6 Months

Noah is just about 6 months old now (February 28) and I realize that I haven't posted anything since he was 2 months old. I've been inspired by other moms who have been much more diligently blogging about their children's growth and development. It's so easy to just not blog because there is so much going on, but I know that if I don't, I'll regret it later on because it's so easy to forget! I need to think really hard just to remember what he was like as a newborn, and it really wasn't that long ago.

Overall, Noah is a very happy, joyful, and active baby. It isn't hard to elicit a smile from him these days. He also giggles when he's excited - like when he's been playing alone for a while and then I come back into view. He gets really excited and starts giggling. When he wakes up from naps, sometimes he's still a bit cranky and will start crying and kicking, but other times he wakes up well-rested and happy. When he wakes up happy, he's very excited when he sees me or Peter approach the crib. He smiles, giggles, kicks & coos excitedly. Warms my heart every time. :) He also loves the jumperoo.

Developmentally, Noah is at an age where he should be starting to sit up with minimal/no support and might be starting to teethe. He's not much into sitting up yet. I've been working on getting him to sit up, but every time I sit him up, he sees his feet and wants to lean over and play with them. I get his attention by saying his name, and then he'll look up, but after a few seconds, he's back to his feet again. Sometimes he takes off his socks. He also is more interested in rolling around, so when I get him into a sitting position, he often prefers to just tip over and roll. For the past few weeks he's been rolling only to his left and will roll until there's no more room to roll in that direction. I try to encourage him to go the other way and he usually resists, but lately he's been more cooperative. As for teething, I've been seeing a lot of drooling and I can see 2 little bumps, so I think those 2 bottom teeth are starting to make an entrance!

I'm not sure where food fits in, but Noah has been eating solids well for the past 2 months or so. I've read/heard from a lot of people and books that babies should be fed breastmilk exclusively for the first 6 months, but every time I was eating Noah would just stare at me, and by 4 months he had more than doubled his birth weight so I asked the Dr. if it was okay, and he said it was fine. So far, Noah has eaten rice cereal, pears, apples, carrots, peas, squash, bananas, prunes, and broccoli. He seems to like pears the best, but eats everything else pretty willingly, except for rice cereal by itself. I guess it's a bit bland. He doesn't really like eating solids in the morning though. I always nurse first to make sure that he gets enough milk, but even then he doesn't really like solids in the morning. I tried heating up the food once to see if it would be more palatable, but he tasted a little bit and gave a disgusted look. Haha!

Noah has been sleeping on a pretty regular schedule for the past few months now, which I'm very thankful for. He had started sleeping through the night (until 6:30~7 am) at around 3 months, but abandoned that after about a month and started waking up some time between 4 and 5 am for a feeding. That was a bit annoying since I was just starting to get used to getting some real, uninterrupted sleep, but I don't think I can really complain that much. We typically start the day some time between 7:30 and 8 am with a feed, then Noah takes his morning nap from 9:00-10:00. We'll run some errands maybe, then be back home for a feeding at 11:30, and nap for 2 hours (12~12:30 until 2~2:30 pm). He starts getting tired again at around 4:30, but tends to be resistant to napping at this time so he is just kind of fussy until 5:30 when I start the night-time routine of bath-feeding-storytime-bedtime and then usually falls asleep at around 6:45. I'll wake him at around 10pm for one last feed, then we start a new day at 6:30am! I know that teething will likely disrupt this "schedule" but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. That 2 hour time slot in the middle of the day is awesome. I get to eat, watch tv, lounge around...it's the life.

I guess that's it for now. I'm looking forward to the warmer days ahead. Since Noah is older, he may actually be able to use the swings at the park, and I'll be able to actually jog with him in the jogging stroller. Noah is also going to start a "swim" class next week. He loves splashing around in the bath tub, so I'm hoping he'll like the pool.