Beckett is so much fun these days that
I’ve decided to accept and celebrate the fact that I have a six month old
rather than totally falling apart. I
loved every second of his newborn phase but I don’t wish for it back like I
thought I would because he seriously gets more fun every day. Plus, he turned six months old on Kolby’s
first day of summer…. and that is definitely worth celebrating!!!
Cheers to two months of tons and tons of
time as a family together!
So, what’s the latest with our little
guy? He is still such a dream. If I had to sum him up in a word this month
it’d be content. He’s still an insanely cheery and smiley
baby, but the change that stands out the most lately is how he’s happy
whenever, wherever. Life with a baby has
never been easier than it is now. I can
barely remember what it was like when I couldn’t take a shower or eat because
there just wasn’t a good option for what to do with him. There are so many options now—he loves his
exersaucer, his playmat (still!), his Johnny Jump-Up, his swing (which he never
really cared for before), his Bumbo chair, or just hanging out on the couch, a
blanket, wherever. He doesn’t get
bored. He also can sit all by himself
now! Such a big boy! Over a one-week period early this month he
went from sitting for about a minute before toppling over to sitting very
steadily for as long as he wants. He
still doesn’t really roll over, mainly because he doesn’t give it a try
often. Too content to make the effort, I
think!
I thought he was grabby last month, but
this kid has upped his game. He is
obsessed with reaching for and grabbing onto anything that catches his
eye. No more eating with him in our
laps… he grabs on to EVERYTHING faster than I ever think possible. He is very coordinated with his hands. He loves to pretend drink out of cups and
soda cans (funny how he learned exactly how to hold it and bring it to his
mouth the right way) and he can hold his own bottle now.
Beckett loves to play peek-a-boo but he
plays it backwards and it’s hilarious.
He is much more thrilled when the blanket is on his face. When we take it off we can see that he’d been
grinning and giggling away behind it, but once it’s gone he just looks at us
like “excuse me, I was playing under there.” He also plays it himself, putting a blanket or
burp cloth or even his bib over his face and then going crazy with excitement.
He also discovered his feet this
month. That’s been a big score. He also has sucked on his thumb a few times,
but it’s not clear yet whether it’ll be a thing or not.
In addition to all these developmental
changes, he’s also had some big changes to his schedule and sleep. Last month his morning nap came together and
this month he started taking a long mid-day nap. Our eat, play, nap routine that we’d had for
a few months (and worked so well!) is no more.
He’s older now and needed fewer, longer naps and he doesn’t need to eat
quite as often. We now have a daily
schedule, for the first time. I wasn’t
pushing for this at all, but it just sort of happened on its own and it’s working
really well. He’s still really flexible
though.
6am—wake up, eat
8-10am—nap
10am—eat, play
12:30-2pm—nap
2pm—eat, play
45 minute cat nap sometime in the
afternoon
6pm—eat, play
7:30pm—eat, bedtime routine
9—asleep
He can take all of his naps alone in his
crib. If you had told me a month or two
ago that this would be the case, I would have called you crazy. He has always had trouble napping well
outside of our arms (I’ll admit we were enablers there, but we don’t have any
regrets!). And I do still hold him or
nap with him in our bed probably once a day—I’m just not ready to give that up!
The other big news is we started sleep
training. Yes, the definition of “big
news” has really hit an all-time low around here. Our doctor advised us at four months to start
teaching him to sleep through the night (aka sleep training). We weren’t really ready, and Beckett didn’t
seem to be either. Then a few weeks ago
(Mother’s Day to be exact) his sleep just totally fell apart. He would not sleep for more than 30 minutes
at a time in his crib. We tried
everything, to no avail. After a couple
weeks of sleepless nights, we decided it was as good of time as any to take the
plunge.
Full disclosure: we have rocked (or for Kolby, bounced)
Beckett to sleep for every nap, bedtime and nighttime waking since the day he
was born. Then we hold him for 5, 10,
sometimes 30 minutes to get him into a nice deep sleep before transferring him
into his crib. And I loved every second
of it. There is nothing in the world
sweeter than a sleeping baby. But, for
his sake, it was time for him to learn to fall asleep and stay asleep on his
own.
We knew it would be difficult. The idea of putting him down awake in his
crib, saying goodnight, and then walking away was laughable to me. There is NO WAY he would fall asleep. But I knew we could get there over time. There are a million different philosophies
for sleep training and I had perused several but couldn’t really land on
one. Then I happened upon this old hardcover book at our library’s book sale that caught my attention. I read it and it immediately felt like a
great fit for us. It’s a balanced
approach—letting them fuss/cry some but with a parent there in the room to
reassure and comfort them, starting with lots of help (patting, singing, etc.)
and phasing it out over the course of a few weeks.
We jumped in with both feet a couple
weeks before Beckett’s six-month birthday.
At the same time we also switched from swaddling him and placing him to
sleep on his back to putting him down on his tummy, unswaddled, now that he’s
out of the heightened SIDS-risk age. He started
sleeping through the night after six days.
SIX DAYS! He often still fusses
on and off for a while when we put him in his crib at bedtime, but we are
seeing slow progress there. We’ll see if
he keeps up the good sleep (teething, growth spurts, travel, etc. could easily
throw him off), but right now he often sleeps from 9pm-6am and it is wonderful. Of course there are times when he wakes up
once in the middle of the night or only sleeps until 5 or 5:30am, but overall
he’s doing great and we’re really proud of him!
Things we did this month:
-Celebrated my first Mother's Day
-Tried a pool for the first time and discovered Beckett doesn't like cold water
-Beckett's first Webb family ranch work weekend
-Welcomed the return of Summer Kolby
-Got back into a routine of going on walks every evening after dinner
-Started putting Beckett sitting up in the front of shopping carts and in high chairs at restaurants
-Beckett's first Gordon Family Reunion
-Went to more Rangers games (Beckett has been to six now!)
Beckett’s favorite things:
-His feet
-Stealing an empty drink cup and playing
with it
-Touching everyone’s face (we joke that
it’s like he’s blind and that’s his way of identifying who it is)
-Being rocked to sleep on my shoulder
-Kicking his legs really hard when laying
on his back
-Grabbing people’s lips with his slobbery
hands
-Being outside, particularly looking up at
the trees
-Holding his own bottle, with a death grip
-Seeing Kolby or I for the first time in a
while (even 5 minutes!)
My favorite things about Beckett:
-He’s still a great nap buddy
-He started making this hilarious “mmmmmm”
sound when he nurses
-He is so stinkin’ easy—it makes
motherhood such a joy!
-He makes a soft, repetitive cooing sound
as he’s falling asleep
-He’s such a great little passenger on my
hip
