Lane at Six Months

Half a year!

While these six months have sometimes felt like the longest stretches of desert, it's also flown by!  I attribute this to the first four months feeling like one long day where no one slept and everyone walked dreamlike around the apartment.

As we don't go to the pediatrician again until you're almost seven months old, I still don't know how much you weigh or how long you are, but I do know that you've gained weight.  You're stalkier around the center instead of just a long skinny string bean.  You fit in six month clothes most of the time, and nine month pants (I blame the mass of cloth diaper around your waist for this). 

The biggest change this month are your facial expressions.  Now you raise your eyebrows when you see me or furrow them in frustration (just like your dad) or fix your face very seriously when trying to talk.  Also, you've started to cry when other people hold you for extended periods of time or when we leave you for an hour to go shopping.

You are a roll master.  The only time you stay on your back is when you're eating your toes- every other time you flip over and kick your feet wildly like you're trying to skim the floor- and you can do some consecutive rolls to travel!  You also push up on your hands and get your chest off the floor to turn yourself in different directions and you also lift one knee when you do this and can propel yourself, but instead of forward you usually go lopsided and fall on your side.  When you're not wearing any clothes and you have more traction, you can get both toes under you and push yourself forward, but I catch you before you bust your chin.  Coordination is still in the works, little Lane.

You sat up by yourself for an extended period of time TODAY.  I thought it would be another month or so, as you just weren't interested in finding balance, but today I set you down and you stayed there!

You have so much to say.  You have consonants and all sorts of strangely pitched vowels in your repertoire. You chew (not suck) on your fingers while talking and I think that makes for the MA we keep hearing instead of an intentional consonant-vowel connect.  In your jungle gym, there are two butterflies and they get all of your words.  You reach out and grab them and tell them all sorts of heartfelt things, and it's pretty beautiful.

We haven't fed you solids yet and, OMG I'm itching to do it.  I want you on quinoa and pizza and blueberries and applesauce, not in that order.  I'm tired of breastfeeding, and I know I'm in for it for a lot longer as you are literally addicted to these boobs, but I'm ready to get some other things in that belly so I can feel a little relief.  Still, Colt's wish and our pediatrician's instructions are to wait as long as possible to feed you, so we've compromised at 7 months.  One more month of this exclusivity and you're getting sweet potato, come what May.

You eat every 2 hours (OR LESS) throughout the day.  You've gotten accustomed to eating down for naps and bedtime and I just don't have the energy right now to break you from that.  Now, anytime you get passed to me, you just open your mouth like bird and wait for a breast to get stuck in it.

Sleep is still a challenge, sort of.  You go down at 8, wake at 10, wake at 12, and we bring you to bed.  In bed with us, you maybe wake up once to eat, but sleep until 7:30 or 8 every morning.  It's hard to decide to compromise sleep to try and stop co-sleeping.  I think Colt and I would both be more bothered by restless nights than we are with you in the bed, but I assume the longer we wait the harder it will be.  So despite the ease with which you go down in the big bed, I have a lot of stress around this and neither your dad or I are the best decision makers.  Sometimes we get this great resolve and decide we are going to get you used to your crib, and other times we give in and decide it's not that big a deal.  How's a baby ever supposed to learn?

Every month that passes is easier for us.  We get better at learning your cues, you get better at communicating them, and you can do so much more all the time!  Happy half a year, Lane Rook.