Jude, Seven Months

Jude is 7 months old!

Weight
I honestly dunno. I'm guessing somewhere around 18 lb. His weight gain has slowed considerably.

Height

Also dunno. We won't get this measurement again until his 9-month appointment. Or until I take out a tape measure and do it myself. Guess which will happen first.

^^that confused look tho.

Sleep

Naps are still great. He usually takes a morning nap around 9 or 10am and then an afternoon nap around 1pm. Typically he needs a third nap around dinner time, but he fights it so hard that we end up just keeping him awake 'til bedtime. Bedtime is around 8pm or 9pm. 

The overnight has gotten considerably better! Praise God! We have spent the last month slowwwwlyyyy weaning him off his night feeding. On the first night, his feeding was at his usual 2:30am. The next night, we made him wait until 3am. Then the next night we held him out 'til 3:30am. And so on and so forth, adding 30 minutes each night, until we successfully pushed his feeding out of the night and up to around 6am. Woohoo! The goal is eventually to get him to around 8am with no feeding. But I'm pleased as punch at how far we've come. We did have some nights where he was MAD that he wasn't getting insta-milk. Those nights involved lots of snuggles and rocking until feeding time arrived. But most nights he was totally fine with the transition. 

So, drumroll please . . .  Jude has now officially slept through the night, from 9pm to 7am with no wake-ups, one time!!! It happened a few nights ago. And hasn't happened again since. BUT! He did it! And he's teething now, so he does wake up for comfort snuggles in the middle of the night at least once or twice. Totally understandable when your mouth is hurtsville. Anywho, we're hoping that once these teeth pop through, he'll be back to sleeping through. WE CAN HOPE, RIGHT GUYZ?

^^casual kiss on the head #4,521

Firsts this month
-SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT ONE TIME!!! (Not excited about this at all, can't you tell? #sarcasmingsohard)
-Babbling "dada" and "mama" and other random consonants.
-Army crawling SO FAST. Especially when he's motivated by a toy or his brother or something he can chew on.
-Pulling to stand on his own! I didn't even witness it because I was in the kitchen working on dinner. But when I peeked into the playroom to check on the boys for a sec and I saw this . . .



. . . insert shocked/happy/teary-eyed mama face here.
-Trying even more table foods.
-Repositioning from sitting position to on his belly with relative ease and basically full control. AKA no more falling over!
-Popping his first tooth! And about to pop a second, I'm pretty sure. Can you see the swollen buds in the pic below?

^^You don't mind if I just crawl all over this neatly folded laundry, right Ma? Here, let my sneakishly charming smile fix this for you.

Nicknames
Cranky Jude Frankie (due to his teething moodiness . . . who can blame him?), Bubs, Jude the Dude

Other things to note
-Jude's current favorite foods are peanut butter, tofu, green beans, and sweet potato.

-Each month, these boys get even more interactive and it's just so flipping cute to watch their friendship blossom. Tonight, they were both giggling in the back of the car so I asked John Paul what was so funny. He says, "I'm grabbing Jude's foot!" And sure enough, he had his little hand wrapped around Jude's bare foot. It was adorable. Then he went on to ask Jude, "Can you hold my hand, Jude?" Jude never obliged, but he's still working on his English. Thankfully, John Paul is sometimes patient.

-Jude slept through his first solar eclipse. He couldn't waste any time being bored by planetary science. Or actually, he was just really sleepy and eclipses don't accommodate for toddler/baby naps as it turns out.

-This baby has the most awesome hair growing ability I think I've ever witnessed. So fluffy, so long, so luscious. You work that 'do, Jude! Also, pretty sure he's gonna need a haircut before he turns one. Who is this baby?

-Nothing makes him more giddy these days than when he pulls to stand on his own and then gets to hang out standing all by himself. Like, biggest grin across his face I've ever seen. . . all because of his independence. I gotta get a pic one of these days. Adorbs.

We love you, Jude Francis! Happy 7 months!