Gerrit: 6 Months

Another late one… I really miss my laptop! 😦 Unfortunately, fixing it is not high on the priority list right now following an international move and buying a new home. Sad mommy.

Age:  6 months on 27 April 2015
Weight: 19.5 lbs
Height: 27 inches
Teeth: none
Clothing Size: a few 6-9 months & 9 months
Diaper Size: size 3
Milestones: sitting up unassisted, regularly rolling over (mostly from back to tummy), baths in the big tub, sleeping in his own room, discovering his tongue (spitting)

Sleeping: After enduring Wonder Week 19 (seriously not funny… it lasts 5 weeks!), things definitely improved with Gerrit’s sleep! Just a few days after Gerrit turned 5 months old, we moved into our new house and also moved him into his own room. We still are nowhere near him sleeping through the night, but his stretches of sleep are not as short as they had been. His longest stretch by 6 months was just over 4 hours, and he was spending almost the whole night in his own bed. Right before he turned 6 months, I was bringing him to bed with me between 4:30 & 5:00 in the morning to get about 2 more hours of sleep. Halfway through the month, Gerrit started falling asleep on his own again once in awhile too! If I nursed him back to sleep and he woke up when I put him down in his crib, he almost always put himself back to sleep on his own. Yay!

Naps are starting to get better. After Gerrit turned 5 months, he was still taking 4 naps a day sometimes, but over the course of the month, that went down to 3 naps. I still nap with him at least once a day (usually the morning nap). His long nap of the day is about 2 hours long, and his short ones are 30-45 minutes long. By mid-April, Gerrit was occasionally falling asleep on his own again for some naps too!

 

I finally started to see a pattern emerge too! Once we moved Gerrit into his own room, bedtime started getting easier. And when he dropped that fourth nap, bedtime moved earlier, which meant FREEDOM! for this mommy! 🙂 We started out the month with bedtime in the 8:00 hour, but by the end of the month it was usually in the 7:00 hour.

Eating: Gerrit is still eating frequently at night, although on good nights it’s only 4 times. He also still does his best eating during the day before naps. It’s hard to get a decent feeding in him when he’s on and off the breast so much during the day, so I think he keeps the same eating schedule every 24 hours regardless of it being night or day! He has also started “biting” me when he eats. It’s not so much when he’s actively nursing but more after he’s done and just comfort nursing. Thank goodness there are no teeth in there, because when he clamps down with his gums it HURTS! I usually firmly tell him, “We don’t bite. That hurts Mommy.” and he will give me this shocked look. But I don’t think he really understands what’s going on yet.

Mommy Update: The start of the month was rough. I was trying to sleep train Gerrit, and it really stressed me out and upset me. Needless to say, I didn’t continue with it for very long. Once I stopped obsessing over the sleep so much, I started feeling a lot happier.

The first week or so of the month was rough because we were in our new house… with no furniture! So once that got delivered, we started settling in, and I started to feel better about life. I think it was hard on me moving Gerrit to his own room too. That separation that I thought I wanted was harder to deal with than I thought it would be! If he unexpectedly slept longer than usual, I worried he had stopped breathing. And I hated crossing the house in the middle of the night for feedings at first. But it made it easier not to bring him to bed with me since I wasn’t nursing in the warm, cozy bed anymore!

Settling into our house and getting our household goods meant I started getting back into regularly cooking meals again! I think having good meals (versus processed meals and eating out) probably helped my mood.

Best Moments: Buying and moving into our first house! Everything was finalized on my 30th birthday, and we moved in that day as well (just a few days after Gerrit turned 5 months old).

I think our other best moment was getting Gerrit into his own room. It meant more one-on-one time for Andrew & me and better sleep for me as well.

Likes & Dislikes: Gerrit still likes standing on us a lot. He also likes sitting now that he’s able to! I think it makes it easier on both of us during playtime now that he can sit on his own.

Gerrit likes bath time too! We moved him into the big tub right around when he turned 5 months. It took him awhile to realize he had more room, I think, but once he learned to splash and move around a bit, he started having fun.

While I still don’t think Gerrit likes to go to sleep, he doesn’t hate it as much as he used to. He still doesn’t like tummy time, but I often find that he has rolled onto his tummy in his crib to sleep. Go figure.

Memorable Events: The big one that I already mentioned was moving into our house! Most of the month of April was spent unpacking and settling in.

Learning to drive:

Just kidding… this is when we went to get the Hyundai (which was shipped over from England). We stopped for Gerrit to eat, and he sat with Andrew and played with the steering wheel for a bit.

Gerrit also celebrated his first Easter!

Gerrit discovered his tongue:

He started sticking out his tongue all the time and learned how to blow bubbles/spit. Sometimes it’s cute and funny… not so much when he does it while nursing. I’ve gotten sprayed with a mouthful of milk more than once.

Gerrit made his first piece of artwork the day he turned 6 month! I started it taped to the floor, but he wasn’t loving tummy time.

Then I tried taping it to the window so he could stand up and paint.
And in the end, he just crumpled it up and tried to eat it!

But here’s the finished product: 

 

Overall Gerrit’s 6th month was pretty good. It started out a little rough, but it definitely improved as it went on. It seems crazy to think that my little baby is already 6 months old! In some ways, time has dragged: dealing with the move and living out of suitcases while trying to maintain normalcy for Gerrit was stressful and exhausting. But I also can’t believe we’re already through the first half of his first year. I love my little guy so much!