7 Months!

Oh my goodness! Can this be real? In just 5 months our baby boy will be a year old. This really is craziness. Reed is getting more fun by the day, so I am sure these next five months before his first birthday are going to go by even faster.

Stats:
Weight: 20 lbs.
Height: 29 in.

At 7 Months:

• Reed is crawling. While he has been somewhat crawling for a few weeks, we are going to call March 27th as the day he started crawling. That was the day that he actually moved more than one or two "steps" at a time.


• He is a good eater. He really doesn't dislike anything we give him, which is such a relief. We have started giving him some of the Gerber foods with meat in them and he doesn't love it, but he eats it. We have started to give him some snacks so that he can learn to eat more solid foods. We are both slightly paranoid of him choking, so this will take some getting used to.


• He is pulling himself up on everything. He is even brave enough to let go and stand up on his own sometimes. He is so cute when he is trying to balance himself. He usually gets into somewhat of a squatting position to get balanced.


• He has started making a "mean" face and growling at the same time. Just the other day, the vein in between his eyes started poking out when he does it. Chris said that all the other kids are going to be scared of him with the vein popping out. LOL!


• He has started "talking" to us a lot more recently. He literally woke up one morning talking and hasn't slowed down since. He does his best talking when he has a few fingers in his mouth, lol! I am sure that we will be hearing his first word any day now.
  
• He doesn't understand the concept of walking forward yet. Most of the time when we are holding his hands and trying to get him to walk forward, he takes steps backward. Too funny!


• His favorite position while playing is sitting with his right leg underneath him and his left leg propped up on his foot. Doesn't seem very comfortable and I am sure his right leg doesn't appreciate it.


• He's clapping all the time. We continuously cheer for him when he does something good and he usually copies what we are doing.
  
• He is a pro at sipping through a straw in his sippy cup. He prefers water to juice as juice is just a little too tart, even if it is watered down.
  
• He loves, loves a rubber dinosaur that Natalie gave him at her first birthday party. He growls at it and chews on its arms. It is probably his favorite toy right now. I think it's a bath toy but that's okay!


• He has 8 teeth, 4 top and 4 bottom.


• He is wearing a size 4 diaper.


• He's gone through his first and hopefully last surgery. He is continuing to heal, but we are most of the way there now.


• He is currently getting over his second cold. His first cold was brought home from work by Chris but we have no idea where this one came from. It popped up a few days after his surgery. I guess he caught it from the hospital. Ugh. We can't complain too much though because we have been so fortunate that he hasn't been sick very much at all.

7 Months Old! (One of the few pics where he was being still.)

This pic makes me laugh. What is this pose?

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Yes, he is standing up in the rocking chair. He's silly!

He found Tadbit's tag, his favorite part of most toys.

Reed contemplating how to get off of the chair.

Reed snuggling with his elephant.

One of the many times he was squirming around in the chair.

Hiding behind his elephant.

Smiley Pic

Look at that belly!

Sweet Reed

Standing up while holding onto his music table.

And, holding onto the couch.

This is somewhat of a modified version of his favorite sitting position. He is usually flat on his butt with his legs in the same position. This is his favorite version for semi-hopping.

Look at all those teeth!

He's on the move!

He has started to somewhat perfect his crawling skills over the last few days. I caught this video of him getting to his dinosaur......he can definitely get to where he wants if he really wants to!

Seriously?!?!

I will be posting soon about our little guy starting to crawl, but I couldn't resist posting this video of our brave little boy. He has loved standing on his feet from a very young age, so we shouldn't be surprised that he is brave enough to let go when standing now.

Surgery

This past Thursday Reed had to undergo minor surgery, hopefully his first and last time. I won't go into details on here as to what he had done but it was a minor surgery that we knew he had to have when he was born. Unfortunately, he had to be put to sleep for the procedure, so we had to wait until he was at least 6 months old. We honestly had been dreading this since he was born, but we are glad to say that the surgery is over, went well, and the healing process is almost complete.

On Thursday, we had to be at the hospital by 8:15am and the surgery wasn't scheduled until 10:15am. The poor baby wasn't able to eat anything since the night before, but thankfully he was our happy little baby as usual and never even made a wimper for food. We played out in the waiting room for what seemed like forever until they called us back to set us up in a room and get ready for the surgery.

Pics with Mommy and Daddy in the waiting room.

Once back in his room, we spoke with many nurses and doctors about the procedure. They explained, in addition to many other things, that they would have to put a tube down his throat to help him breathe while he was asleep. What?!?! We were not prepared for that, but we understood that it was necessary for the length of this procedure. Still, it threw us off a little. Making us a little more nervous. About 15 to 20 minutes before they took him back, they gave him some Tylenol to make him drowsy. As if he really needed that....he hadn't eaten all morning and it was nap time. We dressed him in his little hospital gown and he was the sweetest looking little thing ever.

Sweet Baby! I think this gown is from the 80s. It looked so old.

Just after 10, a nurse came in and took Reed to go back for his surgery. We both cried when we had to hand our little boy over. Thankfully, he went without a fight, which I think helped both of us pull it together quicker than we would have otherwise. Then, the worrying began. The nurse called around 10:30 from the operating room to let us know that he was now fast asleep and was doing very well. She said if the procedure took more than an hour, she would call us back and let us know how things were going. Around 11:3o, we didn't hear from her but the nurse said that he should be coming out soon. Yay, it's over!

Within 15 minutes of talking with the nurse, Reed's doctor came in and said that the surgery went really well (THANK GOODNESS!) and he should be back in our room soon. We were so happy to hear that everything went well! We made calls to our families and Reed appeared back in our room quicker than we expected. He was having to recover with the nurses who care for children after they come out of anesthesia and we expected not to see him for another 30 minutes.

Our little boy looked so scared and pitiful. I am sure he had no idea what the heck had just happened to him. Thankfully he was pretty well medicated, so he didn't feel any of his wounds. When they brought him into the room, they had fed him two bottles of pedialyte. I was glad that he was finally able to get something, anything in his stomach. I got to hold him, which was very hard considering all the tubes and monitors that were hooked to him. Ugh, I cried, Chris cried. It was so sad to see him like that. After letting out the two biggest man-burps ever, he fell asleep while I rocked him.

We stayed at the hospital for a few hours after his surgery so they could monitor him. We were perfectly fine with that!

We thought the day of surgery would probably be the worst day being a parent, but we both think that the days following surgery were probably the worst. It was so hard to see him in pain. Of course we gave him pain medication, but sometimes it just wasn't enough. I am staying at home with him by myself for the first time today and he is doing very well. We have a follow-up appointment with his doctor on Friday. I think he will be fully on the mend by then. Thankfully, through all of this, Reed has been his normal, happy, playful self!

Ouch!

On Wednesday, Reed fell and bumped his head pretty bad. I wasn't very far away from him but wasn't close enough to get to him in time. He had his back to me and turned around to see me while also clapping. He tipped over. Ugh! I really didn't want to tell anyone, even Chris, but he came home that evening so I really had no choice. I did call the pediatrician's office to make sure that he could still be put to sleep for his surgery on Thursday (more on that in a later post) after such a bad bump. Thankfully, he didn't blackout and wasn't throwing up, which were the serious indicators they told me to look for. After a little crying and snuggling with me, he was back to his happy, playful self. Thank goodness!

The bump is just above his left ear. It doesn't look too bad here!

His head caught the edge of the bottom shelf of the changing table.

Ouch! Poor baby!

Fun Times!

With my Mom here playing with Reed, I have a free moment to blog about a few things that have been going on in our lives! Finally!

The weekend before last Reed, Chris and I attended a shower for Rachel and Kevin Curtiss hosted by Laura and Robert Cross. We are super excited that Rachel and Kevin are going to be welcoming a baby boy into their family next month! We can't wait to meet Reed's new little friend.

The Parents-to-Be......I should've tried to get a better picture, sorry!

And, of course, we had to get a cute pic of Reed at the shower.

Reed and Daddy

Over the weekend, Reed went to stay with his Mike Mike and Kath while we attended a game night with the Cowarts and the Reicharts. We had a blast! We definitely need to get together with these guys more often. Thanks to Jess and Chris for hosting!

The Girls (Jess, Me and Elizabeth)

The Guys (Chris, Adam and Chris)

This morning Reed woke up just talking away. He wasn't saying actual words but he was making a lot of sounds. I was getting a little worried that he wasn't babbling as much as he should have been, but then he decided it was time to start talking today. I tried all day to get him to talk for the camera but I got this instead. Still ridiculously cute, so I thought I would post in it anyway. Check out his almost crawling move in the middle of the video.

Also, Reed randomly started clapping yesterday. He doesn't do it on command, even though it may seem that way in the video. That's just good videoing on my part, lol! He has done it all day today and even showed his new skill for my mom this evening.

The milestone causing all kinds of problems (well, really just one problem)!

Just last week while staying with my parents I heard Reed crying after I put him down for the night. I went upstairs just to check on him and there he was, sitting up. I was excited for him! He had finally figured out how to successfully get from his belly to sitting. I mean, this can't be something that should cause any problems, right? Wrong!

With his newfound ability, once he wakes up in his crib, he just screams until we come in to get him. As soon as we pick him up, he is out like a light, but he can't seem to let himself go back to sleep on his own even though he is completely exhausted. If he even wakes up slightly, he sits himself up! I have even started putting toys in his crib in hopes that he will play with them and he will then go back to sleep. Unfortunately, this hasn't worked yet. If you have any suggestions of how we can break Reed of this, pleast let me know!

Below is a video of Reed showing off his sitting up skills. He is a pro now. He can even pivot himself in a circle. I am a little worried that he may never crawl since he won't stay on his stomach long enough to figure it out. Oh well!

Another new Reed expression!

We'll call it the "i'm confused" face! LOL! We can't decide if he is really confused and trying to figure something out or if he actually thinks he's smiling. He does it when he could be confused, but he also does it when we are trying to make him laugh. Regardless of the reason for the face, it makes us laugh everytime!

Should a six month old really be making this expression? LOL!

Up close version but not nearly as extreme as the first pic.

Semi-confused.

And again.

And, just some cute pictures taken in the midst of trying to get the new expression.....

Oh so cute!

He'll be crawling before we know it!

"I seriously need to get over there to those toys!"

What's that on my fingers?

I always knew that being a mom would require me to let go of some of my cleanliness standards especially since we have a baby boy. There are going to be many times when Reed wants to play in a mud puddle and I will cringe at the thought of it, but because I love him so I will probably play in it with him. With that thought in mind, it was extremely hard for me to let Reed get like this tonight at dinner........

Ewwwwww!

Since Reed is starting to advance in his eating abilities, I thought it was time that we start letting him feed himself a little bit. Unfortunately, he always manages to gag himself with the spoon, so that doesn't work. Hands should do the trick! Tonight, I sat the bowl of food in front of him and he promptly stuck both hands in. It took him a while to get his hands to his mouth after that but as soon as he did he sucked every bit of food off of them! Yay for Reed!

He was absolutely disgusting at the end of his meal. So disgusting that I wouldn't even touch him without wiping him off, even though he was going straight into the bath. I only cringed a little bit as he covered himself with peas and squash, lol!