7 Months Old!

Ethan is now 7 months old. I seriously don't know how he got this big. While part of me is already feeling nostalgic about his newborn days (although not about the sleep deprivation!), I have to say that Ethan is really fun now. He can do a lot more things and is very interactive which makes it really fun to play with him.


I'm a sleeper. I'm a sitter. I'm a baby bottle holder. (Sung to the Steve Miller song 'The Joker').

Ethan achieved a few great milestones this month.

Sleeping.
He can sleep through the night! I'm not talking about the wimpy Dr. Sear's definition of 4-6 hour stretches. I mean a full 11-12 hours at a time. After 6 long months of not getting more than 4 hours of sleep at a time, I'm so grateful for this milestone. Shall I review his sleep patterns (and eating patterns since that dictated his sleep schedule) to date?

The first month: He ate every hour round the clock (and if you are a parent you know that you count feedings from the start of each feeding, so because it took him 20 minutes to eat, that meant we only got to sleep for 40 minutes before the next feeding was due).
The second month: He ate every two hours.
The third/fourth/fifth month: He quickly went from feeding every three hours to every four hours.

Needless to say we are ecstatic about his sleeping through the night. Unfortunately, since we moved to HK, he has been jet-lagged but I'm hoping he will start STTN soon again.

Ethan and his duck lovey 'YaYa'.
He always hugs it and then rolls to his side to sleep.

Sitting.
I've been looking forward to this because I feel like now that he can sit he can play with more toys. Plus I feel bad that he is always on his back (or tummy) 24 hours a day. He still gets a bit wobbly and topples over when he tries to grab toys that are around him, but he is getting the hang of it.

Bottle Holding.
I just weaned Ethan from BM to formula when he hit 6 months. It was a hard decision to make...but I feel like I've been eating pretty poorly all the time due to lack of sleep (too bad I didn't know he would soon start to STTN!). Plus he got his bottom teeth very early and when that second tooth came out let me tell you nursing with teeth is no fun. He also is easily distracted during the day because he likes to look around and since drinking from a bottle is much faster than nursing, he gets to play more quickly. Anyways, the point of all this is to say that he can now hold his very own bottle.

Ethan with Nai-Nai.

Ethan is growing up too fast! I just want to pause and enjoy life right now for awhile and hold off the crawling/walking for a bit.


A few of my favorite things
Favorite Food: I don't think there is a food that he won't eat. But bananacado is his absolute favorite. He can eat a quarter of an avocado mixed with half a banana and still whimper when it's all gone.
Favorite Book: Still fluffy chick.
Favorite Toy: Any water bottle. The first time he saw me drinking from one he started smiling and laughing. He loves to hear the sound of the water blub as you turn it upside down and looking at the bottom of the bottle since it refracts light. Oh and did I mention his feet? LOVES them. He especially thinks it's funny when you pull off his socks and he 'rediscovers' his toes.
Favorite game: He loves to grab at my necklace or at Bob's watch and wedding band (and of course tries to eat them - if he can't pull the object to his mouth he will contort his body to try to get his mouth close to the object). When we wear a hooded sweatshirt with strings he always has to grab at them and we play tug a war - he is surprisingly strong. He used to grab with an open fist but now tries the pincher grip and can usually succeed.
New sounds: He babbles the sound babababa. He also does this really cute whimpering sound as he scrunches up his face. This is his new cue to show us that he is tired.