Watch Me Grow: 6 Months

Well, it's been half a year since our family was blessed with a new little boy!  The time has gone quickly and slowly at the same time.  But he hit a few big milestones this month that made me realize just how quickly he's growing up.

Eating:

• Carter is still my chamption nurser.  He loves to eat, but is starting to go a few longer stretches between feedings during the day.  He'll usually go 3 (sometimes 4) hours between eating.  And I've noticed that's helped with the spit-up too.  I'm finding he really only needs to eat every 3 hours and when he nurses more often than that, he spits up a lot. Too much food in his tummy apparantly.
• Just a few days ago, Carter has his first taste of "real" food.  We gave him some avocado and he had a lot of fun playing with it.  Some even made it in his mouth.  This milestone kinda made me sad.  I know he's six months old and ready for food, but he still seems like my little baby to me.  He can't possibly be eating food.  And although his eating food is more for the experience than for actual nutrition, I know we're headed down the road where he'll nurse less and eat more.  It's good, it just makes me a little sad.
• Another reason this new food eating makes me sad is the diapers.  Before, Carters' poopy diapers were sweet smelling and no problem to change.  But now??  Oh sweet mercy that avocado poop smells awful!  And since he's in cloth diapers I can't just wrap it up and throw it away.

Sleeping

• Oh, where do I even begin?  Most of the month had been the same as before.  Fighting every nap, not sleeping nearly long enough during the day and lots and lots of crying.  I starting reading the book No Cry Sleep Solution which promised me a happier baby who takes regular naps and sleeps through the night.  I was very leary at first (clearly, this lady had never met my baby) but we were desperate for answers and willing to try anything.
• Through reading this book, I realized Carter didn't have any kind of consistent nap schedule and part of that was my fault.  Some mornings we were home, other days we were at story time or a friends house.  Sometime he slept in his car seat, other times not.  The afternoons were hit and miss too with naps since he fought them so hard.  So usually he would become so overtired he would scream and scream at me, unable to calm down to sleep.  So just last week I started working to change that.  (Please don't think I'm boasting that I discovered the answer to this problem - we're just willing to try anything to help Carter sleep and I'm documenting our progress.  Or lack of progress.  We'll see how it turns out)
• I've started trying to notice his sleep cues before he gets too overtired - which is when the screaming starts.  When he becomes a bit fussy, starts rubbing his eyes or yawning, I know he's ready for a nap.
• Carter has been taking a mid-morning nap, usually around 10am.  If we're going to be gone that morning, I'll try to get him to fall asleep in his carseat.  (He sleeps like a champ in that thing)  If we've arrived at our destination and he's still awake, I'll drive around the block a few more times until he's alseep.
• In the afternoon, Brooks goes down for a nap around 1 and Carter is usually ready for a nap shortly after.  So we'll nurse or rock and though he'll scream at me for 10-15 minutes, he'll eventually give in and fall asleep.  On a good day, he'll nap for 1 1/2 - 2 hours in the afternoon.  On a not so good day, he'll sleep 45 minutes.  On those days I'll have to try to put him to sleep again so he can get the amount of sleep he needs (I usually shoot for a minimum 1 hour nap)
• Carter will then usually take a short nap in the early evening, around 5:30.  That's my least favorite nap because I'm trying to cook supper at that time.  Chris comes home around 5:15, so most nights we can tag-team Carter and cooking and make it work.  I'll be happy when he gets a little older and can skip that nap altogether.
• We've started putting Carter to bed earlier in the evening, around 8:30pm (instead of 9 or 10)  Again, he'll cry for about 10-15 minutes (sometimes longer) while we rock him but he'll eventually fall asleep and sleep for the night.
• Although we've seen a little improvement during daytime naps, the nighttime sleep has become a struggle.  He's waking more in the night - not necessarily hungry, just awake.  And the last several mornings he's ready to be up for the day at 6am!  He's wide awake and smiling.  I'm not.  I'll nurse him in hopes he goes back to sleep.  Sometimes he does.  Sometimes he doesn't.  Oh how I live for the day when Carter won't scream at me whenever he's tired and will sleep consistently.

New Discoveries:

• Carter is exploring everything.  And by explore I mean, put it his mouth. Teething is in full swing!
• Carter has teeth!!  (ok, that's not really a "discovery" for him, but it was for me :)  Mid-February Carter finally popped in his first two teeth - the bottom two.  Oh, they're so cute.  You can still hardly see them, but they'll be so cute when they grow in more.  Perhaps that was the cause of a lot of his fussiness.  Perhaps now he'll sleep better.  (well, I can hope, right?)

New Abilities:

• Carter is working so hard to crawl.  He spins in circles on his belly to reach and grab for toys and he's even gotten himself up on all fours a few times!  He's constantly moving, even when he's lying "still".  An arm is waving, a leg is kicking ... something!  We are going to have our hands FULL when this kiddo really takes off and crawls!
• Carter's becoming more efficient at doing things.  He's quicker at rolling over, he easily grabs things (and puts them in his mouth), he's swift to grab my hair.  It's amazing to see just how fast he's growing up.  I love my little boy and although these last several month have been challenging, I still enjoy watching him grow and learn and discover new things.  I don't think it will ever get old.

me and my buddy at the Washington Pavillion