That’s nearly 8 MONTHS! I can hardly believe that so much/little time has passed. It feels like just yesterday he was born but the truth is, there is less time till he turns one than he has been alive for. How crazy is that?

Oden, is amazing. He is truly a special child. I don’t just mean in the way all mothers love their children but in that he is just an easy baby. With the exception of awful (and sometimes traumatic for a new mom) re-flux, he has really been wonderful.

Speaking and movement

He says a lot of mamamamamamma but I don’t want to fool myself into thinking he knows what it means. I’m pretty sure he has just put some sounds together that he hears me repeating.

He ticks developmental milestones off the list like clockwork and he sleeps mostly through the night. He’s starting to find his voice a bit more now and spends a lot of time singing which is really very adorable. Unfortunately he has taken after his parents and his ability to sing in a pretty voice is basically zero to none! Sorry son.

He is moving around – mostly backwards but finds it very frustrating to not reach the things he wants and his determination is going to pay off soon I’m sure. He also loves standing and pulls himself up at every opportunity. His balance is pretty good too.

Food and eating

Our beautiful baby is eating solids all on his own and has been since he turned 6 months old. We use an approach to introducing solids called Baby Led Weaning (BLW).  You can read a column article I wrote about BLW for Tums 2 Tots online parenting magazine here!

It was a bit scary at first watching him gag on the newly discovered food he was happily putting into his mouth. He has choked a couple of times too but nothing that was enough to put us off.

BLW was important to me as it encourages the child to eat what they want to eat. As someone who grew up in a household where you could not leave the table until your plate was finished, I really wanted my child to have the option to eat because he’s hungry and not treat food as some sort of punishment. So that’s going really well.

He will eat almost anything you give him but he doesn’t like boiled potato or cauliflower. Steak is a HUGE hit and so is any other meat you give him but he also really enjoys raw tomatoes, egg and toast. He eats toast, egg and bacon for breakfast on Saturdays and usually just has toast most other mornings. He eats three proper meals a day now which makes me feel very proud and he LOVES his food.

He literally starts banging and shouting every day at 5 pm while he waits for me to run around scrambling to get his dinner prepared. Yup, my child is bossy and in the words of my youngest brother “has taken after his mother” hehe.

Size and clothing

At 7 months, our son weighed around 10kgs and his 6-9 month baby grows are literally popping open already so we’ve already had to shift him over to the 12 months+ clothing group. He’s going to be one large person. At his last check up, the nurse informed us that our son is above average in weight, height and head size. He’s very very big for his age and everyone that hears how old he is lets us know just how big he is.

General cuteness

He sleep at 7ish most nights (sometimes a little closer to 8) and wakes up at 6. He has one bottle during the night and wakes occasionally for his dummy. At 6 am, his dad normally brings him into our bed and he cuddles and sleeps for another hour or two in my arms. This is my favourite time of the day – knowing that my son will automatically turn to me and cuddle into my chest and go to sleep. Except this morning, this morning he first felt my face and stuck his fingers in my nose for 15 minutes before singing me a song and then I had to sing one to him and then we both went back to sleep.

He loves our dogs more than anyone else in the house. Nothing lights up his face like they do. They don’t even have to do anything, they walk into the room and Oden is over the moon. I love that he’s an animal person already. Definitely takes after us.

Things he does not like

My little guy is pretty friendly but he does get easily overwhelmed with new people excitedly moving into his space and up close to him. He never really cries. Except if he gets physically hurt.

He doesn’t like to go to bed and usually fusses quite a lot. We wait till he starts rubbing his eyes (thanks dad for pointing this one out) before we bother trying to put him to bed. He wants to be rocked to sleep but fights you while you do it. if you put him down before he’s asleep he starts wrestling with his stuffed bunnies.

He LOVES bath time and loves kicking up a splash but he HATES getting dressed after a bath. I don’t know why that time of day is so offensive to him but it’s a huge battle to put clothing on him after a bath.

Being a new mom hasn’t been easy. It can be exhausting and trying but it’s definitely worth it. I look at my body full of scars and all out of shape and although it’s not how it used to be, it brought this little man into the world. Sometimes I look at him and wonder how I even managed to create something so perfect.

Not only is he beautiful but he’s sweet and loving. He laughs all the time and is excited by everything. I never knew I could love anyone this much. This little boy has changed my whole world for the better and gives me reason to fight for every single day I’m alive.

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