Levi: 6 Months

I'm feeling pretty emotional about my baby being half way to a year! This is such a fun age, and it's slipping away so quickly!

He is usually a happy, laid back baby. He loves people, loves attention, will smile at anyone, and gives giggles freely. I feel like he's chunked out a lot this month. When I weighed him a couple weeks ago on our scale, he was 15 lbs. We have a WIC appointment on Wednesday, so I'll update with the official weight then.

He's still not doing much. Haha. He doesn't roll. He doesn't sit. He doesn't scooch. He does jump and kick and flail his arms all day long. And he's getting better at putting weight on his legs and holding himself up if you stand him up. It's interesting that he seems to be the opposite of what's expected for boys. He's a little behind with the gross motor, but I think he's more social/gregarious than the girls were at this age. I looked up Lena's 6 month update, and she was already having major separation anxiety. Levi hasn't shown any of that yet.

I'm also impressed by how vocal he is. He's already making consonant sounds - dada, gaga, etc. I know it's too early and he doesn't mean anything, but he sounds like he's talking sometimes! Haha.

I think he's stretching his feedings . . . for real this time. For the past week or so, he's been making it 3.5-4 hours between feedings. And, today, for the first time, he got his first taste of real food: pureed peas.

The girls were so excited to help feed him.

He was mildly interested. He did munch on it a little and swallowed a few bites. We also tried puffs. He had no clue how to pick them up, so I bit one in half and popped it in his mouth. He made some hilarious faces, but then got right down to chewing. He did gag on it a little, but got it back up and chewed some more til it dissolved. I'm not pushing the food at all. We'll just keep playing with it for a while.

Sleep continues to be hit or miss. Some nights he sleeps for 9 straight hours, sometimes he wakes up every 3.  A couple times lately, he's woken up in the middle of the night and wanted to stay awake for an hour or two! What the whaaat? Naps are all over the place. He's not sleeping in the swing as much because the girls are too loud and wake him up. But he doesn't very consistently sleep in the rock n' play either. He sleeps in the car or on me a lot. So today I decided to start sleep training. Now that school is back in session, we need to get in a good routine. My goals are to get him out of the swaddler, out of the Rock N' Play, and going to sleep on his own in his bed without me rocking him to sleep. I may have tried too much at once today. I set up the pack n' play, put him in this weird "Magic Sleepsuit" thing that's supposed to help transition from the swaddler, and laid him in bed sleepy but awake.

Lol

He cried for a long time [I'm too scared of criticism to tell you exactly how long], but never fell asleep. It was torture for both of us. I tried the "Ferber" method where you go in and comfort them without picking them up every 2 minutes, then every 5, then 10, etc. It just made him madder every time he saw me and I wouldn't rescue him. Eventually, I took him out of the sleepsuit because it was making him so hot. But he still wouldn't go to sleep. Every time I reached down to pat him or put his Binky back in his mouth, he grabbed onto me like this:

Clinging to my arm with his hands and feet. "Don't leave me!"

I ended up giving up. We went out for lunch, so he napped in the car for about 20 minutes. For his afternoon nap, I tried a sleepsack (swaddler without the arms pinned down) in the Rock N' Play. Kind of a happy medium. But he just screamed and screamed and still wouldn't sleep. Again, he ended up sleeping for 20 minutes in the car when we went to pick Lucy up from school. And then he wouldn't nap the rest of the day. He just cried and rubbed his eyes and refused to give in. I nursed him to sleep wearing the sleepsack at 7:30 and managed to transfer him to the Rock N' Play without waking him up. He's been sleeping for two hours, so we'll see how that goes . . .

Picture time!

First time in a lake.

He loves playing "roll the ball" with his sisters.

No teeth in sight, but his fingers are always in his mouth.

He loves to have his hands up by his head.

He adores the bath.

Has the best dimples.

He's such a blondie! The girls always had very dark hair.

He loves reading.

Loves his sisters.

Can't get enough of the Jumperoo!

First card game (with Aunt Libby)

First shirt with his name on it. Haha.

Gotta love the button up shirt 

First wedding

He was not impressed

Happy 6 months, baby boy! We love you so much!!!!