Gavin 9 months

My baby boy is 9 months old! Life with Gavin keeps getting better... here is what we've been up to the past month!

- Gavin started crawling 3 weeks ago, so right around 8.5 months! As I told you last month we knew it was coming because he was scooting himself around and up on all fours rocking back and forth.  Once he figured out how to crawl, he was crawling everywhere, and fast! It's amazing how quickly babies can pick things up. We may have enticed him to crawl with dog food... his new obsession. He will not stay away from that stuff! Poor Callie can only eat her food at certain times of day now, as she is used to grazing on her food all day. The house was pretty well baby-proofed before he started crawling but the more he gets around, the more things I realize need secured... eek! It's so fun watching him get around now. He's sitting up on his own as well and started to grab things and pull himself up to his knees, too.

- Along with dog food, Gavin's other obsessions are plastic bags (mom of the year, right here), water, going outside and discovering, mimicking our voices, happy screaming, bouncing on our knee, reading, Sophie, Callie & Milo, air vents, riding in his cozy coupe & Mickey Mouse car, watching the washing machine, our digital photo frame, and the hairdryer! Haha I discovered by accident he loves air on his face so now every time I dry my hair he wants me to point it at him... don't worry, it's on the cool setting!

- Note to self... don't take Gavin to "check how our seed pods are doing"... curious G knocked my tomato plant over, but luckily, I think it's going to be okay!

- My first Mother's Day was this past month and it was great. Matt made sure to make the day special, getting us breakfast and letting me sleep in and spend all day playing and snuggling with G :) He got me the camera lens I've been wanting which takes up close, really in focus pictures. I'm obsessed!

- We had our first solo road trip to my mom and dad's while Matt was camping a few weekends ago. It went pretty well, except for the fact that Gavin decided to scream bloody murder the last 30 minutes of the drive to North Ridgeville. My parents were kind enough to go to some of the garage sales in their neighborhood before I visited and picked up some AWESOME finds! Garage sales are great for baby toys, because they only use them for a short period of time and are so easy to clean off and disinfect. He got a Vtech sit to stand walker, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ride on, Cozy Coupe, and a bunch of other great toys/clothes! All for $5 and under!



- Gavin continues to sleep well. He goes to bed between 6:30-7 & sleeps a full 12 hours without waking, and still takes 3 naps a day. I think he is making up for all the sleep he missed months 0-6 :)

- Since last month, we've introduced broccoli (yuck says Gavin), blueberries, mangoes, apples and yogurt. We re-introduced the Gerber puffs and he's doing much better with them, so we are also going to start introducing more "solid" food like tiny pieces of avocado, banana, etc. Gavin eats 4 meals a day on average, consisting of 4 bottles and 3 solid foods, with 1 "snack" a day of puffs and a water sippy cup.

Mmm... blueberries

I call this, the aftermath of "puffs"

- Gavin is certainly becoming a mommy's boy... he's started crawling up to me and pulling on my leg when he wants me to hold him :) sooo cute but daddy gets a little jealous sometimes!

- He had his very first boo-boo last weekend :( His aunt got him a doorway jumper which we were so excited about because he loves bouncing. We don't have a large doorway to support it other than bedroom doorways, so one morning while he got a little out of hand with bouncing in it, he bounced himself right into the door frame. We freaked out a little, but he was fine afterwards and only cried for a few seconds.

-We visited the pediatrician yesterday, and Gavin is 18lbs 10 oz (32%), 29.25 inches long (85%). Future basketball player, eh?? I am not sure where he gets that height from! He did really well with the visit even though poor baby had to get 2 shots.

Can't believe his birthday is 3 months away!

Gavin 8 Months

8 months have come and gone, and my little man just continues to keep me wrapped around his little finger! He's mimicking us more and more and loves to say "da da" and "ga ga" and scream at the top of his lungs (a happy scream!). He truly lights up our lives!

- I feel like this past month flew by faster than any of the others... I should've kept better track of things because it just seems like a blur. Gavin is as squirmy as ever (it's almost impossible to change his diaper without a second person these days!) and is so so close to crawling. He's figured out how to get up on his hands and knees and sort of rocks his little but back and forth in the air (which might be the cutest thing ever). 

He can crawl backwards, but hasn't mastered moving forward yet. He can "scoot" around the carpet and he seems to be pretty content with that mode of transportation at the moment. I know a lot of babies don't even crawl, so we'll see if he hits that milestone. Either way, we have learned to keep a much closer eye on him these days, because that boy can get around!

- We are officially full formula feeding as of about 3 weeks ago. I went through a really tough time coming to terms with my low milk production and tried almost everything you could think of to try to increase. I probably could've kept up with nursing for much longer, but pumping just got to be more work than I felt it was worth, so I weaned over about a 1.5 week time span. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, I think mostly because my production was so low. So far I've only had one leak (haha eww!) and other than that we've had no problems. Gavin didn't even really seem to notice, I think because he is so used to getting a bottle at daycare anyway. It's kind of freeing now, not having to worry about providing my boob every 3 hours and worrying about drinking alcohol (haha obviously, it's me we're talking about!) and not having to leave my desk at work every 3 hours for 45 minutes at a time!

- Gavin just loves eating "real" food. So far he's tried peas, squash, avocado, sweet potato, pears, peaches, carrots and bananas. He wasn't a fan of peaches, and avocado continues to be his favorite! He's eating solids 3 times a day and gets a bottle 4-6 times a day (so about 30ish ounces of formula). He gets so excited when I put him in the high chair and sees the bowl coming towards him! I tried puffs with him a couple weeks ago and he seemed to have a hard time with them - it kind of scared me as he was almost close to choking on them, so we're gonna hold off a bit on trying them again!

- Since the weather has been pretty nice in Ohio recently, we've been going on more walks and took Gavin to the park for his first time a few weeks ago. He LOVED, loved, loved it. I don't think I've ever seen him smile bigger or laugh harder than when he was on the swing. It brought tears to my eyes to see him so happy (I know, cheesy)! We've been back a few times since then, and actually purchased a swing for the tree in our backyard from our neighbor's garage sale. I love the convenience of being able to swing him in the backyard whenever I want!

- Gavin enjoyed his first visit from the Easter bunny this month. He got 2 books and a bell toy - the kid is obsessed with anything that makes noise!

We enjoyed a nice brunch at Lauren and Matt's in the afternoon and the kiddos had a good time playing in the water - it was a beautiful day!

Adalyn's friend Isla, Gavin and Adalyn :)

- One of my new favorite things? Holding my iPhone up to Gavin when he babbles and seeing what Siri thinks he just said :)

- We went to the zoo a few weeks ago for the annual MS walk my friend Kerry organizes. It was a lot of fun and Gavin was so well behaved the whole time!

"I've got my Sophie, let's do this walk!"

Matt & Gavin, James & Oliver - the boys and their mini me's!

Now that we have Gavin facing forward in the stroller, I think he likes to look around at everyone and take it all in. We almost lost Sophie during the walk (Gavin thought she belonged on the ground instead of in the stroller!), and some other parents found her on the ground and said "oh you wouldn't want to lose Sophie!", so they knew what a beloved toy it is! Since then I purchased these amazing straps from a babysteals.com purchase, and they have been pretty great! They keep Sophie secure in the stroller so I don't have to pick her up off the ground 948309843 times. :)

- Speaking of stroller, Gavin and I have gone on a couple of runs in the Britax. Gavin seems to enjoy it! I wasn't sure how this stroller would do with runs since it technically isn't a "jogging" stroller, and it does okay as long as you are on a steady surface. I can see why a jogging stroller would be worth the purchase, because it was a little wobbly at times and it would be nice to have a locking front wheel and hand brakes. I'm going to keep my eye out for one on Craigslist to hopefully purchase in the near future, since a decent brand new one is $300+.

- We had to visit the doctor (AGAIN!) 2 weeks ago for Gavin's persistent cough. It went away after antibiotics the last time (when he had his ear infection), then came just a week or two later. I called the doctor the morning he coughed so hard he threw up half his bottle, poor guy. :( They have him on a different antibiotic now and he seems to be doing much better. I guess it's better he builds up his immune system now, before he has to start school and take days off, right?!

- Gavin currently weighs 18 lbs, 7 ounces. His next checkup at the doctor is at 9 months!

Gavin 7 months

Alright, I'm going to say it again... Gavin just keeps getting cuter every month! But, it's true. His belly laughs are more frequent, his babbling has picked up and his smiles just continue to melt my heart!

- Okay, cue the trumpets.... Gavin is finally sleeping through the night! After some modified sleep training and lots of sleepless nights for mom and dad, he's going to bed fully awake for bedtime AND naps, and sleeps from 6:30pm - 6:00/6:30am without waking. He's taking 2-3 great naps during the day as well. Hooray! I think back to the 4 month sleep regression and how we spent what felt like an entire month of just trying to get Gavin to take a nap, and wonder how we made it through. We've got a pretty solid routine down for naps and bedtime and I think that helps a lot. He loves reading before bed.

I hope that as he gets older, his bedtime gets later, because this waking up at 6:00am on a Saturday thing is for the birds, I tell ya. Oh well, Gavin's morning nap on the weekends also = nap time for mommy and daddy :)

Oh hey, I just slept 12 hours!

- We started the month off with Gavin's first ear infection :( He goes to daycare with about 8 other kids so he's bound to get sick often and we've been ready for it. His illness started with congestion, which led to a cough which he just couldn't shake. I called the pediatrician after the cough lasted about 4 days (I have the pediatrician on speed dial...) and they told me to ride it out another 3-5 days. Two days later, he woke in the morning with a 102.5 degree fever, and fevers always make me worry, so Matt took off work and took him to the doctor.

At the doctor

His right ear was infected, my poor little guy! He was given amoxicillin, and between that, lots of Baby Vicks on his chest/feet and the cool mist humidifier continuously running in his bedroom, it cleared up within a week. I'm so glad he is feeling better!

- Gavin is doing SO well with solid food! We started with homemade brown rice cereal the first week. He wasn't a huge fan at first, but after the second try he quickly warmed up to the taste and concept of eating from a spoon.

So far we've also tried peas, squash, avocado and sweet potato. He's loved everything and is eating 2oz servings at a time, 3 times a day. I've been making everything at home in my food processor which has been a breeze so far and kind of fun! I just make it ahead of time and freeze it in these ice cube trays - then I pop out 2 servings and defrost them in the microwave when he's ready to eat.

Mmm, avocado!

I'm excited to keep trying new things with him - we are just moving slow with each food because I want to start new foods on the weekend (and give him at least 3 days to make sure he doesn't have allergies). Next on the list is bananas, peaches and green beans!

- Gavin loves rolling over when we do floor time, and he has started to move his little legs to practice how to crawl. I don't think he's close to crawling yet, but I can tell he will be there before we know it. We're going to start baby-proofing the house, which will include gluing foam bumpers on the fireplace and installing a cat door in the basement door (so Milo can get down, but Callie and Gavin can't!). We'll also need to cover outlets, secure some furniture and lock some drawers. I can't believe we are already at this stage!

- We've been able to get back into baby-wearing again. Gavin loved it as a newborn but started to fall out of love with it when he was more aware of his surroundings and he just didn't like to be facing my chest. Now that he can be facing out, he really likes being strapped in and keeping an eye on things!

Sometimes we spend all day in our pj's... don't judge

- He's learned how to really bounce in his exersaucer and he has a ball in it! He makes the cutest face when he's in there and likes to see our expression when he bounces. I finally figured out how to upload videos to the blog! :)

- Gavin got to meet his friends Carter and Will at a birthday party a few weeks ago. It was so cute to see Matt with his high school friends with all of their babies.

- I put Gavin in the top part of the grocery cart for the first time last weekend. He seemed to like it... but the trip was shortly before he was due for a nap so he was a little sleepy. I'm looking forward to having more space in the cart without the carseat leaving no room for food!

- The weather has started getting warmer which means more walks outside with Gavin and Callie!

- Gavin currently weighs 17 lbs, 13 oz