7 Months of Dempsey!

Holy cow! I know I say it every month, but it is truly hard to believe that another month has passed and that Dempsey is now 7 months old! That means he is closer to being a year old than he is to being a newborn - wow did that just totally blow your mind!?

We've been up to plenty this month, as usual. The biggest change has been making a switch from breastfeeding to formula. This was not in my plans, but after Dempsey's 6 month well visit we realized that we needed to get more calories in this kid. At first we tried to just supplement with formula, but the less I breastfed the lower my supply became. So, we moved to me just pumping once a day which yielded about 4 ounces on any given day. That amount isn't even a full meal for Dempsey, so we have been using it to make his organic rice cereal and then giving him a small snack with whatever was left over. But, in all honesty, it began to feel like more of a hassle to continue taking my fenugreek and other milk friendly supplements to pump and get so little. So, very recently, I decided that it would be best for all of us for me to stop pumping. Dempsey is growing quite well on the formula; he is an extremely happy little guy full of smiles and giggles. And, while I may not be able to provide milk for him through me, I can provide him with the nutrition he needs to grow up strong, healthy and happy. I made it to the 6 month mark and that was especially important to me, so now I'm letting go and moving on. He will be perfectly fine eating formula!! I think you can even see the difference in the picture below between 6 months and 7 months - he's filling out quite a bit! :)

Speaking of formula and eating, the kid LOVES to eat! He particularly loves carrots which is great since Finn and I have probably 50 pounds of them in our garden (not even exaggerating a little bit - I swear)! He also likes his organic brown rice cereal, bananas, butternut squash and even corn bread. He still is not a huge fan of avocados and recently did not enjoy blueberries very much (but Finn said they weren't too ripe). We need to add many more things into his diet, but have had such an abundance of orange veggies that we've been trying to use up that we just haven't done it yet. He is a pretty ferocious eater, so I think that he will unlikely be too picky with any of the items we offer him. I'm excited for him to try all sorts of new things, including cauliflower (tried on 10/3 and loved it!), chicken, fish, green veggies and so much more.

Happy after a big meal - and such a clean eater! :)

Since we switched to formula feeding he is on a slightly different schedule. We are now going through our days on an eat, play, sleep cycle. This is different from when we were breastfeeding because we did an eat, play, eat, sleep cycle. He now gets enough in his feeding that he can be up and active for about 2 hours at a time and then goes down for a nap with little to no fussing/crying. He typically naps for 2 hours at a time, although sometimes it is shorter and at other times a bit longer. He almost always wakes up happy and smiley and ready to have fun!

His favorite activities while he is awake include pestering the dogs, playing in his jumparoo (see video), moving all around the house in his walker, going on walks/being outside, and working on his crawling. He really enjoys his rocker and can move around in it really well - both backwards and forwards. He can go from the living room, to the kitchen, into the laundry room and to the front door in no time at all. If he wants a particular toy that is on the table or that I have he will walk/roll himself right on over and grab whatever it is he had his mind set on playing with. It has been really fun to watch him develop this skill and is always interesting to see what object he wants to play with at any given time. We got the jumparoo from a good friend and have set it up in our living room where the swing had been (our living room is really quite small for all these baby items). He really gets a kick out of jumping and sometimes we will catch him trying to jump in his walker! :) He sits up really well on his own now, although we never walk away since he still is a little bobbely. He can even hold onto objects and play while sitting up without just tipping over - the boy has some serious core strength. We've also been making sure to give him some mat/tummy time each day to help him work on his crawling. He much prefers to be standing then laying down, but if we don't give him that opportunity he won't learn how to crawl. He can now get up on all fours in a "table top" position and he will then rock back and forth. It is pretty darn cute! He tends to push off of his hands rather than his knees so he moves backwards rather quickly, but has made no forward motions as of yet. But, it is still incredible to see how quickly he is developing. Just check out the progress he is making on the video below! :)

It's been an exciting month full of laughter, growth and good times! We look forward to all that is to come in the following months and hopefully Dempsey's mom will stop slacking and blog a little bit more (but don't hold your breath). :)

Love you all!