Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Monday, September 22, 2008

7 Months old !

I would have to say this month seems to have gone by the fastest. It feels like just last week I posted his 6 month update.

Not a whole lot has changed in Graydens life except for the fact that he has grown SO MUCH! He started to sit up really well all on his own shortly after 6 months. We don't have to worry about him falling over anymore because he sits so well and when he does fall he has learned to put his arms out or an elbow. On September 23 at almost exactly 7 months Grayden sat himself up all by himself at Grandma and Grandpa Beechers!! That was exciting!

He is not crawling yet, and he is rarely on all fours so Im not sure when he will decide to crawl. He has no problem getting to where he wants to go, and is quite funny to watch. He rolls on his belly and REACHES towards the direction he wants to go with one arm and then rolls to his other side and REACHES with his other arm while pushing with his feet. Its pretty cute!

Solids are not going so well these days. He opens his mouth for the first bite and if were lucky the second, but thats about it. He has learned to hide his lips by tucking them in his mouth and nothing is going in there. I try and try but I never force feed so he only gets those one or two bites. I sit there for about half and hour trying but like I said I won't force it. Im not too worried at this point because his main nutrition is from my milk and its really all he needs right now, I guess the main reason they start solids this early is to get them used to the technique of swallowing. Grayden has already figured that out and swallows the bites he does open for.
True to my word I have made ALL of Grayden's baby food. So far We've tried Rice Cereal, Oatmeal, Pears, Apples, Peaches, Bananas, Avocado, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes and Peas. The first time I fed him apples mixed with rice cereal he ate the whole thing but he hasn't done that since with anything. I don't know why....... maybe he just loves his milk and isn't interested in anything else yet? I dunno, hopefully before long we will be eating more solids and nursing a little less. I am still nursing about every 3-4 hours. Don't get me wrong, my favorite bonding time with Grayden is when he is nursing and I love those moments, but he is breast fed exclusively and doesn't take bottles or anything . Which makes it tough when Cody and I want to go out because he needs me every 3 hours. I guess we'll see how this month goes.

Still no TEETH YET but I am expecting one any day. I think I have been saying that for two months now. It doesn't seem to bother him during the day at all, its at night where he is really hurting. There have been a few nights now where he will just wake up crying and it is so hard to see him like that when there's nothing you can do but hold him. Most of the time he just wakes up a few times in the middle of the night fussing or tossing and turning for a while. I really hope he gets one soon...Poor guy :(

Grayden loves to be outside and enjoys our nightly walks and weekend picnics. He's so funny when we step out of the house because he becomes totally shy and quiet. When we go for walks he just sits there and looks around quite as can be. Even at Grandma and Grandpa Beechers he acts like that. At home he loves to discover the ranges of his voice (he has recently discovered that he can scream) but as soon as we are somewhere else he becomes so calm and quiet! Too Cute Gray :)

Well thats about all I can think of to update on this month! Graydens First Halloween is coming up here next month and we're so excited. We have an idea what he's going to be but its going to be a surprise until halloween :)

Happy 7 Months baby boy :)



Sunday, September 7, 2008

First trip to the Zoo

Cody and I have been going to the zoo every year since we've started dating so it was pretty cool to take our son there for the first time as a family. It was a perfect day to go, not to hot and not too cold. Grayden LOVED it. He loves being outside and in a different environment. Cody held him almost the entire time and it was so cute to watch them together. Cody is such a kid at heart and was so excited to show Gray all the different animals, it was very cute :) Gray loved it too, he would just stare at the animals for a few seconds and then look back at us and then stare again. It was a fun day and we got some great photos!!

Enjoy!!



Im having problems uploading pictures so I made a slide instead.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

6 month checkup...

Grayden had his 6 month checkup at 25 weeks which was a few days ago. He weighs 18 Lbs 8 oz and he's 28" long. He is in the 75th percentile for his weight and 95th percentile for his height. Gray is one TALL little boy. I have no idea where he gets his height from because I am a shorty and his dad isn't very tall either. Anyway more importantly he is growing like a weed and he is one healthy boy!!

We were extremely happy and relieved after this appointment because our doctor finally asked the immunization question, if Gray has had his 6 months shots? Right before Gray was born we were watching CNN and listening to the whole controversy about Vaccines. There were doctors saying you should and doctors saying you shouldn't and wether vaccines are linked to autism etc. etc. Well that was enough for us and we wanted to know more. Cody and I have spent the last 8 months educating ourselves on Vaccines and really praying about this. After all our research we decided together that we feared the Vaccines far more than the diseases them selves. Im not saying we will never vaccinate, but we are strongly against vaccines within the first two years of his life.

This is such a heated topic but we feel so strongly about this and we are so glad that we decided to educate ourselves and learn all the crap that is put into these things. Anyway I never brought it up to our doctor because I know that doctors are educated very well on diseases but they are taught very little about vaccines and most have no clue what really goes into them unless they study themselves. So I was really afraid of what she would have to say...After we explained our decision she was sooo supportive and said she understood why we have decided not to vaccinate right now, and that she has quite a few patients who feel the same way and don't vaccinate. You have no idea how happy that made us to hear her say that and to know that our doctor supported our decision. phewww !!!

I want to thank you mom and dad for all your support over this topic. I was extremely stressed about this in the beginning trying to make the right decision for our son and just thinking about everything got me so overwhelmed and in tears at times. Thanks so much for hearing me out night after night, and I know you have always been against vaccines but you never told me how you felt at first because you wanted us to make our own decision. That meant so much to us and Im really thankful for that.

Just wanted you to know :)


First time eating a rice cookie !!


My baby looks like a toddler here !!!


Starting to make funny faces at me :)


Getting so big !


Playing with bubbles


Grays new toy...