9 Months with Dom

I may or may not have missed Dom's 8 month pictures and taken both his eight and nine month pictures today....terrible I know! A LOT has changed in the last two months.

Dom weights 18lbs & 2oz and is 27.5 inches long. He started crawling at around 8 months and crawls crazy fast now! He's also pulling up on everything and he is officially weaned completely from breastfeeding and eating formula & 3 meals of solid foods a day. He also got his first two teeth a few weeks ago (the bottom front two teeth).

One other big update: He started sleeping completely through the night at about 8 months!!!! I honestly think that weaning him from nursing helped because he no longer expected to nurse in the middle of the night. Also, I let him cry it out several times and he eventually learned. He now *usually* sleeps 12 uninterrupted hours at night...it's been life changing!

Dom loves:

• Bananas and fruit purees (his favorite meals is still bananas with oatmeal)
• Crawling EVERYWHERE
• Playing with everything he's not allowed to touch, mainly cords and electrical outlets :)
• Playing with his toys in the bath
• Going for walks in his stroller
• Teething crackers
• The beach! He went on his first beach trip and did great!

Dom doesn't like:

• Non-pureed food...I've been trying really hard to get him to eat pieces of avocado, puffs...anything! And he freaks out if it's not pureed, I guess he doesn't have chewing down yet!
• Men in hats...he seems to have a fear of men in hats or men who make abrupt noises...haha!

Dom's current schedule is as follows:

7:30am- Wake up and have bottle of formula

8:30am- Breakfast (usually oatmeal and bananas or greek yogurt with fruit)

9am- Nap

11am- Second bottle

12pm- Lunch (usually 4oz of fruits/veggies)

1pm- Second nap

3pm- Third bottle

4pm- Dinner (usually 4oz of fruits/veggies/meat)

6pm- Bath and fourth bottle

7pm- Bed

7 Months With Dom

Well I'm just now managing to post Dom's 7 month update one week before he'll be 8 months because this is one of my busiest seasons of the year! Better late than never, right?!

Dom currently weights 16lbs 9oz and he still wears 6-9 month clothing. Dom is so much fun and it's been amazing to watch him change and grow! I feel like he changed a lot this month and has shown a lot more personality. I would say that, overall, he's a very laid back baby who seems to love people!

Dom loves: 

• This video...haha
• His doorway jumper
• Ice cubes (I put them into a baby food strainer) 
• Sitting with mommy and daddy on the patio
• Bananas (but thankfully he's eaten everything I've given him...bananas still seem to be his fave though!)
• Anything crinkly, especially plastic bags
• Being tickled by daddy
• When we count to five (random, I know!)

Dom doesn't love:

• When mommy walks out of the room (he's started getting a little seperation anxiety)
• Formula; I've needing to start supplementing some formula for breastmilk and unfortunately he has refused to drink it so far! 
• When mommy & daddy are eating and he doesn't have food
• Being put down for a nap...he's always fighting sleep! 
• Sudden, loud noises

Firsts this month:

• Sitting up on his own! He still falls down a lot but he started being able to completely sit up with no support this month...woo hoo!
• This month he tried prunes and spinach for the first time and likes them all.
• Went to the splash pad for the first time and he wasn't a big fan...I think he didn't like the cold water. I'm hoping to take him to the pool for the first time soon!

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6 Months With Dom

Dom is six month old! He weighs 15lbs 3oz and is 26.5 inches long. Basically, he's long and skinny...no surprise there! ;)

Dom now wears 6-9 month clothes and he still wakes up two times (or the past week...several times...yikes!) a night. He's been waking up a lot more lately, I'm wondering if it's from teething. We put a pause on solids for a little while because he wasn't interested but he's just started showing more interest in the last week and so I'm trying to feed him one to two meals a day. 

Dom loves:

• Music- he's gotten really into music this month. Specifically "Old McDonald" for calming him down and "The Stable Song" for going to sleep (what can I say, he has refined tastes?!)
• Teething banana- he LOVES this
• Real bananas ;)
• Grabbing and chewing everything, especially his socks and toes!
• Going on walks in his stroller
• His activity center and doorway jumper (for about 15 minutes...then he gets tired)
• Smiling- seriously, he pretty much smiles every time you look at him (unless he's hungry or tired!)
• Making a pouty face- when he's not happy and smiling, he's often doing a super dramatic pouty face

Dom doesn't love:

• Getting stuck on his tummy- Dom can roll front to back and back to front, but he seems to often forget that he can actually roll from his tummy onto his back. So he gets stuck and frustrated and cries until I flip him over. :)
• Peas- so far, he just makes a grossed out face every time I try to feed them him!
• Naps- yep, still not a good napper. ;) Most of his naps are STILL 45 minutes!

Firsts this month:

• Sitting up unassisted (only last very briefly then he falls back over)
• Holding a bottle on his own (with some help!)
• Noticing food- he's noticing when we eat now and always seems like he wants some of whatever we're having!

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5 Months with Dom

This month has been such a fun one with Dom! I feel like he's changed a lot this month and become much more interactive. He is super cheerful and usually content and Alex and I are SO thankful for such a sweet, fun baby!

He still wears 3-6 month clothes and still wakes up 2 times a night. :-/ I was hoping he'd be sleeping through the night by now but I can't really complain because other than waking to eat, he's become a great sleeper during the night. We also seemed to get through the four month sleep regression I've heard about very easily, I think that is thanks to the sleep training we did at 3.5 months (or maybe we just got lucky!).

Dom loves:

• Talking- Dom is making LOTS of new and loves being social!
• Being on his tummy- this is a very new development!
• Toys- he's still not super into toys but he's definitely appreciating them more and he especially loves his activity center
• Peekaboo- he currently finds peekaboo hilarious!
• Bananas- he just had his first taste of solids recently and so far he LOVES bananas
• Sucking on his hand
• Rolling- ever since he figured out how to roll, he's pretty much obsessed with rolling and spends most of his wake time practicing his new skill!
• Grabbing my hair...unfortunately!

Dom doesn't love

• Being left alone- He's definitely very social and always wants to be in on the action!
• Loud noises
• Naps- he's still not a good napper and usually doesn't sleep more than 45 minutes. He also FIGHTS hard when I bring him to his room and turn the sound machine on because he knows that means a nap is coming!

Firsts this month:

• Rolling- Dom is rolling over...woo hoo!!! We went through a difficult few weeks where he'd roll from his back to his front and get stuck and then wake me up. Thankfully now he can also roll from his tummy to his back, but it does still take him a lot of effort and he gets frustrated at times!
• Solid food- Dom has had his first taste of solid food! We've just been experimenting a little and so far he has tried rice cereal,  bananas, and sweet potato. He's done really well with the spoon and has swallowed everything well so far. Currently bananas are his favorite!
• High chair- I just started putting him in his high chair for very short periods of time recently. He seems a little freaked out by it.
• Dom played in his activity center for the first time
• Dom slept his first eight hour stretch this month...unfortunately it only happened once ;)

Other iPhone pictures from this month (thanks to Erin DiPrima & Alex for several of these!):

4 Months with Dom

I can't believe it, Dom is 4 months old! Life with Dom has gotten better and better and it's SUCH a joy to see how he grows and changes with each passing day! 

He just had his 4 month appointment and he now weighs 13lbs 9oz and is 24" long! He is now wearing 3-6 month clothes and even those are starting to look tight! He started waking up every few hours when he turned 3 months old and I wrote it off as a growth spurt but then he continued to wake up very frequently. Alex and I decided to do some sleep training and start letting him cry it out at night, and he immediately improved a TON. I took away the swaddle so that he could suck on his hands and he quickly learned to suck his thumb. He went from waking up multiple times a night to waking up twice (typically at about 1am and 4:30am) to eat and then go back to sleep. I'm thankful he's sleeping so much better and I'm hoping this continues and that he doesn't go through the 4 month sleep regression I keep hearing so much about!

Dom loves:

• Thankfully he seems to love his bath time again!
• Grabbing everything...especially my shirts and hair (he's pulled out a LOT of my hair)
• His bouncy seat...he LOVES being bounced and will often fall asleep that way for his last nap of the day
• Pacifier. He now loves sucking on pacis during the day and seems to always want something in his mouth!

Dom doesn't love:

• He still doesn't like tummy time but I think he's starting to get more used to it
• Loud noises. Perhaps it's because we don't have other kids but when we go to church or are in large groups and there's a loud noise or he's around a lot of kids and loud noises for a while, sometimes he'll freak out and burst into tears and I have to bring him into a quiet room. I'm hoping this starts to change as he's able to handle more stimulation!

Firsts this month:

• Sucking on his thumb
• Falling asleep on his own! I now put him in his crib awake at night and he falls asleep on his own and I also put him down awake for most of his naps.
• He learned how to splash water with his feet in the bath and splashes everywhere now!
• Laughing much harder than he ever has
• He has started reaching and grasping and can push his paci back in (yes!!)