Running from the Law: Baby Mac - 6 Months

Monday, December 3, 2012

Baby Mac - 6 Months




Dear Baby Mac,

You are now half a year old.  Six whole months.  Wow.  I just don't know how this keeps happening?  Time is passing us by in the blink of an eye.  Every day you amaze me with a new trick, a new sound, a new laugh.  You are the absolute happiest, funniest, goofiest baby ever and I cannot get enough of you.  I've said it before, but THIS has been my absolute favorite month ever.  Where is the pause button?  


At your six month appointment you weighed 16 lbs 12 oz (30th %) and were 26 inches long (80th %), so you are still long and lean.  You've been getting some delicious thigh rolls that are so incredibly tempting to chew on, it takes all my will power not to devour you daily.  You've also finally started getting hair!  Within the last few weeks it's gotten significantly thicker (and is still blonde!).  Sometimes it's a total mess (which is adorable) and you now even wake up with bedhead (which is also adorable).  You look like such a little man these days!


Baby-Led Weaning has been going great for us.  You absolutely love food and I'm so proud of you for trying new things and being such a little foodie rock star.  You are feeding yourself and your hand-eye coordination improves every single day.  It's amazing to watch you deliberately grab a mango slice from your high chair tray and get it all the way up to your mouth, where a few weeks ago you were struggling to even get your hand close to the right part of your tray.  Everyone that watches you eat is totally impressed with how good of an eater you are.  We told your pediatrician that you were feeding yourself and even he was amazed!  I bought a little travel high chair to take with us to friend's houses and restaurants so you can eat at the table with us - you love that.  So far you've had cucumbers, bananas, mangoes, apples, pears, asparagus,  green beans, noodles, french bread, chicken, pancakes, salmon, waffles, bison ribeye, peppers, broccoli, sweet potatoes, bison bacon, pasta, avocados, turkey, yogurt, carrots and even a bite of chocolate pudding and creme brulee!  You love it all!  I don't know how much you're actually swallowing (my guess is very little), but you are experimenting with all kinds of different tastes and textures, which is GREAT!  You're still getting all/most of your calories/nutrition from breast milk and formula, so this food is just for fun.  And FUN it is!  We are big fans of BLW.  (As are the dogs, who get to clean up the mess around your high-chair.  They love it.)






You are teething like a mad-man these days.  Everything in the house is covered with a layer of baby drool.  You go through a couple outfit changes a day because your necklines get sopping wet.  My face and shoulders are perpetually slobbery, anything close to you (including the dogs) gets covered and your hands haven't been dry in months. Last week I noticed that your gums were swollen and you couldn't go a minute without gnawing on something.  And just like that, a couple days after turning six months old (see, there's a benefit to being late with these update posts) you got YOUR FIRST TOOTH!  Oh my goodness, I almost died when I felt it.  Of course I started crying.  Mainly because I am so happy and proud of you for getting a tooth and also because this really means that you're not going to be a baby forever.  Man, that's hard to handle.  I wasn't quite expecting that so soon.  





And speaking of growing up, you are SO close to being mobile.  You can sit in a tripod now and are getting pretty good at keeping your balance.  Every now and then you get distracted by something behind you and when you turn to look for it you fall over.  We yell TIMBER! and you laugh.  You can't quite get yourself into a sitting position yet, but you're close.  You're also really close to crawling. You get up on all fours, you rock, you move your legs, you push, but it's not all working together just yet.  When you want something just out of reach you do a combination crawl/roll to get there.  You're a rolling machine.  I have a feeling you'll be crawling by Christmas though. Again, I am NOT ready and also so incredibly proud of you.  Your dad and I have to get our acts together and get the house baby-proofed asap.  I have a feeling that once you start moving, you're going to be hard to stop and leave a serious path of destruction in your wake.  




You've also started doing some incredibly cute things.  You love to squeal and scream, which you think is hilarious and then you start cracking up.  You've started saying "daadadadadadada" at the top of your lungs.  No sign of "mammamamama" yet though.  Sometimes you close your eyes and shake your head back and forth repeatedly and laugh.  It's hilarious!  And you now smile for the camera!  I don't know how you learned to do that, but every time I pull out the camera, you cheese it up!  Honestly, I couldn't be any prouder at that trick than anything else you do.  It's amazing!  You're also ticklish under your arms and on the bottom of your feet.  Your dad and I terrorize you as the tickle-monster and you laugh and squeal and squirm!  It's seriously the best thing ever.  And your newest thing is whining/crying when I leave for work in the morning.  This one isn't quite so cute or awesome.  I think the separation anxiety is starting.  I know you love your nanny (and you get over me being gone within 2 seconds), but it kills me to see you crying for me when I leave for work in the morning.  Hopefully this won't last too much longer or get much worse or my little heart will break.  However, I know you're in good hands and you have so much fun all day long with the nanny.  I have a feeling that within a few weeks you'll be crying at the end of the day when she leaves instead.  



You've really turned a corner on bath time this month too.  You now love it!  You can't get enough.  Your dad and I have started taking baths with you because there's no way you'll sit in that little baby bathtub anymore, you're too active.  Getting you to sit or lie still is impossible.  You jump and wiggle and launch yourself into the water with incredible gusto!  You are so incredibly slick and squirmy and wild - bathing you is like wrestling a greased pig!  You definitely get your love of water from your daddy.  I think you'll be a swimmer, too!  


I'm also happy to say that your sleeping has gotten DRAMATICALLY better.  The doctor gave us the ok at your 6 month appointment to do sleep training with you.  We started that night.  Of course we didn't exactly know what we were doing and we (I) was not ok with letting you cry it out, so we did a modified version of the no-tears, Happiest Baby on the Block sleep training.  Basically we give you a "dream feed" bottle before we go to bed (around 10:30) and we cut out that 4 a.m. bottle and pushed it back to 7 a.m., when you wake up for the day.   The first night was awful and I ended up rocking and bouncing you for hours and hours.  The second night was much better and you only woke up once, then put yourself back to sleep within 10 minutes.  The third night you slept through the night!  WHAT?!  We couldn't believe it.  Maybe it's a fluke, but we've now had a couple nights in a row where you sleep from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. with one dream feed.  My goodness, I can't believe what a difference this makes!  We're like entirely new people now that we're sleeping!  I can't believe you adapted so quickly.  You are seriously the most amazing child ever.


Oh Macaroon, I am just over the moon in love with you.  I asked your dad last night if it was normal to love something so much and to be this happy.  I wonder if every single mom out there feels this way about their baby?  If so, how does everyone not have 10+ kids?  I want so much more of you!  I want to clone you and have an entire house full of Macs.  You are just the most incredible thing in the world.  I am so lucky to be your mama.


Firsts:
  • first Halloween
  • first Thanksgiving
  • first time going to mommy's hometown
  • first time sleeping through the night
  • first tooth
  • first dinner party





Likes:
  • feeding yourself
  • petting the dogs and cat
  • rolling, rolling, rolling
  • laughing
  • squealing
  • screaming
  • anything that makes noise when you shake/bang it 
  • pulling mommy's hair
  • farting (I can't believe the boy-farting humor starts this early)
  • singing and dancing
  • splashing in the bathtub
  • the camera
  • peek-a-boo
  • cell phones
  • necklaces
  • drinking water from a cup


Dislikes:
  • your car seat
  • when I leave in the mornings for work 
  • standing still
  • other babies crying
  • not being able to get to something you want
  • being spoon-fed
  • being tired



28 comments:

  1. What a little cutie! Love the booty pics. :)

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  2. He is just getting cuter and cuter!! He seems a lot like Luca, however it sounds like Mac is constantly happy (which Luca is not, unfortunately) but it is nice seeing Mac just a few weeks ahead of my guy to see what I have to look forward to!! Glad the sleeping is going well - it is so nice when they learn how to sleep, eh?

    We are starting BLW in a week or 2. I am honestly dreading it (having to give him real food and not just mindlessly breastfeed while I watch tv... haha Hope it goes as well as it is for you!!

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  3. Oh my gosh!!!! I just found your blog and am SO glad I did! We have a little boy, Cameron, who just turned 5 months!! Your little boy is SOOOO CUTE!!!! I always love to find other blogs with babies near Cameron's age...Cam just got his first TWO teeth on the bottom and I already miss his tooth-less grin...your pictures makes me smile :) I can't wait to read more!

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  4. He is sooooooooo cute. I just did Sadie's 7 month pics, and of course, am behind on posting. She's teething like crazy too, but nothing poking through yet! We want to do more BLW, but with Sadie in day care, its easier to just do purees during the day.

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  5. He is growing so quickly and is just too darn cute! We have loved BLW as well, I think it teaches them so much in addition to learning about food! Looks like you guys are doing an amazing job!

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  6. Oh my, he does look like such a little man with that hair! Excited to hear you are BLW, I'm excited to give it a try. How old was he when you started?

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  7. Also, can you do a blog on the sleep training you all did. I'm super curious on the details.

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    1. A. Callahan - Mac was around 5.5 months when we started BLW. The whole point of it is to wait to start any foods until the baby is old enough to sit up on his own, shows interest in food and can feed himself, so they recommend waiting until around 6 months (as opposed to 4 months for purees). That way his digestive system is more advanced and he has control over how much and what he eats. If you're interest, get the book: http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Led-Weaning-Essential-Introducing-Confident/dp/161519021X

      As for sleep training - yes, I'll do a post on what we did. Although I can tell you right now it probably wasn't the "right" way to do things. :) I'm a weenie when it comes to hearing him cry, so we just kind of did our own thing.

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  8. Congrats on Mac making it through the night. Your little man is ADORABLE!! Your post made me look forward to 6months for our little guy!!

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  9. These pictures are all so great. He is such a cutie and getting so big. He had a lot of firsts this month! So glad he's sleeping through the night for you and made that transition so well. :-)

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  10. Can you do BLW after he's already been on purees for two months? I'd like to try it but he's not sitting up on his own yet and we started purees at 4 mos.

    Love the pics!! He's such a ham for the camera!

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    1. Liz - YES! You can definitely switch to BLW after he's started purees, when he's around 6 months and showing an interest in your food he's ready. I was just telling someone else that the great thing with BLW is you don't have to pick one or the other if you don't want. You can very easily do purees for a while and then transition to table food. I love the saying "food before one is just for fun" - meaning babies aren't really getting nutrition from what they're eating now (purees or real food). Like the book says, purees fruits and veggies are basically diet food - they won't fill up on them or get all the nutrition they need from a puree. Babies should get everything they need from formula or breast milk until they're about a year old. Food right now is just getting them used to tastes and textures and letting them play. The book suggests to only give the baby food when he's NOT hungry (after a bottle) because he'll play with it more and won't be frustrated with hunger. He won't actually swallow much until he's about 9 months old. Right now he'll just get practice with new tastes and textures and getting food to his mouth. It builds hand-eye coordination and just lets him experiment. Just treat it like a playtime with a new toy. Feel free to let him play with food and try feeding himself. I bet you'll be surprised at how good he is and how much he likes it!

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  11. There Mac is again being his cuteness self.. loveee it!

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  12. He is such a cutie pie! Seriously, I just love his smile and the sweet look on his face. You must just want to eat him up all day long!

    Happy 6 months Mac!

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  13. He is so freaking cute!! I can't believe he's 6 months old- I feel like you were just pregnant!

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  14. Mr. Mac is so dang cute, what a happy lil guy you've got:) It's amazing how good a little sleep feels when your not use to it, I sure hope he stays sleeping through the night for you!!!

    I've got a quick question for you since you've been on e blogger for awhile... mine won't let me upload anymore pics it's saying I'm out of space and I have to buy more. Did you have this problem or know of a way to get around it?

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    1. Emily Marie - Yes, I hate that Blogger makes you pay for more storage after a certain amount of time blogging. It's like they give you enough space just to get you comfortable at Blogger and hooked and then hit you with the charges. I think I pay something like $5 a year for additional storage. It's a small amount and I hate paying it, but it's easier to just pay than to switch my blog over to Word Press or something. Sorry!

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    2. I wanted to add- you can do the pictures through Flickr and then add them in using html code. Then you're not uploading to blogger. Flickr's free accounts have a limit to (I think it's 300MB per month) but I've never hit it. Hope that helps!

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  15. I was going to ask about your BLW schedule, but you answered my questions in your responses to others' comments! I think we will probably start between 5 and 6 months too. Caroline is starting to be very interested with food and can sit unassisted, but doesn't really have the hand to mouth coordination mastered yet.

    Also, I think I say this every month....but he is just so adorable. I love long and lean babies! They are just so cute! (And perhaps I am biased)

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  16. Um, dear Mac, stop growing, stop it! Your Auntie Ally can hardly handle it! But you are the cutest little thing I ever did see!

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  17. He is too cute! I love all his new hair. I can just picture him as a little boy already!

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  18. Cutecutecute!!! The first thing I noticed was all the hair!! That was fast! I love your updates, you'll be so glad you have these.

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  19. Such a cutie pie!!! Love that he has tried so many yummy things!and I can tell ya it DOES keep getting better and the whole mobile thing is crazy!

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  20. Gosh I want to eat those thighs too! Seriously such a cutie! And that would break my heart to have E crying in the am when I leave for work! Not ok! And can't believe he got his first tooth! So many firsts! Are you still BFing in the mornings/nights? We're about to introduce formula and I'm so confused/unclear on how/when I can/should still bf. Help!

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  21. What a freaking cutie!!!

    Okay, I need to know more about your version of sleep training. I am not a CIO mama either, and back in the day with Truman I did read the No Cry Sleep Solution but cannot remember it being too helpful. So did you just NOT feed him but you would rock him instead? And he learned not to wake up just by you rocking him instead of feeding? Or did you try not to touch him at all? I need help!!!

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  22. When you dreamfed, did you pick Mac up and give him the bottle or did you just give him the bottle while he's in the crib? I have a six month old baby boy that I want to try this with! Thanks! :)

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