A Pew All Our Own: Bobba: 7 months

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Bobba: 7 months

Brownest eyes at this age of all my babies. Isaac and Drew were older than 9 months when their eyes started looking brown.

Likes all mirrors like all babies do.

I started feeding little Bobba (a real nickname, not a typo) just after he turned six months at dinnertime only. I started first with a banana in the mesh feeder where he can hold it and chew on it as the bits squeeze through the holes. He loved it, then he hated it, then he loved it. There was random and unexplained screaming in the middle there, but he seemed to have gotten over it rather quickly. Then I introduced the following foods from baby food jars. (I normally try to avoid the baby food that comes in a jar other than to grab in a pinch, but I really have my hands full and am allowing myself this luxury for the time being. I'm hoping once things have been introduced individually I'll be able to swing making my own baby food (mostly from what we are already eating) but we'll see. He seems to have a very strong gag reflex with any kind of thickness to the food.

banana
peas- I also put these in the mesh feeder sometimes
cereal
applesauce
pears
yogurt
carrots
blueberries
apricots
strawberries
parsnips (Yes, Germans have jarred parsnips!)
zucchini and potatoes- They were very thick and hard to thin out; he didn't like them at all.
mixed grain cereal

He's had no reactions to any foods. Yay! No allergies so far! And a big YAY! for no milk allergy.

Bobby is sitting better, but not so well that I'd leave him sitting on tile floor with nothing behind him. I do, however, leave him sitting on the rugs without the Boppy behind him. He has made no improvement in rolling from back to front, and so he continues to sleep swaddled in the bassinet. I did realize recently though while talking to a new friend about it that Genna was a late roller too and slept swaddled on her back in the Moses basket until she was around 9 months old. My thoughts are that keeping him in such a small bed may not be the best thing for him. So I am going to try to transition him to the small pack-n-play. Judah's got dibs on the crib until August, so a pack-n-play is the best we can do for now. I hate to move him when he is doing better at night now, and he's never ever slept in anything bigger than his bassinet, but I think it is best. My other goal is to transition him out of the swaddle by starting with swaddling him after his bedtime story, and then moving him to my not-at-all famous invention of a one armed swaddle blanket (a refashion of a blanket sleeper.)
Bobby is so easily calmed. Any of the children can usually cheer him right up if he fusses. He is super spoiled having so many people to attend to his every need. If he cries and a toy doesn't make it all better, everyone in this house knows to start singing, most of the time it's "Down by the Station." He loves that song! Most of the time they don't even have to finish the first line and he's already quiet and happy. On the long car trip to Austria, he barely made a peep. Isaac and Drew flanked him and did an excellent job of handing him new toys and singing to him. Out of the 6.5 hours, he didn't even sleep close to half of the time, and yet I was able to sit, sew, and listen to the books on tape with the kids.

On the trip to Austria

Bobby is now enjoying playing in the Tupperware cabinet in the kitchen now. He still loves his exersaucer, but he is growing out of the Bumbo and not enjoying the Jumperoo (ever) and the play gym (rarely.)

The biggest thing in the last week has been how he reacts when he sees me walk by when he has been playing happily. He now cries for me if he hears my voice in another room or sees me walk by. This is later than the other kids, as I recall. I thought maybe he wasn't going to even do it, but here it is. Separation anxiety. Luckily, I have all those helpers! Genna begs me to let her put him to bed which is often helpful if I am busy cooking or something.