(I'm combining 2 months because I've been 'gasp' falling behind on my posts)
Half a year has flown by with our sweet guy. One of the biggest things that stands out to us with his personality now really developing is just how emotional he is! (Sorry, older Nathan if you're reading this 15 years+ from now! hehe). There's really not much you need to do to get a smile and belly laugh out of him and he "flirts" with just about anyone who glances his way. On the other end, he also seems to be effected negatively by things pretty easily too (i.e. Mommy walking away from him God forbid). He's a TOTAL Momma's boy (again, sorry Nathan. But for me it's the best feeling in the world)!
This is such a fun age with him sitting and interacting a lot more, and even starting to make some word sounds. I have an adorable video of him saying "Dada"! He's obsessed with studying Gwen, and she's just infatuated with him.
OK, here are some updates:
Sleeping
This has been a challenge from the start. I've been much more willing to bring him into bed with us than I was with Gwen. I'm not sure if willing is the right word. The sheer exhaustion of having a toddler and a newborn made it so that I didn't have much of a choice. I would basically just fall asleep nursing him and any time I tried to stay awake to put him back in the crib after that first middle of the night feeding, he would just cry so I'd end up just bringing him back in anyway. With Gwen, we had a bit of trouble getting her to fall asleep initially but once she was asleep, she was out. It has been the opposite with Nathan. He falls asleep almost immediately (yay for my sanity), but then he wakes himself up throughout the night. He just moves around so much, kicks his legs and scratches his head (to the point where it breaks skin) and wakes himself up. Thankfully now I'm starting to see a change in that and I think we're heading in a good direction here. At seven months now, he's starting to just wake up once at night. And now, tonight I'm not expecting to get much sleep because I just typed that out loud.
Nursing
I don't think I've posted about this since he was born. Let me tell you, nursing the second is a WORLD of difference from the first. The pain wasn't even close to as bad. Plus, I was totally SHOCKED at how often I needed to nurse Gwen in the beginning but it was much easier the second time around knowing what to expect. Nathan latched very easily from the beginning and he's much quicker than Gwen was so each feeding isn't taking as long as it did the first time. I'm also not keeping track of each feeding on my phone so I think it has put less pressure on me and I've just been nursing him whenever I think he seems hungry. At this point I think we're down to 5 or 6 feedings per 24hrs. We're at that annoying stage though where he gets distracted by everything so keeping discreet while we're out just isn't possible.
Food
We started solids a little after 5 months and we're up to 3 times a day now. I've made some of the food but I'm doing mostly store bought organic which I did with Gwen too. He's had a variety of fruits and veggies (sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, carrots, green beans, spinach, avocado, apples, bananas, peaches, prunes - ahem, Lord knows we've needed them!, apricot, pears, blueberries, and I'm sure there are others I've forgotten. No meat or dairy as of yet). He seems to like everything pretty equally with no real obvious favorite but he does prefer the thicker purees. He usually makes a disgusted face after the first taste of just about everything, but then once he gets used to the taste he'll gobble it all right up. He wasn't a fan of the homemade peas or avacado but I'm thinking that's because I wasn't able to get it pureed as smoothly as the rest.
6 Month Photos & Stats:
Weight: 16lbs 5oz 40th %
Height: 26.25in 58th %
Head: 17.25in 62nd %
7 Month Photos
