Life with Holden: 6.5 Months

Stats: 

Weight: 14 pounds, 9 ounces (2% UGH)

Length: 27.5 inches (69%)

Head: 43.8cm (51%)

Diapers: Size 3 disposables (Huggies Little Movers) & 3rd snap, lowest rise in our cloth.

Clothing: We finally put away the 3 & the 3-6 month stuff. He is mostly in 6 month stuff right now, but I have started putting him in some 9 month things as well.

Shoes: Barely in size 2s, his feet are HUGE! I best start putting him in his 2.5s that I have for him since he will likely grow out of them in NO time. Oi!

Milestones:

04/20: First Easter. It was SO much fun! He absolutely loved his Easter basket & knew exactly what to do. It sucked that we couldn't be with our extended family, but at least our little family got to be together.

04/23: First Cold. It was pretty mild, thankfully. He has a runny nose & cough still, but is definitely on the up & up now. He was pretty grumpy for a few days & slept a lot during the day & really crappy at night. He only got a fever one day, fortunately.

04/27: First Ferry ride. He stayed in the car seat, so not super notable. lol First 6-9 month outfit. Finally!! How he can seem so big to me yet be so small, I have no idea.

04/30: First time sitting in the front of the shopping cart. He did great, except he tried to chew on EVERYTHING. And I mean, EVERYTHING. Thank goodness for the new cart cover I picked up a while back.

Nursing: Still going very, very well. Honestly, nothing new to add. We tried to give him a bottle once while he was ill & it was STILL a no-go. I give up, no bottles ever again. He's still nursing 100% on demand & usually nurses anywhere between every 2 hours to 3.5 hours during the day.

Solids: He LOVES food! BLW is going well & I love having one kiddo who will try anything you put in front of him. He usually has two meals of solids daily & just kind of eats until he loses interest. Sometimes he eats barely anything & other times he pigs out! He usually eats more at dinner then at breakfast. This last couple weeks he has had Apple, Cheddar Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Carrots, Plum, Prunes, Peaches & Green Beans. We will likely try Yogurt, Squash, Apricots, Nectarines, & Mangos next, but honestly it's just kind of what we are having. I've been pretty lax about giving him certain foods (ie cheese, white potatoes) "out of order" for his age, but I am going to speak with my Pedi before we introduce anything else he's "not supposed to have" yet. We will avoid the obvious no-nos for now (ie honey, peanut butter, cow's milk), but I'd like to be able to be adventurous with him & not have to constantly accommodate away from what the rest of us are eating. His favorites thus far are avocado, cheddar cheese & peaches. His least favorites are still bananas & sweet potatoes.

Sleep: Could be worse, could be better. While he was sick he had a couple pretty terrible nights, where he was waking about every half hour or so & just sleeping very restlessly & lightly. I am so thankful that it only last a few nights. He's going through a phase for sure right now where he does NOT want to sleep alone. As soon as he was feeling well we resumed sleep training. It's definitely difficult trying to have the boys share a room at these ages so we may have to reassess the situation until Holden starts sleeping completely through the night. He is still going down for the night between 6:30 & 7PM, waking around 10:30PM (but I haven't been feeding him unless I'm going to bed at this time) & then again around 4:30AM to eat. He will usually wake again around 6:30/7AM & sometimes will eat & go back down until 9/9:30AM. He is starting to finally take two naps daily consistently & they have been in the crib. He usually sleeps about 45 mins-1.5 hours, but usually closer to the 45 mins unfortunately. He goes down in the crib & usually stays there until we go to bed then he moves into our bed. I'm considering moving the crib into our room to get him sleeping in it consistently & not waking his brother (or vice versa. Both are equally guilty.). So although his sleep is not perfect, it's slowly improving. I know he will sleep through the night when he's ready & I'm not too bothered by his current wake schedule.

Elimination: Oi! I feel like this is never going to be good/regular. I know that's not true, but the poor kid deals with way more gas & discomfort then he should have to at this point. I honestly don't know what to do at this point. Gas drops work sometimes, but other times don't seem to do much at all. I know this is a lot of the reason that his sleep is so crappy. Other then cutting out a bunch of what I am eating to try to find the problem, I am out of solutions. This is another area I plan to address at his Pedi appt on Monday.

Health: He had his first cold this last couple weeks. =( Fortunately, it was pretty mild, but we did have a few bad days/nights. He still has a bit of a runny nose & a cough, but his mood has improved a lot & he should be better any day now based on the course C & K went through. He still seems to be teething, but I think his teeth have currently taken a backseat to all of his other issues (ie cold, gas pains). He is still chewing on EVERYTHING, but he only drools a lot now when he's hungry. Still no sign of any pearly whites at this point.

Social: He hasn't had a lot of interactions the last few weeks with anyone other then strangers or simply smile or talk to him. He's been okay with that, but I'm not sure how he would take to someone picking him up or trying to touch him. It's hard to know where his stranger danger situation is at when we haven't been presented with the opportunity. We will see where he's at with this in a few days when we head to our hometown for the weekend. He absolutely LOVES his brother & thinks that he can literally do no wrong. C can get him to smile & laugh at the silliest things & even when he is in the worst mood. H also really has taken notice of our dog & finds trying to "pet" him fascinating & funny. Jack is pretty good with him thus far, but we try to avoid letting the dog give him kisses at this point. He is still very, very serious & very, very opinionated compared to his brother. I like to refer to him as MY child because he is ALL me. He has a little attitude already & if he doesn't like something he will be more then happy to let you know it. He definitely tests us & knows exactly how to go about getting our attention. He is VERY impatient & when he wants something, he wants it NOW. He is a lot more independent already then his brother was at this age & prefers to play by himself. He loves his reflection in the mirror & often gets very excited about seeing "that baby" in the mirror & now tries to give himself kisses. He hasn't been babbling as much lately, but he does love to "scream". It's a pretty hilarious noise & it PURE happiness. It's so loud & it's soo funny. You would think it would be annoying, but it's too cute to drive me insane.

Physical: He is sitting up so well now! I would definitely say that he has it down for the most part. He still falls over occasionally, but I think it's more now because he doesn't know how else to change positions. He doesn't usually cry when he falls over, nor does he ever fall very hard. I rarely set him up with the pillow behind him anymore. He still hates being on his tummy, but does tolerate it a little bit better then previously. He hasn't really made a lot of moves to head toward crawling just yet, but he does still roll around & stretch to get to things that he wants. He loves standing up & enjoys playing in his exersaucer more then anything else. He can now support his weight on his own for a short period of time while standing if he is holding onto something. His other favorite toys include his kick n' play piano & his giggle gang baby. He's still putting everything in his mouth & I mean EVERYTHING! We have to watch what is within his reach because if he can get to it, it's in his mouth. He is a very mean little baby & loves to pull hair, grab noses/faces & kick us! lol I'm trying to teach him boundaries & that these things hurt us, but obviously he's only 6 months old so it's not exactly effective at this point. =) We will work on it as he grows & learns.

Likes: Being nakey, bath time, his brother, Jack (our dog), milk, his momma, cheese, mashed potatoes, his exersaucer, giggle gang pal, playing peek-a-boo

Dislikes: Diaper changes, getting dressed, being in the car seat for extended periods of time, sleeping alone, naps, having to wait for anything, having gas