Gabriel is 7 Months Old

I just want to smooch these precious cheeks...

The above picture epitomizes Gabriel to me:  smiling so big, and so happy.  But then...what doesn't the little rascal have to smile about?  He is surrounded by six doting fans, who literally fight over getting to hold him and entertain him.


Gabriel is 7 months now, and his weight is about 17.5 pounds.  At his last well-child appointment his weight was at about the 40th percentile.

1 month old

6 months old

7 months old

Looking at these above pictures, it seems so clear to me that Gabriel made a big jump in size/height from 6 months to 7 months.  We keep laughing and joking about how funny it's going to be if Gabriel ends up being head-and-shoulders above Jas and me in height.  And looking at his feet, it seems this may just prove to be the case!




Over the last month Gabriel finally outgrew his bassinet, and now sleeps in his pack-n-play over on my side of the bed.

Once he starts consistently sleeping through the night, we'll move him to the "Boys' Room".  (Yes, we've rearranged rooms...again.  The neat room that we had all ready for Gabriel?  He never spent one night in it.  And the neat changing table Jas fixed and I painted?  He's never once been changed on it.)

We've been working on Gabriel's schedule the past couple of weeks...tweaking it here and there.

His schedule currently looks like this:
Eat at 5:30 a.m.  Back to sleep.
Eat at 9:00 a.m.  Nap from 10:30-11:30a.m.
Eat at 12 p.m.  Nap from 2-4p.m.
Eat at 4 p.m.  Nap from 6-7p.m.
Eat at 7 p.m.  Sleep from 8-9 p.m.
Eat at 9 p.m.
Usually G will wake up once during the night to eat...but a few times (Hallelujah!) he's lasted from this 9 p.m. feeding until I feed him at 5:30 in the morning.  The nights he did sleep all the way through, I still woke up and was awake for quite a while before I could drift back to sleep.  My body apparently doesn't know what to do, since it hasn't had an uninterrupted nights' sleep in over 7 months!  Totally worth it...but I just like to whine every now and then.

I've found (the hard way) over the past few weeks as we've started back to school that we really need Gabriel to be on a more consistent and predictable schedule, otherwise things break down.  Fast.
What this amounts to is that the majority of the time when it is time to eat, I have to wake him up.  That just feels so wrong.  BUT, if I don't go ahead and do that, then he'll wake up who-knows-when and things in the rest of our little household do. not. run. well.


After mentioning just last month in his 6-month update that Gabriel's hair had fallen (mostly) out and was pretty thin...it grew back with a vengeance this month!

So pretty...and I'm glad to have it back!

Gabriel had another round of heinous teething this month...but with no new teeth to show for it, yet. (sigh)

He got so snotty-nosed and developed such a horrible sounding cough, I thought for sure he had pneumonia.  My dear friend Anna came over and listened to his lungs and we went to the doctor.  I told Dr. J that if this was just teething that we'd tough it out, but that I really questioned whether it was just teething anymore.  Dr. J wasn't so sure either, and was about to prescribe an antibiotic, but when he saw me wince, he said we'd hold off for a day and a half, and see how G did.  Thankfully, he got noticeably better during that time, and then gradually all the symptoms went away over the next week.  PHEW!  I was so glad to not have to use an antibiotic, which would have wreaked havoc on his little gut.


It may seem from the afore-mentioned schedule that Gabriel isn't actually awake much, but trust me, he (and his siblings) squeeze plenty of fun into those awake hours.

A typical day may look something like this....


After his 9 a.m. feeding, the 6 of us may take a stroll around the neighborhood ("P.E."!).

Gabriel seems to really love these walks. He sits very quietly and contentedly in this stroller the whole time, just looking all around and taking everything in.

Then, when we're all back at it with the schoolwork, Gabriel usually spends time alternating between his three favorite activities:  the jumper, the exer-saucer, and tummy-time.

And he rarely does any of these activities alone.

The children take turns (10-15 minutes, maybe) spending time with him.   They volunteer to do this and really enjoy it.  And I'm so thankful, because it really is very helpful.

And they all love every minute of it.

And sometimes...

...Gabriel just wants to snuggle close to mama for a while.  And that is just fine with me.

While Gabriel is still doing good at nursing, he is such a big, alert boy and so easily distracted that nursing time looks vastly different than it used to.

Long gone are the days of me reading, talking, working on the computer, or reading aloud to the children while nursing.

 Now, we have to sit in a room all by ourselves and I have to do nothing but concentrate on him...or he is. not. happy.  But thankfully, he is also a much more efficient eater, taking only about 10 minutes to nurse, instead of the 30-60 minutes it took when he was younger.

And Mr. Gabriel has also really begun to like this "solid" foods thing.

In these pictures he is wearing enjoying his first try at yogurt.

Gabriel has also tried avocado, banana, peach, pear, apple, and cooked egg yolk.  We're still researching and figuring out our way through this new chapter:  How to Feed a Whole Foods Baby.

We're learning a lot and doing things differently than we did with Elisabeth and Noah.

Speaking of the little boogley bear, I hear him serenading me.  Naptime is over - time to eat!