6 Months!

Nathan turned 6 months old on Saturday! I can't believe we've had our little guy for half a year already! Here is what he's doing now:

~We started solids this month! He's eating rice cereal, apples, and sweet potatoes right now. His main meal of the day is dinner... but I have started doing breakfast over the past few days (with the fruit and a smaller amount of cereal) and yeserday he didn't eat much of that, so I gave him "lunch" too. The new things I plan to make and introduce this week are butternut squash and pears! (I'm giving making my own babyfood a shot this time around - it has been very easy so far, and so much cheaper!)

~He's nursing 5 times a day: when he wakes up, 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, and 7:30 (solids around 5:30) I continue to LOVE this special relationship that we have. I love that I'm the only one that can feed and comfort him in that way, and that we have this special snuggle time every day throughout the day (no matter what else is going on and no matter how busy things get... it forces me to stop and snuggle at least these 5 times!) He is still a super quick nurser... 10 minutes or less normally - talk about efficiency! He's getting more easily distracted if there is a lot going on while he's eating. I can't have Alex jumping around and touching us and being noisy anymore or Nathan gets too busy looking around!

~This month he still woke up through the night... and he's gotten into a bad habit over the past couple of weeks of waking up a couple of times just to snuggle with mommy. I would only feed him once (which he was fine with) but he would just want to be held until falling back asleep. And as much as I love his little snuggles, and as cute as he is... last night we decided we needed to put a stop to this before it gets worse. Mommy was getting extremely tired and it's really just not healthy for anyone! Him waking up 2 or 3 times a night is just not good sleep for anyone - Gary who hears him in the monitor, Alex who shares his room, Mommy who gets up with him, and Nathan who is getting broken sleep! Last night was our first night letting him cry more than a few minutes... and it actually went really well! He cried less than 20 minutes around midnight and slept the rest of the night!

~He's becoming a better napper! Days where we don't leave the house go really well because he doesn't get the car cat nap. It's getting harder to plan our days around feedings/naps as I try to regulate his sleep habits now that he's getting older. I don't want to be confined to the house, but I also want him to fall into a 2 nap schedule! Most days he's taking 3-4 naps still... with 2 that are longer (1-2 hrs) and one or two that are shorter (30 minutes ish). The last couple of days he's taking two really good naps of 1.5 hrs and 2 hrs! He goes down for naps with his paci on his own.

~His favorite things to do are play in his excersaucer, sit on the floor with the boppy behind him and play toys, sit in his bumbo and help mommy in the kitchen, and watch his big brother!

~He is sitting really well... he eventually falls over either from getting tired and tipping backward, or from reaching too far for toys. I don't leave him without the boppy yet.

~He continues to be such a smiley boy! He has the cutest little laugh that is just priceless! (It mostly only comes out when he's being tickled... but mommy made him laugh many times by squealing with him the other day!!)

~He does great when left with strangers still (church nursery twice a week for service and Bible study)... I almost always get a GREAT report that he is so happy, sweet, and smiley! No separation anxiety yet... although he prefers mommy to everyone else :)

~He has beautiful, big, brown eyes and light blonde hair

~He loves playing with his toes, puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, and sucks his hands constantly! He also loves his paci if it's bedtime (we only give it to him at nap and if he needs it at night) He doens't usually want it if it's not time to sleep anyway :)

~He is getting his top, front right tooth! It's been starting to peek through over the past few days and you can feel it with your finger.

~He rolls belly to back pretty much right away EVERY time I put him on his belly (he does not like to play like that!) He's rolled back to belly this month between 5-10 times... he plays on his side a lot and every now and then rolls all the way around.

~He looks so much like his big brother, but is developing a bigger build so far. He is quite the little eater - he LOVES his solids! Eating has ALWAYS been a big challenge with Alex (still is!), but Nathan kicks his little legs and moves his little arms around in excitement when he sees the bowl of food! He almost always finishes the whole thing! He's also messy with it... he often puts his fingers in his mouth or trys to grab the spoon while I feed him!

~He loves bath time! He's getting too big for his baby bath, but isn't ready to sit up in the tub alone yet. I put the baby bath inside the big bath and him and Alex almost always bathe together - they both love to splash and play "together" :)

I'll add his "6 month stats" on Thursday once we go to his appointment!