The Blog

Brady: 6 Months

May 13, 2013

Brady, you turned 6 months old at the end of April 2013. I can’t believe it. It’s been half a year! Whaaaat? It seems like it’s gone by in a flash. You are so much fun these days. I really enjoy spending time with you all day, every day. What a blessing. Yes, it can be tiring (especially if we haven’t slept much the night before), but it’s a blessing to watch you grow and explore.

A few words that describe you the past month: noisy, wiggly, rolling, attention hungry, exploring. You are a rolling ninja baby! I can’t leave you alone for more than a minute without you ending up underneath furniture or half way across the room without a clue of how you managed to get there (& so quickly)! One of your favorite places is to roll underneath the coffee table in the living room. I call it your “fort”. You stick your hands and feet up against the underneath of it and kick and play. Sometimes if I leave the room for a brief moment (to wash a dish or something) I come back to find you rolling around with one of George’s disgusting slobbery stuffed animals and you are SO proud when I find you. And most of the time you’ve rolled in your own spit up and it’s there’s a chunk or two stuck to your forehead. I can’t help but laugh and run for the camera. At first I was nervous about you rolling around on the wood floors in our house, because you’d sacrifice your big heavy head first when you rolled over. Although, after a few big bonks you learned to gently roll over – it’s so cute how you’re cautious with your head. It’s amazing to see you learn and repeat!

Per the usual, some days are better than others. Doesn’t matter how much sleep you’ve gotten some days you just need a ton of attention and holding and walking around. Other days it’s as if you barely need any at all. You take an average of 3 naps per day. Usually you take a long morning and afternoon nap (1-2 hours each) and then another cat nap in the late evening. Mommy likes it when you take good naps during the day. It allows me to get a few quiet moments to myself, which I usually end up just doing chores or answering emails. I’ve been trying to use that time lately to get a good work out in (thanks Apple TV- I stream work out videos).

You started wearing 6 month sizes at 5 months old (mostly sleepers because pants were still a bit large). But now you’re totally in 6 month clothing, pants and all. You are starting to fill out a little more. Your legs are getting a tad bit chubbier, which is so cute, and you’re sportin a little double chin these days. Your feet don’t seem to be growing as quickly as the rest of your body, though. You wear shoes a lot and are still in size 1. They’re getting a little snug, but size 2 shoes are just laughable. The ankle width fits great, but the length is twice as big as it needs to be. Soon enough you’ll be in bigger shoes – can’t wait to use the cute ones you have! Ra Ra buys you lots of cute pairs.

You are so interested in your surroundings. You reach and grab at everything. You stick almost everything you can grab into your mouth to chew on – even people’s hands. You smack stuff with your hands (kind of like a cave man- haha) and you stomp your feet non-stop. Even in your crib… you’ll maneuver yourself sideways and prop your feet up on the side of the crib bars and kick and stomp your feet just to play and entertain yourself. Sometimes I’ll catch you looking at me from across the room and when you realize I see you, you immediately smile unsolicited. You’ll even follow it by a few foot stomps in excitement occasionally.

Nursing has been so much better lately. You only take max 15 minutes total to nurse (both sides). That’s a huge difference from 2 months ago when it was taking 30+ minutes and then followed by a supplement bottle of bm or formula. It’s so nice. *sigh* Although, sometimes you’ll stop in the middle to make a big declarative “statement” and then go back to nursing. It’s funny.

A week or two before you were 6 months, I started feeding you baby oatmeal cereal mixed with a little formula 2x a day. You sit strapped into your bumbo chair with the tray, and you anxiously await to be fed after I nurse you. You bang your hands on the tray like a cave man. The first several attempts were funny & frustrating. It required a mop and a shower. Although, you quickly caught on within about a week of eating from the spoon. Way to go, baby! I have a feeling you’re going to enjoy eating a lot!

Diaper changes are not for the faint of heart. My goodness, child. You cannot sit still during a diaper change. It usually takes two people to successfully accomplish a diaper change with you. Within seconds of putting you on the changing table you manage to flip over to your tummy with this look on your face like “Yup. Look at me!”. I’ve removed any objects on/near the table that you grab for, except for Sophie toy. I’ve tried buckling you into the changing mat and that doesn’t do anything since you’re able to flip over underneath it somehow. Ninja. I told you. So, I bribe you with toys and make stupid noises and probably look like I’m a clown trying to capture your attention so you’ll sit still. Most of the time you end up stomping your foot into the freshly opened poopy diaper – haha. I will say these past couple of days have been a tad better. I’m able to get your diaper on and a new one on before you manage to flip over.

Whenever I’m holding you while also holding my big Baylor water mug you like to aggressively reach for it. It took me by total surprise one day when your eyes got huge and then BAM! you grabbed the straw right out of my mouth and put it in yours and water spewed everywhere. It was so funny to see you do that. It really made me feel like your growing up to be able to do that.

This past month I’ve been bathing you in the Puj tub in my bathroom sink. It fits the tub better than the larger kitchen sink since you’ve grown. I’m sure that we’ll have to figure out a new location sans the tub soon once you’re able to sit up on your own (which we’re working on). You seem to enjoy baths a lot more lately. Not sure if it’s because you get to play with the shiny water spout that’s right at your level with water streaming out or if it’s because you’re just getting older? Either way, you smile and gurgle and “talk” to me during baths now while chewing on your toes the whole time. You used to not even make eye contact with me during baths – hah.

Since mastering the roll, you do this thing where you kind of swim in place on your tummy and you wiggle your arms and legs so hard like you want to crawl. Just not yet. Take your time, buddy. I haven’t even thought about what needs to be “baby proofed”. We’ve been working on sitting up by yourself, but I think we still have another couple weeks. Once you start crawling I’m probably just going to stick you a fence around you in order to contain you. Jk. You love to chew on your toes… even if you’re wearing footed pjs or shoes.

This past week you’ve started making a new sound where you make some bubbles and also a soft “Tssss” sound. Almost like you’re trying to say something but have a lisp. It’s adorable.

One thing that we’d LOVE for you to master is SLEEPING AT NIGHT. Please baby, that would be the best gift you can give me right now. You “sleep thru the night” about every 10 days for 1 night *sigh*, but if that’s all I get – I’ll take it. It’s just discouraging when others are all “Oh, little Timmy was sleeping thru the night by 6 months….” Well our little “Timmy” hasn’t really caught up yet. You must take after your dad – tossing and turning all night. You usually go to sleep very well after our night time routine of bath time, nursing, then bed. You sleep really hard for a couple hours and then are up again. I can’t seem to figure out why you’re awake so I just nurse you after you’ve gotten us up a couple time within an hour. On a good night, you’ll sleep for 4+ more hours before you’re up again. Then maybe another hour or two before it’s time to get up for the day. Here’s what an average night looks like in the Allen household:

8:15-8:45 pm – bath time and nursing Brady.

8:45 – 9 pm – Brady goes to bed (still a little awake, but immediately cuddles with the little snuggle blankie and takes his pacifier.)

10- 11 pm – bed time for the adults.

Between 1 am – 3 am- Brady’s up! Half way crying/making noises. We let you do this for a few minutes and then one of us goes in and gives you your pacifier. Sometimes you freak out and this doesn’t calm you down. Othertimes you go right back to sleep and then wake 30 minutes later doing same. We go back in – repeat. 30 minutes later your up… so I give in and just nurse you. So, essentially I’ve been awake for an 1+ hour at this point.

Between 5-6:30 am – Brady’s awake and usually a pacifier will put you back to sleep. Brian’s up getting ready for work. I put foam ear plugs in so I don’t hear Brian getting ready and move the baby monitor so it’s right next to my face.

Between 7-8 am – Brady’s awake. It’s the BEST when I go in to wake him at 8 and he’s already quietly playing in his crib. That’s a very nice start to the day for me. If he’s awake before this, sometimes I’ll put him in bed with me in hope s that he goes back to sleep, which is not usually the case- hah. We nurse around 8 or 8:30 and start our day….

So, on average, I get about 3 hour stretches of sleep. If I can get a 5 hour stretch of sleep I feel like super woman. This coming from a person who used to NEED 8 hours to function “normally”. If you want to include us in your prayers we’d greatly appreciate it. We like our sleep. Not just for the heck of it, but for our health and well being. 🙂