Luke is 7 Months Old

Can you believe that Luke has past the half way point and is now closer to turning one?! I've already started scanning the web for birthday ideas:). I'm not wishing that day to come close though. We'll miss our sweet little infant who will soon be labeled toddler. I'm taking every second of the day to hold him and kiss him because I know he won't be little forever. We feel like it was just yesterday when we would sneak into Luke's bedroom in the morning and peer into his crib to see a little thing all bundled up smiling at us. Now we open the door to see him sitting up and peering through the crib slats with the bumper pulled down, talking and giggling. We have been truly blessed to have such an adorable, active and healthy baby. It is our faithful prayer that we will raise him up on a solid foundation with the teachings of our merciful God and that Luke will see God's love through us so that one day he will make the decision to follow after Him and accept His Son to be his Saviour.

Luke has been into EVERYTHING lately. It's funny, you spend so much money on all these toys and the things they are most interested in are door hinges and door stops. Luke could spend all day playing with them. The last two weeks our days have been spent watching Luke go from army crawl to full on crawl. He's pulled himself from sitting to standing position from Mommy/Daddy to furniture. He's received his first bumps and scrapes which is nearly impossible to see a day go by without one. Dave said he likes them, it makes him look like a tough little guy! It's been nice to be able to set him on the floor and he can play nicely by himself until his hearts content.

I also have been trying to begin the process of weaning Luke of nursing. I say "process" because it is in fact a process which I had know idea would be difficult. It took an entire week for Luke to take the bottle and thanks to sister-in-law advice I tried just a pinch of sugar to the formula and wah-la he took it! So now he takes the formula without the sugar and somewhat well. He takes two bottles a day most of the time and I only nurse in the morning and evenings. I chose to ween out of convenience but it hasn't been convenient yet. He's really slow at the bottle and hasn't been good about taking it in public. We'll see how this next month goes!

Nursing has been a bitter-sweet relationship. Below is my list of pros and cons as a reminder to me that the pros had outweighed the cons.

Pros:

• You don't have to mix or heat anything up.
• You don't have to clean bottles.
• You don't have to remember to pack your diaper bag with accessories for feeding.
• You provide something for your child that no one else can.
• Your baby will feel secure and protected.
• Your baby will look up at you with adoring eyes and give you a smile every now and then, sometimes even giggle:).
• You and only you have a special way to comfort your baby.
• Your baby has a rock solid immune system. He still hasn't been sick!
• You don't have to pay hundreds of dollars in formula!
• If your baby is crying and you've tried everything in your power to make him stop you can always nurse (this is last resort though and in desperate needs or else you can create a habit that will drive you crazy!)
• For his am feeding you can bring him in bed to nurse instead of preparing a bottle to feed.

Cons:

• He's pretty much your life-line every 4 hours so keeping your baby on a schedule is a must! When Dave watches Luke while I run errands my saying is, "Call me if he needs my "boob." :)
• They do become attached and bonded to you and when you wean beware, it's difficult! I thought all you do is give them a bottle and wah-la, you have yourself a bottle-fed baby! WRONG! It took a full week until he actually took the bottle.
• He would slurp and gulp which turned heads my direction when nursing in public even when he was under the hooter-hider (the cover). Kinda embarassing...
• Having to wear clothes that can easily be pulled up.
• You'll feel like a cow being milked sometimes.
• You'll feel like sometimes the only reason he wants you is for your milk supply.

I know I've missed several other pros and cons but these were the ones that popped into mind. All in all I'd say that pros outweigh the cons and I truly enjoyed nursing my little Luke.

Here is what Luke's been up too and what we love:

• His belly laughs. Mommy's okay at getting these out of him. Daddy is the master of this!
• He reaches up with his arms when he wants to be held
• His efforts to crawl to his toy to only push the toy further away
• His tickle spots
• His spitting up has lessened, woohoo!
• He has absolutely no more explosive diapers, woohoo!
• When he doesn't get enough sleep he's a grouchy little guy.
• He is a crib snob (I think I said this last week). He likes HIS crib and wants to be home at night to sleep in it. This has been a hard adjustment for Mommy and Daddy. We've had some stressful evenings out with him wailing because he just wanted to be home and in his crib.
• We had to lower the crib. I walked in after he was napping to find him standing and leaning over the crib to grab the bumper tie! My heart dropped. I guess I should brace myself for many more to come!
• He loves Rufus (our dog) and Beau (Grammy and Granpa's dog). He laughs uncontrollably when Beau walks past him.
• He likes to be sung to sleep. His favorite song is "I love you Lord." When we're out in evenings and can't get him to stop crying Dave and I sing this to him and he quiets instantly. Outsiders may think our singing is nails to a chalk board but our little one thinks it's music to his ears:).
• His jibberish. His favorite sounds are ahhhh and bahhh, occasionally he'll say mahh.
• He squeals!
• His crawl. He has mastered the army crawl. He crawls occasionally.
• He's gotten his first bump on the head. (He rocks back and forth on his hands and knees and rocked himself into a chair leg)
• He likes to sleep on his belly with his butt in the air.
• He likes his back rubbed.
• He likes to tap his foot when he's eating and playing on the floor on his belly.
• He eats solids 3x's a day. Morning: Oatmeal mixed with fruit, Afternoon: Fruit and veggie mix and Evening: Veggie and grain mix.
• He nurses/bottle 4x's a day.
• He naps 2-3x's a day.

~Luke's 7 Month Photo Shoot~