Six Months Old

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

-It’s so fun to share him with others because he always smiles and plays with them