26 weeks ... 6 months old!

He's half way to 1 year old! Amazing!!

Here's his 6 month stats:

Weight: 17 lbs 13 oz ~ 58 percentile
Height: 27 3/4 in. ~89 percentile
Head: 17 3/4 in ~ 83 percentile

So he's definitely slowing down and becoming more average - but big and healthy like I like him! He had to get 4 shots yesterday - but handled it like a champ! A few tears and then he was good for the whole day. He got a little fussy in the evening, and a low fever overnight - but I'm thinking it's just residual from the trauma of the day.

Nursing: Going good - except this heat! Yuck! I was convinced that I was going to switch to formula during the day and just nurse morning/night ... but then we received some not so good financial news and I just feel guilty spending money on formula when I don't have to. The doctor said that we're about at the age to move to a 4 hour schedule - which means nursing only 4 times a day - that's exciting! I know the hardcore breastfeeding people would disagree - but it sounds good to me!

Solids: This week we added oatmeal, peaches, and carrots. I'm thinking of adding 1 tablespoon to each meal - as he's getting angry when it's all gone. Doc said we could start meats - but purred meats freak me out ... I tried giving him the tiniest bit of mine the other night and he just didn't know what to do with it! I also give him his sippy cup with a little juice and water in it now - he's really enjoying figuring out how it works - he just can't lift it up by himself yet.

Waketime Length: Usually 2 hours, sometimes 2 1/2 depending on what we're doing.

Naps: We've had several naps over an hour now! I'm not sure if this was making up for weekend time and busy days - we'll see if we're about to change! I think he's getting ready to only take 2 naps a day, and this is helping move towards that goal.

Nighttime sleep: Unfortunately, we're still waking in between 2-4 am and not going back to sleep until he's in our bed! Not sure yet what our next step is going to be ... do I cherish this cuddle time while I can? Or put a stop to the madness with several rough nights of CIO?

Milestones: Henry is now doing his own form of army crawling. He doesn't quite use his arms to pull himself - it's more using his knees to scoot up while on his elbows. If he would just pick his head up - he'd be on the go!

Here are a couple of his 6 month photos that I took this week:

25 Weeks

My Henry is almost 6 months old!! Can you believe it?!

I'm excited to take his 6 month photos - I've been browsing photographers websites for pose ideas.

Nursing: Continuing with 5 times a day, all is well.

Solids: To combat some of his nighttime wakings, we bumped up his solid amounts. This boy loves to eat! I think I'm going to add another tablespoon to each meal, because he's starting to still be fussy once the food is gone! Here's our meal plan for this past week:

7:00 nurse, 2 T cereal, 2 T fruit
10:30 nurse, 2 T fruit, 2 T veggie
2:00 nurse
5:00 nurse, 2 T cereal, 2 T veggie
7:00 nurse

He now eats bananas, applesauce, pears, green beans, peas, sweet potatoes, and rice cereal.

Waketime Length: Still 2 hours.

Naps: Still 30-45 minutes. Sometimes will fall back asleep in swing for another hour - about once a day.

Nighttime Sleep: Henry has been waking up at 3am consistently for the last week. We've tried feeding and CIO and it doesn't work. Last night he fussed/cried for 2 hours (I fell back asleep after turning monitor down a little, not off though... opps!!) The only solution that works is bringing him to our bed, where he promptly falls asleep until 7am. Bad Habit? Yes. Worth it for me to get sleep? Yes.

Milestones: He now can roll both ways, and is making his way across our floor. He's really working on crawling, he just needs to figure out how to get his arms involved!

24 Weeks and Sleeping Frustrations

Time for a long overdue update, inspired by sleepless nights!

This past weekend was my first mother's day with a live child in my arms. While the entire day I was blessed to spend time with loved ones - I still felt a little off. One of my blogger friends described this feeling as "survivors guilt" and it's so true. For those of us who went through IF to conviece our children - I do not think we ever fully recover from that pain. Of course we are beyond happy with our blessings - but we know that there are women out there who are dying for the same gift. And days like Mother's Day break their hearts ... we remember that pain all too clearly. I still pray daily for the friends I left behind when Henry joined us!

Henry Update:

Nursing: Henry and I are continuing our nursing relationship. He can be distractable, especially when he's not quite hungry. If he gets too many solids, he also doesn't nurse as well. I am thinking of moving to a 4 hour schedule to see if that helps - but I want to make sure he's still getting enough milk in his diet.

Solids: Henry now eats rice cereal, bananas, green beans, and sweet potatos. This week we are going to introduce peas and pears. See sample schedule below.

Waketime Length: He is now able to be awake for about 2 hours at a time. Sometimes, especially his first wake of the morning, this is still only 1 hour 45 minutes.

Naps: Henry continues to only nap for 30-45 minutes. Once in a while he'll sleep for over an hour, but these are rare and far between. He takes 3 naps a day. Most of the time he goes right down for a nap, but every once in a while we have to do CIO and battle the roll over monster.

Sample Schedule: Right now his schedule looks something like this:

7am: wake/nurse/2 T of rice cereal
9am: nap
10am: nurse/2 T of green beans or sweet potatos or banana
11:45am: nap
1pm: nurse
4pm: nurse/ 2 T of rice cereal
7pm: nurse/bedtime


Nighttime Sleep: Here is where the drama unfolds. Henry was sleeping beautifully from 7 to 6:30/7 for about 3 weeks. Then last week he caught a little cold and woke up in the middle of the night because he couldn't breathe. He also began rolling to his tummy in his crib at this time. The first night I nursed him, then put him in his carseat - the uprightness of that position helped his breathing. Since then - he has been up everynight. And after an hour or two of me being awake, I give in and bring him into our bed, where he's out like a light. I know - bad mommy. Last night was the worst - as he was awake from 12:20 until well after 2:30am - just happy to be awake. I didn't bring him into bed out of my own stubbornness, and now I'm tired as a result!

According to Babywise Theory, there is something called 5-8 Month Sleep Disruptions, and here are their suggestions of possible causes:

Teething
Ready to Drop 3rd Nap
Growth Spurt
Change in Routine

Plus, he had a cold, so I originally thought that was the problem. He still has a bit of a runny nose and congestion.

I thought that teething may be part of the problem - but he's not really extra fussy during the day and his gums look normal. He's extra chewy on my fingers, but he is using his back gums for this - is that normal if his teeth are coming in the front?

I'm thinking about trying to turn the 3rd nap into a shorter cat nap - but that would require him to take longer naps during the day and we all have seen how well that works. There is the suggestion of leaving him in his crib for the full 90 minutes and let him CIO once he's awake and eventually he'll learn that it's nap time no matter when he wakes up. But sometimes he wakes up happy and ready to go after 45 minutes, and sometimes he does wake up crying and I can tell he needs more sleep. The crying times we try to finish the nap in the swing - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Some people have also expressed concern that he goes to bed too early - but I know he needs 14-16 hours of sleep a day - and when he only naps for not even 3 hours during the day, I know he needs atleast 11 hours of sleep by night. And he was doing that.

So - the trial and error process begins. Unfortunately to try to rearrange his sleep in his nap schedule, this would involve staying home for a couple days and really working on it. Which is no fun for mommy - but we'll have to give it a try.... starting tomorrow because today is mall walking day, and I need my food court stromboli!! :)

Long Time No Update Eh?

What else is there to do at 1am but post pictures to your blog? Perhaps I'll write an update tomorrow :)