Life with Holden: 6 Months

 Stats:

Weight: 15 pounds. On the dot! (on our home scale)

Length: 26.5ish inches. He was pretty hard to measure being as squirmy as he is these days.

Clothing: Finally outgrowing his 0-3 month & 3 month sized stuff, but can still fit into a few things. Mostly wearing 3-6 & 6 month stuff at the moment. He has a lot of 6-9 sized summer stuff so I'm just hoping that he will fit into some of it by then. Yikes!

Diapers: Size 3 Huggies Little Movers for disposables & Lowest rise, third snap setting in our cloth.

Shoes: Size 2 (I think). He has not been wearing shoes much that last couple of weeks.

Milestones:

04/07: First time eating solids. We started with Avocado & he LOVES it. He was getting angry that he couldn't get more into his mouth fast enough.

04/07: First time sitting in the highchair & being given a sippy cup. He understands how to make it work, but doesn't really dig water at this point. He loves to chew on the spout at this point though & just mess around with the cup in general.

04/09: First time saying Ma-Ma. <3 I know it doesn't really mean anything at this point, but I love hearing it. He is DEFINITELY a momma's boy. He also started saying Na-Na today too.

04/11: First time in a baby swing at the park. He was TOTALLY indifferent to the whole experience, such as his serious little personality dictates. =)

04/13: First time sitting in the stroller like a big boy aka not in the baby seat. Again, totally indifferent to the whole experience. 

Nursing: Going well, as always! I'm happy to say that we've made it 6 months with exclusively nursing & barely having taken a bottle. Definitely going to continue on as long as H would like to. =) I'm so thankful that we've made it a half a year thus far without any major issues or supply problems. This experience has been a real blessing this time around. H continues to nurse on demand & it definitely ranges as far as how long he will go between sessions. He can go anywhere between 2-3.5 hours during the day, but it usually falls around 2.5 the majority of the time. The only schedule that seems to be consistent nursing-wise is that he nurses before bed at 6:30PM & then again at around 10/11PM. After that it's anyone's guess. Still haven't tried to give him a bottle again & no plans to at the moment.

Solids: We've been doing solids for about a week & a half now & thus far things are going well. We decided to give BLW a whirl & it's been a learning experience for both of us. It seems like it should be the simple way, but I actually find it more time consuming then feeding purees thus far. It's been a challenge trying to find the best way to present each new food to him & also just how fast to introduce a new type of food. I've been doing A LOT of reading this week to say the least. I've been a little less conservative this time around with the whole "4 day rule" since we don't have a history of allergies in our family. Thus far, H has had avocado, banana, sweet potato & pear. Of those he definitely prefers the pear & avocado. I feel like he's FINALLY starting to get the hang of it & is actually ingesting a bit of food just starting today. We will likely do apple, butternut squash & green beans this week. I think we will wait on Oats until I can mix it with more things like banana or apple.

Sleep: Oi! I've liked to say that we've made some gains in this area, but it seems like with H it is generally one step forward, two steps back with sleep. I've been lucky if I can get him to take one good nap daily & he actually took over a two hour nap for the first time in a long time last week, but the majority are still about an hour maybe a little more. We're continuing to work on it. The late morning/early afternoon nap seems to be the only one he wants to take & goes down pretty easily. The late afternoon nap he fights like no other. *Sigh* It really is a pain too because I KNOW he's tired, he KNOWS he's tired, but every day is a struggle to get him down. Half of the time he gives in & actually naps, the other half of the time I give in & get him up. I don't have two hours to fight him down every day & at a certain point it doesn't even become worth it anymore. He always naps in the crib now. Bedtime is VERY consistent & he tends to go down around 6:30/7PM every night after his bedtime routine. He usually wakes up a few times, but once we give him his paci back he usually goes right back to sleep. He generally wakes up again around 10/11 to nurse & then usually moves into our bed when I'm ready to go to sleep. He FINALLY cut out his early morning wake-up (aka the 5/5:30AM one) & has taken to nursing around 3/3:30AM & then waking to nurse again at 7AM. If I'm lucky I can get him to go back down again until 9AM. Needless to say, he gets a lot of nighttime sleep...maybe that's why he doesn't want to nap during the day? He is still very good about nursing & going right back to sleep & only occasionally wakes in-between these times fussing. I'm not sure when he will transition out of our bed fully at this point, but likely when he cuts out the middle of the night feed since he & his brother both tend to wake for the day around 7AM. We shall see how it goes. I don't see a lot of point in forcing the full transition just yet since we are spending almost a month in our hometown from the end of May to almost the end of June & he will likely be sleeping with us while we are there.

Elimination: Hasn't changed TOO much at this point. We've been doing solids for a little over a week & he's been a bit more consistent (sometimes twice daily), but there are still days where he doesn't go at all. Gas seems to still be hit & miss at this point unfortunately. Although, I haven't had to give him gas drops nearly as much in the last week so I guess that's an improvement. And we've definitely seen the change that come along with solids as far as consistency & odor are concerned. That is I will definitely miss about a milk only diet.

Health: Happy to report that we've made it to the 6th month mark without any colds/flus! Yay!! Hopefully, I won't have just jinxed us, but we have definitely been blessed this year. Teething is very much in full effect & as with normal teething I think it bothers him some days more then others. Poor kiddo. =( We still do not have any official teeth at this point, but his gums on top & bottom are VERY white so it should *hopefully* be any time now. C got his first teeth around 7 months so we shall see if H follows suit. The chewing, drooling & inserting everything into his mouth are still a constant thing. His Baltic Amber teething necklace has definitely been a god-send. If he goes without wearing it even for a short amount of time he is a lot fussier then usual. We will definitely continue to have him wear it. His 6 month WCC had to wait until we were in town since we haven't switched Pedis yet so we won't have official measurements or shots until a little over 6.5 months. I had to make his appt for a Monday morning & we will be leaving town to make the drive back home immediately after so I'll keep ya posted on how that goes. Oi!

Social: He's definitely getting friendlier with strangers & will often smile now if someone talks or coos at him as long as they don't attempt to touch him or if one of us is holding him. He hasn't been held in the last few weeks by anyone but K or I so I'm not sure about how his separation anxiety is doing & likely won't know until we go back to our hometown at the beginning of May. He is still very much our serious, opinionated little man, but he is definitely developing more of a sense of humor. He is now laughing a lot more then just two weeks ago & will laugh at things or objects instead of just when we tickle or bounce him. He's started babbling a lot more in the last couple weeks as well & loves to "talk" now. He started saying Ma sounds as well as Na sounds & a few others that aren't exactly specific, but are definitely new. He's also making all sorts of new sounds & loves blowing bubbles with his tongue. A completely hilarious thing that he has started doing the last week is shaking his head no. He has no idea it means no (obviously), but it's still pretty darn cute & funny. He still is enamored with his older brother & thinks that everything he does is interesting or funny. Carter can probably get him to laugh (without touching him) more then anyone else.

Physical: He is now sitting pretty well unassisted, but I still wouldn't say he is a pro at it yet. If he would sit still it wouldn't be an issue, but since he has to constantly try to reach for this, that & the other while sitting he often falls over. Fortunately, he's learned how to catch himself for the most part & usually ends up on his belly after falling over. He currently prefers to play either on his back or standing up. When I say on his back though, that doesn't mean he will stay that way. He ROLLS all around now & will do this to get to where or what he wants. For a kid who doesn't crawl yet, he is VERY mobile. He still does not prefer to spend a lot of time on his tummy & will only tolerate tummy time for short periods before rolling out of it (literally). He still loves being in his exersaucer or johnny jumper since he can stand unassisted, but he now prefers to have mommy jump him instead of doing it himself. He loves to be in a standing position & bend his legs when I'm holding him so that he can bounce. He finds this to be utterly hilarious. Anything & everything he can grab still goes directly into his mouth & he rarely ever sits still. He is constantly waving his arms around or grabbing something/someone & kicking, always kicking. When placed on the changing table he's started to do this thing where he tries to flip off of his back so that's always fun. It makes changing him a million times harder since he's constantly squirming now. He will still sit in his Bumbo chair occasionally, but doesn't like it as much anymore because it's stationary & he doesn't want to be. He also does not like sitting in his swing or his car seat & will try to wiggle himself out of both of them if not buckled in. It's super annoying! lol He can't sleep on our bed anymore without us in it since he rolls around so much & we are afraid of him rolling off the bed. He can get his paci into his mouth 100% of the time now & often times even when he cries at night I will find him with his paci in his hand already by the time I get into the room. He still pulls my hair ALL of the time & has now taken to grabbing my nose or pinching me as well. Oi! He still thinks being upside-down is fabulous & peek-a-boo is still currently his favorite game. He enjoys splashing in the bathtub (it gets worse every time) & just discovered that being squirted with bath toys is the best thing ever.

Likes: Being nakey, bath time, milk, solids, playing with his sippy cup, bouncing, his brother, being tickled, playing peek-a-boo, chewing on anything & everything.

Dislikes: Diaper changes, getting dressed, wearing pajamas, taking naps, having to wait for anything, being alone, being in the car