6 Months

I'm back to amaze you with all the important baby things. Not just any baby things, but Baby Billy Brez things. Like how Will's back cracks a lot when I pick him up now. It never happened before! I'm not a doctor, but this has something to do with his growth and bones and such, I'm sure. Now at your next dinner party, you can offer information that baby's backs start to crack around five months old! You will be the life of the party. 

Will actually has had a lot of milestones this past month, which---fret not---I am going to discuss at length. Let's get rolling.

6 Month Well-Visit Stats:

• 19 lbs, 10 oz. (83rd percentile)
• 26.5 inches long (57th percentile)

Other Appointment Highlights: Blowing raspberries at the pedi, farting during important discussions about night-weaning, and not flinching during his first vaccination shot (though he briefly cried after the second shot). 

You see why he gets away with such behavior.

Eats: 

He is pretty much on a 3-hour schedule to a T during the day. His first feeding is at 6:30 or 7 in the morning and we just go from there for the next 12 hours. As such, I moved the BabyConnect app from my home screen and have not touched it since. It was a big day. He's also consistently nursing on both sides nowadays, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's so easy not to have to flip him, but it's also nice not being Lopsided Lolly all the time. 

We started solids and so far, Will is a phenomenal eater, as seen on the gram. Carrots, apples, bananas, and pears were a huge hit. He was pretty lukewarm about peas, which upsets me deeply. As evidence, consider this blog post from over a year ago where I discuss my strange love of peas. That said, I don't understand why I don't have a broader audience. The content on this blog is top notch. He's also had cantaloupe, watermelon, and bites of other random stuff here and there when we are out to eat (ice cream, French onion soup, black beans, etc.). I've been using our Beaba Babycooker to make him purees. Love that thing.

Right now, he gets a solid meal once a day, about 30 minutes to an hour after his 4 o'clock feeding, so it's straight from the high chair to the bath.  

I think it goes without saying, he doesn't miss any meals.

Sleeps: 

He's consistently taking three naps a day, sometimes four if he needs a late afternoon catnap thanks to an early wakeup time. He'll typically have one good nap a day that is around 1.5+ hours long. He's juuuust starting to consistently give me two hours of awake time between naps. He's able to go three or more hours between his last nap and bedtime for some reason. (Not that I don't try to get him to take one last nap.) 

His bedtime routine is much more relaxed than it was a few months ago. He gets his bath around 5:30pm when Will gets home from work and he gets cozy in his PJs and spends some time with dear old dad. Then around 6:30, I'll take him upstairs, draw the curtains, turn the sound machine on, feed him one last time, and walk around with him or rock him for a few minutes and he's out. Just like that.

I'm very back and forth about whether to night wean. Between 6:30pm-ish bedtime and 6:30-ish wakeup time, he'll typically wake up twice. On a good night, only once, on a bad night, three (or, like last night, he just doesn't go back to sleep for a loooong time after a feeding thanks to a 4am poop sesh). I always just feed him because he goes back to sleep easier, but I'm probably just creating a bad habit. Big Will has a work trip planned soon, and I'm toying with the idea of weaning/sleep training for the week that he's gone.  

That section was very boring and I apologize. Stay with me. I talk poop next. THE BEST PART.

Poops: 

Last month, I was all super shocked that he went a couple days without pooping. Well now, it's his regular! I was worried about cloth diapering and gross solid food poopys, but really when he's only pooping once every other day, it's a breeze. I'm only doing cloth diaper laundry once every two or three days now. He has to wear a disposable at night because he's a pretty heavy wetter, but it's really nice not to have to change him at all. 

Oh, and he officially needs privacy when he poops. It's fantastic. He will not poop while you're holding him anymore. He has to be in his walker, his Bumbo, his crib, or a stroller. It's hilarious when he's in his walker. He leans forward, grunts, and his forehead turns a little purple.  

Segue to more cute photos . . . 

Other Miscellaneous Milestones:

• He can use a restaurant high chair. 
• He grew out of his baby tub, so baths are in our normal bath tub. 
• He enjoys screeching at the top of his lungs, specifically in very echo-y cathedrals.
• He sits up unassisted (!!!!) . . .

     . . . though not perfectly, I'll admit.

     . . . we'll work on that whole posture thing somewhere down the line.

And it is with great sadness that I share the loss of our dear rat tail. 

Let's take a walk down memory lane . . . 

Snuck a peek at 2 months.

 
At 3 Months and 4 Months.

And hanging on for dear life at 5 Months.

We'll miss you, old friend.