Weight:  He is 17 lbs.

Health: No big health concerns, but this month he has been a little fussier than my even keel baby normally is. I think there are a couple more teeth coming in.

Diet: I have made it another full month of exclusively breastfeeding him! My supply is going down when I am pumping, so I am not sure if it also going down when I am at home. The last couple weeks have been extremely difficult for us in this arena. He is only wanting to feed for 5-10 minutes for each feeding, and a lot of that he spends crying or biting me. I have had to add additional feedings throughout the day, and he is often waking up in the middle of the night. I just am not sure what is happening as I didn’t have this occur with either other kid. They were both on formula at this point. I am worried that he isn’t getting enough. But he is growing so I guess there is that. He just seems easily distracted or impatient with me. Walt feeds 5-7 times a day, and on average it adds up to 2 hours of nursing. He was going around 4 hours between feedings during the day, and then this week is about every 2-3 hours. My app says that we have had 159 feedings over this last month, and spent 2 days nursing him. I have also pumped 17 times over the month. We continued with solids this month, but we haven’t been pushing it too much since he still doesn’t seem too interested. He does really like strawberries, peaches, and green beans. We added sweet potato fries, yogurt, and applesauce this month.

Clothes: He is still in size 3-6 month in clothes and size 3 in diapers.

Sleeping:  He is still fairly good about going to sleep when we put him down in the crib. We normally get him down around 8:30pm. As I mentioned, he is waking up in the middle of the night lately. Most of the time I will do a quick nursing session, and he will go back to sleep. During the week, I get him up at 5:15am to do the first feeding, and then he goes back to sleep. On the weekends, we sleep in until about 7am. He typically takes two naps during the day, but they aren’t usually very long. He is still sleeping in the zipadeezip, and this kid cruises around in his sleep. He started consistently rolling to sleep on his stomach. He often rolls to the edge of the crib and gets him self stuck between the bars. It is terrifying.

Likes:  Daphne and Tom are his favorite people, and they can always get smiles out of him. He only cuddles with my mom. He loves blankets, and he is always trying to bunch them in his fists. He is putting everything in his mouth, so it has been helpful to have the pacy around. He really loves my watch and putting it in the relax mode.

Dislikes:  He really hates the prep time it takes me to get him set up for feedings. He screams at me for the few minutes it takes me to get unwrapped or switch sides. When he is having a non-chill moment, he does not like for you to be sitting. We should not relax to calm down!

Nicknames: Walt, Wally, Wally Bear, Wally Olly, Waller, Wallace, Butters, Sweet Bean, Stinkerdoodle, Waltie baby, Cutie baby, Sweetie baby, Baby guy, and Baby Walter. I think the most common are Wally, Wally Bear and Waltie. Apparently we really like nicknames.

Milestones: I think we are so close to crawling. He did a full plank today. He props his arms up, but hasn’t quite figured out how to get his legs up just yet. He does scoot himself backwards everywhere. He has started grabbing at books and becoming more invested as we read to him. He did have a lot of firsts this past month with our vacation. He did so great on the planes. Most of the time I would nurse him, and he would just pass out. He was not a fan of the beach though. With all of our adventures though, he was so good just chilling in the stroller as we carted him around the Orlando area for a week.

Quirks: He only rolls from his back to his stomach. I could not even tell you the last time I saw him go from stomach to back. Wally is unaffected by fireworks. This face is also a constant where he looks like he is sucking in his bottom lip.

We parents are:  doing alright. It was a weird month with our 4th of July party and vacation. I feel like we just got back to our routine this past week. I will say that it was our best 4th ever, and Tom really out did himself with our firework display. The vacation was a blast, and I am so glad we were able to create some memories like that for the kiddos. Work has picked up with back to school prep activities for me so I feel like my brain is constantly on the go. I also have been in the office quite a bit but never on the same days each week, so I never really know what day it is.

Big kids are:  doing pretty good. They loved our Florida trip, and they still talk about it daily. George had summer school this month, which was fun to see him find a groove again with his new class. He also did a state soccer tournament this month, which was an adventure. We concluded our first t-ball season, and quite possibly our last. It is very clear that he is not going to be a baseball star, but he sure did have fun building mounds in the gravel dust! Daphne is Wally’s biggest fan, and she is the Wally whisperer if he is having a bad moment. They are both obsessed with each other. It will be fun to see them continue to bond. It is hard to believe that this is her last month before school starts for her. We have been watching the Olympics, and that has been fun watching gymnastics with her and seeing her recognize things from her class.

In case you are curious, here is George at eight months and Daphne at eight months.

I spend a lot of my time just staring at him. He is just the most precious little guy!