Six months. Half a year. My goodness.
Note: I started this post closer to his six month birthday but then have {obviously} neglected to finish it. Right now (at Miles 6 month birthday) I work 4 days a week in the office and am working from home on Fridays. We are using the month of September to see if this is a good plan. To see if I'm getting enough done at work and to see how it's going. We will re-evaluate at the end of the month and see if anything needs to change. I also understand that this is a lot of text so if you want to skip ahead to just look at the cute pictures go for it...they are the bottom of the post. I like keeping track of all this information for myself so I can look back and see where we were at different points in Miles life. He's changing so much now that it's really fun to see all the changes that happen month to month.
Stats: We have official stats this month since he had a doctor appointment.
- Weight: 18 pounds, 7 ounces (69%)
- Height: 26 3/4 inches (61%)
- Head: 45 cm (92%!!!...and I wonder why I needed a c-section)
Likes: This will blend with his 7 month post (in 5 days) but it's worth saying.
- Ergo - loves being carried in the Ergo and it's an almost guarantee nap if we are having trouble getting him to sleep.
- Exersaucer - we received this as a hand-me-down and Miles LOVES it (video evidence below)
- Smiling/laughing - he is a very social kiddo and he really likes people and has really started laughing more
- Kirky - Miles has really started to notice the cat more and will follow him as he crosses the room. He laughs when Kirky jumps on things and will try and reach out and grab him if he gets too close. The feeling is mostly mutual as Kirky does come up and lick Miles.
- Chewing on everything & drooling
- Bath time - Kid loves the water and really enjoys the bath toys that we have added to the mix
Dislikes:
- Being hungry or tired...c'mon who does actually like being hungry or tired. Usually when he's fussy it's for one of these reasons.
Eating:
- Milk: around 5.5 months I ran out of the frozen breast milk supply. He drinks WAY more milk at daycare then I can pump so we needed/decided to start supplementing with formula. It was a really hard decision for me because I was (and continue) to be determined to breast feed as long as I can...it just will not be exclusively. I am committed to pumping and will admit that I am way less stressed out now since I know that I'll pump what I can pump and then supplement with formula to get him what he needs. Knowing that he'll be getting over 1/2 his milk every day from breast milk makes me happy and the rest will be from formula and all that matters is that he is fed and happy and thriving. At work I pump three times a day (9:30am, 12:30pm, and 3:30pm) and get on average from 14-18 ounces a day in total. We use this formula and mix bottles with at least 1/2 breast milk 1/2 formula often it's more breast milk. I still nurse him during the night, first thing in the morning and in the evening before bed. I still nurse him to sleep.
- Solids: When Miles turned 5 months old we began "introducing" solid food. We gave him some rice cereal and then some banana a week or so after that. It was a good start. The banana did some funky stuff to his poops (black squigglies...sorry if that's TMI) and I freaked out but it didn't seem to bother him and his doctor didn't seem concerned at all either. At his 6 month appointment we got the green light to move forward with solid food so stay tuned to hear how that's been going.
Sleep:
- Routine: On a "normal" day here is what sleeping looks like (I plan to do a "day-in-the-life" post soon to capture how our days look now)
- He still wakes up at 2am and 5am pretty consistently. At 2am he nurses quickly in the glider chair (5 minutes max) and then I transfer him back to his crib and he falls back asleep with no trouble. At 5am we usually get up and change his diaper (Matt) and then I feed him side-lying in bed and we can usually get him to fall back asleep this way.
- He takes two naps a day...in the swing still...but it's working so we are doing it. He naps in the swing at home and at daycare. He is still swaddled for naps. We use the Aden & Anais swaddle blankets and just wrap his arms so that we can still buckle him into the seat. His naps range from 1-2 hours each but 1.5 hours is about average.
Diapers:
- Size 3: We use the Honest company disposable diapers for daycare, travel and nighttime. They are amazing! We haven't had ANY diaper rash since we moved out of the Pampers newborn diapers. We do preventatively put some Aquaphor ointment on him but only at night before bed. Daycare uses other creams on him but really doesn't need to. I think she does it out of habit and also preventatively.
- Cloth: 4 open snaps across and one up. We use the Bum Genius 4.0 when we are home with him (so 3-days a week and evenings after daycare and before bed). We do about 2 loads of diaper laundry a week so every 3 days. We use this awesome wet bag to store the dirty diapers and it keeps the smell contained and there are no leaks. We have two large bags on rotation. One is being washed while the other is serving a function. We have the "Orange Woods" one and the "Spring Dots" as well. Cloth diapering has come a long way in the last 30 years (and especially in the last 10). These diapers are (dare I say) easy. They are cute, and soft and relatively easy to care for and keep clean. We haven't had much trouble with them. We've never had a blow out and breastfed poop isn't that hard to clean out.
Toys:These are the items that we have in frequent rotation and he really seems fond of them all. A giraffe "theme" has developed not really on purpose but it'll be fun to see if it continues.
- Sophie the Giraffe: I have heard this referred to as "baby crack" and I have to say that it's true. Miles loves this dang toy. Loves chewing on it and loves bending her legs and neck (like he's snapping into a Slim Jim) and when he's on his back playing on the ground he'll slap her so she'll squeak.
- Giraffe Lovey: We received one as a gift before Miles was born and this has been the go-to security item. He does all his naps with it. I decided to buy two more so he has one in his daycare bag, one at home and mama gets to keep on in my pumping back at work.
- Giraffe White Noise
- Sassy Rattlin Ring (ours is a different color pattern but it's this same style)
- Sassy Bird (we have the green one and it's the mainstay on his car seat)
- Freddie the Firefly
- Sassy Loopy Ball
- Blue Teddy Bear Wubbanub (he doesn't actually use this as a pacifier, he uses it to chew on and stare at the bear)
- Haba Salto Rattle
Development:
- Sitting up - Can sit for a short while on his own before toppling over. We either sit behind him or use the boppy as bumper for when he decides he doesn't want to sit up anymore and just leans backwards
- Cobra "push ups" - Tummy time is turing into pre-crawling time these giant push ups also lead into scooching backwards a bit
- I am forgetting what was between 5-6 months and what was 6-7 months so there will be more on this in the 7 month post because it's been a big month.
Ok...cue the cute photos! See you for the 7 month post in about a week!!
Miles - Exersaucer from Home Sweet Oakland on Vimeo.
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