A Pinch of Love: December 2012

Dear Nathan,

Happy SIX months, my dear boy! I can’t believe half a year has already gone by. What a crazy, exciting, wonderful six months it has been.

As if to highlight how much you’ve grown, we met my new baby cousin Sarah (your cousin, once removed. I think.) She was only five days old and weighed about the same as you when you were born. She was so tiny and beautiful and fragile. She felt light as a feather, and when I looked over at you – my big alert baby, smiling and grabbing – you suddenly seemed huge. I remember those early days when I couldn’t wait for you to be able to hold your own neck up and smile, and now you can do so much more.

Meeting Sarah for the first time

This month we finally stopped swaddling you for sleep. It was a tough transition – those active arms of yours seemed to wake you up every 30-45 minutes. But, it had to be done. I didn’t want you to be a teenager dependant on a giant swaddle for sleep, haha. Now you sleep in a cozy wearable sleep sack. It’s so cozy, in fact, that I wonder why they don’t make adult versions. This past month, your sleep had been getting steadily worse – you refused to sleep in your crib, woke up every hour at night crying, and logged countless hours being bounced in my arms. A few days ago, we did some sleep training, letting you cry it out at night and build some self-soothing skills so you can fall asleep on your own. It was a tough few nights, but on night three, you magically slept for 11 straight hours! This coincided with my birthday, and I dubbed it a birthday miracle! Last night - 12 hours of sleep!! We both woke up refreshed and happy. Let’s hope this good sleep pattern continues, okay?

This is what you looked like at night, during your hourly wake-ups

After sleep training

This month, I slowly weaned you onto formula. It was a bit bittersweet – it’s wonderful and convenient that anyone can feed you now, but my heart felt a bit heavy that we were ending our breastfeeding relationship. In your first month or two, I was so ready to give up breastfeeding. It was tough at first but did get easier as you got older, and I'm proud of myself for sticking with it for over five months. Anyway, to my surprise, I quite enjoy giving you a bottle of formula (other than the hassle of preparation, that is). It’s fun to watch you gobble up the formula and measurably see how much you’re drinking. I was nervous that you would have trouble with the bottle or with the formula – and you did fight it at first – but by the third bottle you were guzzling like a champ.

You’ve never liked tummy time much, but now you’ve found a way out of it – you just roll over onto your back! You can roll left and right, and almost back onto your belly but not quite yet. I think you’re close to sitting up unassisted soon, but right now you flop over pretty easily.

Rolling from Michelle W on Vimeo.

You're a drool monster, and you love putting everything in your mouth. It's funny when you try to put everything you see into your mouth at the same time - your fist, soother, Sophie the Giraffe, etc. Then you get frustrated because everything doesn't fit, haha.