Jenson update: Six months old!

(most of this post was written about 3 weeks ago)

I can’t bear to think that he’s 6 months old…but he is.  We finally started to get some warmer weather.  And by started, I mean like a couple of days between 50 and 65 degrees.  We actually went outside!  And sometimes we didn’t have to be too concerned with him being warm enough!

We booked our flights for Vegas in May and ended up getting Jenson his own seat…for a variety of reasons, including it being such a long flight and that he still sleeps okay in his seat, not wanting to be crowded with a stranger in our row, having a car seat with us (and not wanting it to get banged around during gate check).  Since we can afford it, it seemed to make the most sense to do whatever we could to make all of us comfortable during his first flight.

Monthly Jenson update:  March 6 – April 5, 2014

• Age:  6 months and some change, by the time of posting.
• Weight:  15 lbs, 8 oz. at 6 months  He’s a little bugger but looks so big because of his cheeks and chins!
• Length:  25.5 inches.  I swear I measured him at 26 inches at home, but it’s not an exact science.
• Size:  He’s in 3-6 months for outfits, but they are getting short, 6 months Carter’s brand (still a little big), and some 6-9 month sleepers, depending on brand.  He’s growing out of everything lengthwise, except pants – he has a long torso.  I got some onesie extenders, so that should prolong him wearing some of those.
• Diapers:  Cloth diapers are still going well.  Our favorites seem to be Best Bottoms and Flips, and then Bum Genius Freetime for when he’s going to be in it for longer and we want him to feel dry against his skin.  He wears disposables at night still since he wears the Snuza, and is wearing size 2’s since we ran out of the 1’s.

• Hair and Eyes: His hair is filling in and getting longer, and is still brown.  His eyes seem to be changing ever so slightly, and they are still gorgeous.  They are more grayish blue now – probably on their way to hazel, like ours.  Mine lean towards green, but Lo’s are straight hazel.  He has great lashes too.

• Teeth: None yet, though I’ve been expecting them for over a month now.  He’s still been super-drooly and does a lot of chewing on anything he can get in his mouth, but I guess that just part of being that age.

• Sleeping: Sleep got worse as this month went on.  He went from sleeping through to 6:30, to waking once, to waking twice…and we even had a gem of a night of him waking 5-6 times.  I kind of thought that once he starting sleeping through the night, that would be the norm from then on.  I guess not… But on a positive note, he sometimes wakes when we lay him in his crib at night and if we leave him be, he often will put himself back to sleep after laying there and talking to himself for a few minutes.  He doesn’t do as well at putting himself back to sleep in the night.  The Dr. said not to feed him at night, but what if he’s hungry?!  I don’t want people denying me food if I’m hungry.  I can understand if it’s only been 2-3 hours, but if it’s been 6+ hours since I fed him, I can understand him being hungry.  That being said, I know we are forming bad habits too, so I’m a little torn about this.
  He still takes fairly short naps.  An hour nap is a exception, not a rule – they’re usually closer to 30 minutes.
• Eating: 100% breast milk until over 6 months (though I have given him some since then, but that’ll be in the next update).  I intended to start food around 6 months with Baby Led Weaning, but when we found out he has a tongue and lip tie and scheduled the revision for April 21, I figured we might as well wait until after that to start food. I don’t want him to get used to having food and then have us stop it for a couple of days.  The pediatrician pushed rice cereal a bit, but I think veggies and fruit are a better starting food, from what I read.  They have more nutrients and aren’t as hard on their stomachs.  Either way, I’m not going to force feed him.  If he’s not interested in food, he’s getting all that he needs with breastmilk. This article about delaying solids helped me come to this decision, though it’s been something I’ve been reading about for quite some time.  He’s still not showing interest in what we are eating yet – I’ve even held food towards his mouth to see if he’d open his mouth and he didn’t. But he’s gaining weight (which he should, as often as he eats!), so there’s no need to rush.

• Movement:  The big thing of the month is that he’s sitting up!  He’s not super steady for very long, but when he’s put in a sitting position, he usually can stay there on his own for a bit.  I’m pretty sure he forgot how to roll over now.  He tolerates being on his stomach usually for awhile, and when he’s done, he just cries hard.  We are working on it again though.  He has starting trying to pull his knees up under him when he’s on his tummy, so he’s working towards the next step.  He likes to be pulled to his feet and stand with support too.  You can tell he likes the new view that he gets of things while sitting or standing.  He wiggles around when he’s on his back to move around in his little area.  He has lots of control with his hands and picking up toys and usually putting them in his mouth.  He takes his binkie out of his mouth and looks at it really closely before putting it back in or chewing on the side of it.  His movements are very deliberate now, and it’s awesome to watch.

• Words & Sounds:  He’s doing a lot more babbling than screeching now.  He blows raspberries and bubbles, and love sticking out his tongue (I think he’s trying to tell us he’s not actually tongue-tied).  He still gets quiet around other people or in public, but he’s getting more brave and will make noise now after a few minutes.  He laughs a lot – at sounds, at funny faces, and when we tickle his armpits and thighs.  He just recently started to say consonants.  I was holding him on the couch and he was just making noises and he said “Da”.  Lo and I just looked at each other like “what?!”  We know it’s just sounds so far, but it’s still something new and it just shows us how much he’s growing up (NOOO!).
• Milestones:
  – Sitting up!
  – Saying consonants
  – Falls asleep on his own in crib (at times)
  – Excellent hand control
  – St. Patrick’s Day (we didn’t do anything)

• Favorite Toys/Activities:
  – Sitting up!
  – Watching Boof (and everyone)
  – Having his picture taken.  He’s a total poser now.  If he sees the camera, he smiles and waits for you to take his picture.

– Hanging out in the carrier
– Putting everything his mouth

– Hanging out of his changing table and playing with us.  He loves when I kiss his face (unlike Boof) and opens his mouth as soon as I get close to his face.
– Chewing on his pacifier – he doesn’t usually want to suck on it unless he’s going to sleep or is upset, but he likes to chew on the side of it.
– Enjoys looking at pictures on the fridge of friends and family – especially babies
– He also loves looking at the baby in the mirror, unless he’s cranky, and then he’ll keep turning away from him.
– He loves it when we sing to him, whether they are real or fake songs
– Likes laying in his crib looking/listening to his crib mobile – we don’t turn it on for him to sleep, but I’ll put him in there when I need somewhere safe to stash him when I need to get something done upstairs.
– Loves staring at patterns on his pants, jammies, or socks.  These striped pants blew his mind.

• Dislikes:
  – Rolling over, apparently. He just doesn’t do it anymore
  – Having his neck/chins washed in the bath, though he’s getting better about it
  – Putting on or taking off his onesie/clothes.  I keep telling him that he’s going to have to do this for the rest of his life, but he doesn’t care.