7 months

Merritt! You are seven months old!

The past few months have become progressively harder with you. You may be one of the happiest babies ever, but you are quite demanding!

You are in progress of hitting multiple milestones- you are wanting to crawl and sit up so badly! You are always getting up on your knees and rocking, and sometimes you'll army crawl. If you're awake during chest percussions, you are trying to sit up the whole time. It makes percussions very difficult and frustrating. But you're so happy!

You've gotten 1 tooth! You worked really hard on it! We decided to try an amber teething necklace to see if it would help with pain. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence or what, but the day we got it, you took a 3 hour nap and woke up with a tooth!

The past month was a rough one. Your 6-month shots were miserable. You were achy and feverish from them, then you went straight into hardcore teething. Unfortunately your stools were very runny, which gave you awful diaper rash! We just couldn't get a break. :(

While everything has calmed down, you gained some new habits. With the teething pain, you would refuse bottles. The last thing we want for you is to lose weight. Every ounce is important for you. The only way we could get you to take a bottle was by feeding you while you were asleep. This has unfortunately continued. Because you weren't getting as many ounces in during the day you started waking up more during the night, too. Daddy kindly takes the night shifts. :)

You haven't nursed in weeks with all the fussiness, instead I've been pumping full-time. It's not ideal nor what I imagined our breastfeeding journey to look like, but we gotta do what we gotta do! You mostly receive momma's milk and then we supplement 2 bottles a day with a higher calorie formula. Adding the supplemental bottles helps me not stress out when I don't have enough milk for you, which was happening a lot.

You have moved up to 3-6 months size clothes and size 2 diapers. You are hovering between 13-13.5lb. Still tiny but so strong! You are the wiggliest baby ever! I would say you burn a lot of calories from all your moving. :)

We still swaddle you and I don't think we will be dropping that anytime soon. I've read that CF babies are more restless and we see that with you. You also pull your pacifier out continuously if your arms are free. And you grunt and moan yourself to sleep (while we are rocking you..). Most people think it's funny/cute, but it is SO loud!

We started solids briefly, then the whole miserable few weeks happened. When we initially introduced them, you weren't too sure and would push food out with your tongue. After a few weeks and everything was back to normal, you decided you were ready! I haven't had much time to make you any food (sorry.. you're the second child..) so you've mainly had yogurt and oatmeal combined. You love it though! We have to be careful if we hold you while we're eating because you are lunging and grabbing for everything! Much like Hartley, you will try anything.

We have a surprisingly busy schedule and so it's difficult to actually have enough time to sit you down to offer solids and have enough time for a bottle. I would like to be more consistent with this, especially since you require more calories. And you will gladly take yogurt over a bottle. :)

Mornings are time consuming, especially when we have places to be. You consistently start stirring around 8:15. I'll start breathing treatments then and can get you back to sleep. Usually you'll sleep through chest percussions and maybe even continue for another 30 minutes once we're finished. If you're asleep I'll either pump or take a shower. You're not very interested in a bottle in the morning, so figuring out when to give enzymes and offer milk is tricky. Enzymes are effective for an hour, so we usually let you play a little and then give enzymes and try to feed you.

You take 3 naps a day, still on the shorter 45-minute side. Sometimes we can rock you back to sleep. At least you sleep pretty well at night in your crib. I'll leave it at that. :)

We took two trips to two different beaches! We went to St. Simons to visit Daddy's aunt and uncle and attend a CF event with them. We didn't get you to the beach then because it was around the rough/teething/diaper rash week. The next weekend we went to Destin for Daddy's continuing education and we went down to the beach twice. I think you're gonna be a little fish like your sister because you already enjoy splashing in the water.

You were dedicated at our church and you were the cutest baby there. :) I'm so glad most of family and a few close friends were able to be there for you.

I saw a quote somewhere that said, "The days are long, but the years are short." I think about this often, especially because our days are time-consuming with treatments and little napping, crying from teething, taking care of two little ones, and trying to tend to the house. Not to mention trying to shower myself and have a decent lunch. The days are hard and long, but I know they are going to fly by before we know it.