Caedmon is 7 Months

Caedmon is 7 months old today.  It's going by way too fast.  He's in such a hurry to be big like his brothers.  Here is a little of Caedmon at this age:

• 15 lbs 13 oz (taken 4 days early)-10%
• 28.75 in - 96%
• Wears anything from 3-6 month clothes to 9 month, to 6-12 month sizes.  He's very long and so if something is one piece it needs to be a bigger size.  He's TINY, though, so the smaller stuff fits well in other items.
• Wears size 2 diapers. I'm still hopefull one of these days I will get my act together and start using our cloth diapers more.  Life is just so busy and on the go with the other boys lately, that keeping up with just the regular laundry is a challenge right now. Also, last night we tried a disposable swim diaper on Caedmon for the first time.  We bought him the smallest size and it was huge and loose on him.  Not sure how effective it would be.
• We're still monitoring Caedmon's growth with his doctors.  We're doing monthly weight checks (in addition to be tracking it at least every couple of weeks at our mom/baby group) at the pediatrician.  He's somewhat following a growth curve now with his weight, but he is still very clearly underweight.  The doctors are okay with it as long as he keeps gaining.  However, the fear is that if he gets sick, he has no cushion and might be quick to get dehydrated.  The GI says that if this happens, we may have to use an NG tube temporarily to get him through any tough illnesses.
• Caedmon still only takes about 2 oz per feeding, 7 times a day. I still pump 4 times a day and give him at least 5 oz extra throughout the day in bottles.  This is why dehydration is a real fear if he gets sick, as he is taking in just over half of what is expected at his age.  We are both still on a dairy/soy free diet.  He no longer has blood in his stool, so this is clearly what is needed to keep him healthy.
• While getting enough milk in him is a challenge, he loves solids.  He's tried avocado, bananas, sweet potatoes, chicken, salmon, apple sauce, pears, asparagus, gluten free waffles, turkey, dairy free/gluten free mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, and little baby snacks that are gluten/dairy/soy free.  He loves to try new foods, but when he eats a lot he does not do well later in the day.  He screams and has bad gas if he eats too much.  He still doesn't seem to tolerate large meals whether it be with milk or solid food.
• Still on 3 mL of Prilosec 2X a day.  Most days he seems to be doing great.  Sometimes he has days, though, that are full of spit up, especially if we've pushed him to take more.  At 9 months we're supposed to start reducing the amount of meds and see how he handles it.
• On 2 tsp of miralax a day.  It's needed.  Otherwise he's miserable.
• He finally almost outgrew his reflux wedge and tucker sling (max weight is 16 lbs), so we moved his crib into our room.  He immediately rolls to his belly when we lay him down.  He sleeps well at night as long as he's warm enough.  He kept waking up at first and was so cold even with a long sleeve onsie, fleece footed pajamas, and a fleece sleep sack.  When he was in the tucker sling we could wrap him up in blankets, because he couldn't move around in his sleep.  Now, without the blankets he was freezing.  I added a fleece sweater to his night time outfit and got a thicker sleep sack and he's been much more comfortable. He's definitely not too warm in all that, but he's no longer freezing.
• Caedmon has to nap on the go a lot with life being so busy.  Some days he naps great, and other days he doesn't.  He hates to be in his car seat around bedtime at night.  When he's tired he only wants me.
• Caedmon is all over the place! He crawls extremely fast these days. He pulls up to standing on everything.  He's cruising furniture.  He pulls things out of the pantry any chance he can get.  He can stand with just one hand against the wall for balance.  He can go to standing to squatting and back up with just one hand for balance on something.
• He copied us and said, "ball" this month.  He's learning a lot of new sounds and is trying to talk.  When he's upset now he frequently cries out, "Maaa." I think he's trying to say mama to get me to pick him up.  He strings sounds together and makes one that kind of sounds like "dadadada"
• He loves the dog and cat, but tries to pet and cuddle with them by grabbing on or crawling on them.
• He gets very excited to see his brothers.  If they are downstairs in the playroom, he will sit at the gate at the top of the stairs waiting for them.
• Caedmon is loud and full of giggles and personality.  But when he sees a new person he will get very quiet and just watch and study them for a long time.  We've had some appointments for his big brother and Caedmon will sit a good 15-20 minutes in my lap just studying the face of the new person.
• Caedmon was baptized on December 4th.
• He had his first Thanksgiving and loved all the people and food

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So I don't forget

Sometimes Graesen blows me away. There is a side of him that is so sweet. He can be both an old soul and have the innocence of a forever child all at once. I don't feel like I can take credit for it. I think God just made him this way; a person who effortlessly emits joy. Just the other morning he walked up to me, hugged me, and said, "You're the best mommy I could ever imagine." He was just getting ready for school and I was taking care of the baby. But that's Graesen for you. He used to kiss my head when I bent over to tie his shoe. Even as a toddler, if he was upset and I picked him up, he would start rubbing my back like I was the one who needed comforting. A couple nights ago I was helping him with his spelling and pointed out that his "d" was backwards. He responded with, "Thank you for correcting me." Last night in the car he asked me what I wanted for Christmas and when I wasn't sure, he started coming up with ideas of things he thought I would like and said he wanted to get them for me. A couple weeks ago he was using an old birthday gift card he had at Barnes and Noble. Jace didn't have a gift card, and I saw him eyeing the games and toys there. I told Graesen that I would chip in an extra $5 or so dollars if what he bought was an activity or game he could do with his brother. He said, "I would be delightful to." 😀 He also regularly talks about the "cool morning breeze" and how much he loves the way it feels at my parents' house. He breaks out dancing during the middle of his piano recital performance. He really is a unique child and I feel so blessed to get to be a part of his life.

6 months

I can hardly believe that Caedmon is half a year old. He's changing so fast and if I let myself think too much about it I get sad.  This month has been huge for Caedmon developmentally.  He has taken off and is doing things I wasn't expecting to happen for at least a couple more months.  It seems this little guy is in a hurry to grow up.

• 15 lbs 6 oz ( 12%)
• 28.25 in (97%)
• We have to go back for another weight check in a month
• He has some sort of hives that he's been getting since birth and we aren't sure what from 
• Wears 3-6 month up to 6-12 month clothing. 
• We just switched to size 2 diapers in the last week. He's thin, so the size 1 still fit, but we figured we might as well go up a size for the length.
• Only takes about 2 to 2 1/2 oz per feeding, so we still have to supplement with 1 oz of pumped milk after each feeding.  Somehow, even the small feeds of 2 1/2 oz still lead to spit up. He only nurses 7 times in a 24 hour period, so this is far under the normal intake for a baby his age. He stops himself before eating more than that.
• To ensure he keeps his small amount of milk down, the GI doctor increased his Prilosec to 3 mL twice a day.  It seems to keep him from being in pain, but he still spits up some and just recently has started getting the hiccups more again.
• Caedmon is a great nighttime sleeper, but I still have to set an alarm and wake him up for a feeding after 5-6 hours.  Since he doesn't eat enough on his own, this is necessary to increase the amount he gets and keep my supply up.
• Not a great napper unless he's being held. Some days he will do great and sleep 2-3 hours in his bed, but not always.
• Still sleeping on a reflux wedge, in the tucker sling.
• Doing great eating solids to increase his caloric intake.  So far he has tried bananas, avocado, peas, sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, apple sauce, and some of those little baby puffs.
• Caedmon for sure has a milk soy protein intolerance, as we saw major changes once I removed those things from my diet.  His colitis has healed up and he is a much more comfortable baby. The doctor says we can try to see how he responds to dairy around his first birthday.
• On 1 teaspoon of miralax a day, because he still has issues going on his own.
• Easily rolls both directions.
• Caedmon is crawling!  Right after he turned 5 months he started pushing/leap frogging his way forward.  Within a couple weeks he was full on crawling.  He is super fast now.
• Caedmon is going from crawling to sitting to crawling independently.
• A week ago Caedmon started pulling up to stand!
• He is into everything already.
• He loves to "talk."
• He tries to follow his brothers around and thinks they're hilarious.
• Caedmon tries to play with a grab other babies at our mom/baby group
• He likes to grab onto our faces and hair.
• He likes to grab onto the dog and cat and try to pull up on them.
• He still loves his Sofie giraffes.
• He likes to pull his books out of his shelf.

Halloween

I only got one picture from Halloween on my big camera. The boys were so hyped up that it was hard to take pictures.  I volunteered in Graesen's class for the party early in the day.  We had the boys' friend trick or treat with us since his dad was on shift at the fire station and his mom was out of town for work.  Graesen and Jace both decided to be flame troopers this year.  Caedmon wore Graesen's old lion costume.  He slept through most of the trick or treating in the ergo.  The other boys wore out much sooner that they thought they would and were glad to be done walking around at the end of it.

Crawling!

In the last couple of weeks Caedmon has decided to learn to crawl. He seems so little to be crawling, but he has figured it out and is all over the place. During mom/baby group this week he was all over the room playing with toys and trying to touch the other babies!

Pumpkin fun

We followed tradition and went to a local pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins and play around. There were only huge pumpkins left, so we ended up with much larger pumpkins than we planned.  Caedmon played with the pumpkin guts and tasted it while the big boys worked on carving.

All 3 in the Leaves

We took a trip to the park last weekend. While we there we got some leaf pictures with all 3 kids. I had to move fast to get them, but I managed to get a few I like.

Cross country

Graesen and Jace just finished another cross-country season. I didn't get as many pictures as I would like, because it was rainy a lot of the time and it wasn't as easy to run after the boys with the baby in the ergo.  They did great, though, and both improved a lot.

Leaves