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| So serious |
Finally a juicy post! On Monday, Baby Bird turned 6 months old. Things of note:
1. He weighed in at his wellness visit at 21 lbs. Even though my back and knees may not appreciate it when I lumber up to our third-floor apartment, I see this as somewhat of an accomplishment. Baby Bird is predominately fed with breast milk, so the fact that I've gotten him this big is a source of pride. When we brought him home from the hospital, I was having trouble getting him to latch and so at our one week appointment at the pediatrician he was failing to gain weight. Fast forward through a few weeks of struggle to solidify latch and then finally produce enough to stop supplementing with formula and he was gaining 2 ounces a day. The one thing that saves me from thinking that I am not producing a buddha is that his head's so big. Baby Bird is nice and chunky, but proportionate... around 70th percentile for both height and weight.
2. Speaking of which he's 27 1/2 inches tall, plus or minus a half inch (I am not convinced of the accuracy of the pediatrician's measurement, she did it so fast). He might be closer to 27 inches than 27.5. But either way, he's still already almost as long as the changing pad on the dresser, and I'm struggling to keep the majority of his torso (his legs were left to fend for themselves long ago) afloat on My Brest Friend.
3. Head circumference: 43.5 cm. All I can think of is "Big head, big head, big head!" (Remember that episode of "Friends"?)
4. So how's sleeping going? Well, I still bedshare with him (or more accurately, reclinershare). He sleeps pretty solidly from about 9:30 pm to 8 am, give or take a half hour or so either way. He'll nap in my lap or the swing in the evenings and then we climb in the recliner at about 11. He'll wake up once or twice to nurse, or just soothe, and then I get out of the chair between 6:30-7:00 am. He usually remains asleep and rocks in the swing for another hour or so while I get ready for work. So on the one hand I feel like he sleeps fairly well, and then I have to remind myself that he is not sleeping on his own and I haven't laid in my own bed in weeks. Sometimes this bothers me, but most of the time it doesn't. Maybe it should but I'll admit, it's kind of nice to snuggle with him at night. I just wouldn't mind being able to snuggle with his dad more often. We've tried to get him to sleep in his crib, but he always works himself into a fit, and P and I are not keen on seeing him cry and cry.
Many tell me that I need to "break him" of this "sleeping on Mommy thing", and I know on some level I should, but every attempt miserably fails, and we give up because well, at least I *can* sleep when I'm with him on the recliner, and it's comfortable enough. Can you tell I'm not convinced, either way? I wish we could just bed share, but until his reflux completely clears (though it might be gone already, we've been weaning him off his meds) he hasn't seemed to do well sleeping on flat surfaces. Plus, and I don't know if this is a mark of postpartum anxiety or what, but I don't sleep well if I am not near him. I wrack myself with worry over every little thing (hearing his sleeping noises, not hearing his sleeping noises...). I know, practice will probably make perfect, but now that I'm working it is just hard to give up a night's sleep (or likely several) to go through the currently miserable process of training M to sleep on his own. I know there will be long range dividends, but in the short term I just don't think I can pull it off. P works late four days a week, so whatever sleep training would fall largely on me and I'm too tired in the evenings to do it myself. Vicious cycle.
5. Starting solids: we were going to start him last weekend with rice cereal, but then I couldn't find P's baby spoons and well, it just didn't happen. So we'll see if we can't get it going next weekend. I really want P to be there and to catch our first attempt on video.
6. Baby Bird can almost sit up on his own (he can do so assisted), is proficient with rolling from his back to his tummy, and has at least twice rolled from his tummy to his back. He has started to notice when I leave the room, or rather, move out of his range of vision. This mostly when he wants to be picked up.
7. I once heard Baby Bird laugh outright. Most of the time he just giggles (so cute), but this one time I heard him guffaw.
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