Riley is 6 Months!

Health: This month was not awesome in the health department. After a family trip to Flagstaff he got a cold, which led to pink eye and an ear infection. Thankfully, I caught the pink eye really early – it was still in the beginning stages. I didn’t know (until Dr Google told me) that kids can get pink eye when they are sick with a cold, the infection starts viral and becomes bacterial in hours. The white part of his eye was only slightly red when I saw it. He also had the beginning of an ear infection on the same side. Poor guy. He wasn’t upset about any of it and was very happy and all smiles at the doctor appointment. The worst part was having to give him the antibiotics. He would spit most of it back out all over him and me – so giving the does 2x a day was zero fun. It also hurt his little tummy and have him the runs :( After talking to the doctor I took the dose down to half but it still didn’t give him much relief. In other news we have TWO TEETH!! The first came through on New Years day, and the second 2 days later. We’re all so happy that’s done! His little rabbit teeth are sharp, but really cute too :) I downloaded this chart to keep track of the next set coming in – but I know they’ll come through early than they predict.

Sleep:  Dare I say…it’s going really well. It clicked this month. After he was feeling better we moved him into his nursery full time. All three of us are sleeping SO much better. It wasn’t terrible having him in our room in the pack n’ play – I moved him across the room last month – but I felt like it was time for him to have his own space. We put in the hard work for self-soothing last month, which was huge for the transition. It’s totally amazing to see that something we’ve helped him learn is sticking, and he has the tools and ability to get to sleep on his own. When we were working on self-soothing we would roll him onto his side, and pat his back until he calmed down and fell asleep. We also started giving him a comfort item (lovie?) that he he rubs on his face, or with his hands to fall asleep. We also know his sleepy cues – one yawn, or some face rubbing that he’s ready. Almost exactly 2 hours from waking up. I take him into his room, swaddle him (arms out) close the blinds, turn off the light, hand him his lamb, and turn on the sound machine. Give him a kiss and wish him a good sleep and LEAVE. I watch him on the monitor and he rolls from one side to the other, rubs his lamb and falls asleep. Each and every time he does it I’m so proud of him. He’ll even wake up 45 min later, roll over and go back to sleep. We didn’t do any super harsh sleep training, yes – there were protest cries, but he knew we were there, rubbing his back and before I started leaving him alone to fall asleep I would sit in the glider until he feel asleep so he didn’t feel abandoned. He takes two 1.5 – 2 hour naps, and a 45 min cat nap later in the day. Bedtime is between 8pm and 8:30pm. I do a dream feed before I go to bed at 10pm and he sleeps until 7:00am. He wakes up in the morning and rolls around talking to himself for about 30min before I go get him and we start the day.

Nursing: When I was in college I took a “world nutrition class” where we learned about the benefits of breastfeeding – long before I was pregnant I knew I wanted to do everything I could to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, per the World Health Organization’s recommendation. If I made it to 6 months I would try for another 6 months to see if we could make it to a full year. Well, we’ve made it 6 months and I’m so thankful and proud. He’s chomped down once with his rabbit teeth – but so far we’re still doing well. We’ve stopped battling the bottle. He’s on a 4 hour schedule now – totally his doing. When he was ready he made the switch. Sometimes he’ll still want to eat at 3.5 hours, but we’re almost 90% on a 4 hour schedule. That gives me enough time to do things away from him, and since we’ve been working from home it’s fine. We’re giving him a “training” sippy cup now and solids are starting so I’m not worried about it. He’s much more interested and happy with the sippy cup anyway. We’ve decided to skip baby cereal and purees and do Baby Led Weaning. Like the Bradley method – and our attitude about natural birth, it’s just common sense, and less stress. My Mom fed me this way, so I’ve talked to her about it a lot too. I know that trying to spoon mush into Riley’s mouth is just going to frustrate us both – if it’s anything like his attitude with the bottle ;) So far he’s tried bananas, sweet potatoes, peas, blueberries and mashed potatoes. Sometimes it makes it into his mouth and sometimes it’s in his hair, all over the high chair or hits the floor. It’s pretty entertaining and he loves sitting with us during meals and “participating.” Going out to eat I think we need to stat putting him into a high chair – because if I’m holding him he’s taking swipes at my plate for food.

PostPartum: I had my 6 month PP check up on Monday – all is well. I’m so thankful that I’ve had an easy recovery and I’m back into all my pre-baby clothing and jeans :) My body shape is a little different, and I’m something like 10lbs heavier than I was pre-Riley, but it’s all good. I know it’s normal to carry a little extra lbs while breastfeeding, and honestly – I think it’s all in my #nursingboobies. I really need to get fitted for a new bra – but for now I’m just keep rockin’ the nursing ones. SO classy and sexy I might add ;) I celebrated 28 years this month. Pretty awesome and crazy that I’m a Mama now. My mom was 28 when she had me, and I always hoped I’d be on the path to starting a family at this point in my life, but it’s crazy that it’s here and happening.