We’ve made it half way around the sun with Jack. We celebrated his six month birthday a few weeks ago (I am getting this posted just a week and a half shy of him turning 7 months old) and I am in constant disbelief that he keeps growing and getting older. While I long for his newborn days and snuggles, I love how much of a personality he has developed in the past few months. He’s no longer this fragile baby (he’s weighed 16 pounds 11 oz and is 26″ long at his last appointment), he’s rolling over, scooting around in circles, sitting up on his own, and has even started eating food! You rarely find him with out a smile and his belly laughs can turn any day around.
We introduced baby food to Jack a little after five months. I started with purees and after his six month well check, we’ve slowly started to introduce real food. He loves to feed himself with GOOtencils, isn’t a huge fan of bananas, and loves PB toast. Both the pediatrician and course I took to educate myself on baby led weaning (Feeding Littles) suggests introducing your little one to allergens as soon as possible. I wanted to make sure we had the go ahead from his doctor because of Jack’s eczema flare ups. But so far, so good! I’ve also given the go ahead for daycare to give him food at breakfast and lunch, and some snack times. He loves raspberries, blueberries, and yogurt. They even tried beef stroganoff!
Jack is sleeping through the night when we wants to, but still gets up (usually) once a night to eat. The pediatrician says its now out of habit and I can start, when I’m ready (haha he knows), to wean the night feed and that Jack knows I’ll feed him if I go in the room in the middle of the night. He has me wrapped around his sweet little finger. A few weeks ago I would have said, “No way, I don’t mind it.” But after a month of crazy travel and sickness, I’m ready to get a full night of sleep again. I’ve been debating taking the 5-24 month course from Taking Cara Babies. We travel for the first time overnight without Jack in August and I’m hoping to have said goodbye to the night feed so Jack isn’t pestering his Grandmother in the middle of the night when she babysits. Am I the only one who savors the night feed, it’s extra snuggles for me that I don’t get during the day. It’s selfish, but can anyone relate?
We lost our beloved swaddle when Jack started to roll. I quit both the swaddle and the Dock a Tot within days of one another. It wasn’t hard to transition out of either item, but it was more the struggle Jack had for a few weeks while he was learning to roll from his stomach to his back (he had mastered rolling from his back to his stomach). Once he mastered that skill, sleep came much easier for all of us. Now we use the 50/50 Love to Dream Swaddle for his arms to be out or we have a Nested Bean swaddle I picked up from a sale bin at Buy Buy Baby that also allows for arms out but gives me peace of mind that my baby is staying warm enough at night.
Jack is doing great at daycare! He loves his teachers and we get daily updates. By far our favorite activity he’s been able to do is participate in Water Day. He is a water baby and has the best time splashing around in the pool they set up in his room. They are too little to put outside so they set up a pool with baskets in it, put the baby in the basket so they can sit up and play. Genius.
Jack traveled for the first couple of times in June. He’s been to his first wedding reception, and two family reunions. He was great in the car for the first two trips and the third trip home we had our first crying meltdown. I think it was in part that he was recovering from croup along with the extreme Iowa heat and had a fever (we didn’t know until we got home). His schedule was pretty much non-existent the weekends we traveled, but we tried to remain calm and flexible, which is the biggest thing I learned from Taking Cara Babies. He will get back on schedule when we get home. He fought bedtime most nights while traveling because we were out and about, and he was definitely overtired, but still pretty content. Once we were able to get him back to the hotel room, around 10 or 11pm, I would feed him to sleep and then he’d have his normal wake times.
In June we saw our first big sickness with Jack, as I mentioned earlier. He battled croup for about a week and a half. Between coughing, his teething (but no teeth yet), and fevers here and there, he still managed to be the happiest sick baby. However, his daycare germs are wreaking havoc on our house. I was down for the count with strep and an ear infection and Cody was under the weather as well. Update: As of this week (7/20), he cut his two bottom front teeth!
Jack has now met the majority of his extended family after all of his travels in June. He met his Great Great Grandpa a few weekends ago and got to see his Great Great Grandma again, both for their respective birthdays. Truly special moments.
I can’t wait to see what the next few months bring, and while I am excited to see him grow and change, a part of me wants him to remain this little forever!
We can’t forget about his four and five month photos!
