, Baby Grooves instrument set
Wears: Size 3 diapers (about to bust out though), 6-9 month onesies, 6-9 or 9-12 month sweatshirts and pants
Loves: being held, crawling all over the house, pulling open the kitchen drawers to see what’s inside, eating everything, making raspberries, listening to music, people who smile, pulling on my hair
Hates: purees, sitting in his highchair for more than 2 minutes, getting his diaper changed, car rides
Bad mommy award of the month: the time I gave Raffi a plastic water bottle during a car ride so he’d stop crying. When we got home and I went to take him out I noticed the wrapper was missing. The whole wrapper was in his mouth! I didn’t think he was already strong enough to rip it off.
Here are lots of pics from the last two months (click to enlarge)
Such exciting milestones!!! So fabulous that youre still nursing. Hes so darn cute
Seems like you guys are doing great. He is too cute.
he is SUCH a little man now! it’s so cute to see the difference in his 6 and 7 month pictures 🙂
He is too cute! I completely agree that a lot has changed between 6-7 months. My girl isn’t close to crawling yet but sleeping longer stretches, cutting teeth, rolling all over the place, etc. all happened really quickly! It’s also nice to see that I’m not the only one who nurses more than 3 or 4 times a day (I still do about 8 times). Thanks for sharing your experiences with Raffi!
He is such a big boy! He looks so old all of a sudden. So much fun hearing about all of milestones…some really big ones!
Molly hates grass too! So strange. I figured she would love it. If she is on the edge of the blanket she will touch it and play with it but if you set her in it completely she immediately gets this super sad face and starts to fuss. Hopefully she grows out of this…surely.
WAY too cute. You can totally see his little personality coming through in the newest photos. I remember when my niece [just a few months ago] was all of a sudden doing SO many new things. Such a cool time from 6 months – 1 year. Have fun!!
Wow, you can really tell the difference in his features between the 6 and 7 month pictures. At 6 months he looks like a baby, but really looks like a big boy in the 7 month one.
What is the difference between baby led weaning and finger foods?
He is too precious! He seems like such a big boy now!
I have the same issue as you described in #11. W still screams for a few hours each night and I can’t wait for him to fall asleep, but then when he goes down for the night, I miss him like crazy! We moms are weird 🙂
I’ve been a long-time reader of your blog. R is only a month older than my son, Luis so I love reading up on the happenings in your world because they closely resemble my own (and it’s nice to not feel so alone when things get crazy!)
R is absolutely adorable and growing so fast, it’s amazing.
Thank you for sharing these and other tidbits of your life. As a WAHM like you, your blog gives me much needed support and entertainment 🙂
He is adorable!
I just wanted to say, I was told not to give infants water. Its very easy for them to get water intoxication. I’m not sure when it’s ok to start giving them water or anything since my little girl is 2 months behind Raffi. But maybe just something for each individual to check with their ped beforehand 🙂
Thanks!
Jazz
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Wonderful post! I’m so glad everything is going so well. These updates are so fun to read now– like a preview of what might be up ahead! They grow too fast though!!
I cannot believe how fast time is flying. Raffi is getting so big – tall for sure. My little guy is in the 25-50% in height and weight. 🙂 I love watching him grow through your updates. 🙂
Our little girl is almost 8 months and I love seeing where other babies are at around the same age as her. She isn’t crawling yet, but has decided rolling to her destinations is the way to go and she is quite fast! We also tried the BLW route to start, but found that she was having trouble digesting a lot of the foods we were trying, so per the dr.’s orders we are doing purees and she seems to enjoy them. I think babies just move at their own pace.