Six months old. Eek. Why is it that when you want to enjoy your child and keep them a baby for as long as possible they seem to have other ideas? 

On The Move

Baby Boy is six months old today and he can already get around the room on his own through a combination of rolling, caterpillar crawling and bunny hops. I wouldn’t say he is technically crawling, but he’s definitely mobile and he’s getting faster. The last few days he has also gone from the hands and knees position to pushing himself into almost sitting.

He can sit up, but isn’t very strong at doing so yet. Mostly because he has no interest in doing so. Unless there is something really capturing his interest he moves down onto his tummy to move around.

He has always been a tummy baby so it’s not surprising the muscles used for crawling are so strong. Even from the beginning he would never settle on his back so any time he wasn’t being held he has wanted to be on his front (whether awake or asleep). Because of this he didn’t like the pushchair and in the first four or so months he went in it only a handful of times, and even then he really wasn’t happy. Now he is old enough to sit up he is much more comfortable in the buggy and he loves that he can watch what is going on. If he is tired or not feeling happy he prefers to be in the carrier though.

Growing Fast

Being strong and mobile aren’t the only ways he is growing up too fast, he got his first teeth early too. His bottom two teeth popped through around four months and he has loved showing them off with his social smile.

Baby Boy’s teeth are good evidence that teeth and readiness for food are not related. His sisters both started eating food just before turning six months old before they had teeth. We offered Baby Boy food last weekend for the first time, baby led weaning again, and although he shows many of the signs of readiness he hasn’t lost the tongue thrust reflex yet so he just pushes the food out again after he puts it in. Interestingly his Moro reflex was always strong and hasn’t completed gone. I wonder if that is related?

I’m pretty sure Baby Boy’s hair is growing faster than Little’s did, but unlike his sisters he is a brunette so his hair is more visible than Little’s fine blonde hair. M was born with a lot of hair so she has always had a head start, I doubt her younger sister’s hair will ever get as long. Baby Boy differs from his sisters in eye colour as well. He has brown eyes, closer to my hazel colouring than his siblings with their blue eyes. 

Personality

When Baby Boy was a newborn he cried a lot. Evenings were particularly difficult, but it felt like there were weeks where I barely put him down. I’m sure some of that was due to an egg intolerance, which I have mostly cut out of my diet now, but I think the main reason was exhaustion. Baby Boy needs a good amount of sleep and regularly or he gets grumpy. Unfortunately being the youngest of 3 he is constantly disturbed to go on the school run, to nursery or just because his sister decides he needs a cuddle. 

As he has got older I am generally doing better at giving him the naps he needs and he has become a much happier baby. He’s still not a super chilled out child, but he doesn’t seem so angry anymore.

I find it strange when we are out because people say “oh he’s such a smiley baby” and he isn’t compared to how Little was. Little was always smiling; she was such a happy baby and toddler (she still is if you account for the threenager aspect). Baby Boy’s smiles are much more social; he smiles in response to people interacting and smiling at him. In fact he is at his happiest around people, whether that’s strangers cooing at him on the Tube or with his siblings.

As Baby Boy gets older it is lovely to see his interest in his sisters grow. He loves to watch them and he is now moving towards them to interact. This week we have seen the start of frustration from Little because he keeps ruining her games by grabbing at things. This was a big cause of friction between my eldest two when Little became mobile so I knew it would happen. I was hoping it wouldn’t start at 5 months though.

Eating and Sleeping

Other than a few attempts with self feeding in the last week Baby Boy is exclusively breastfed. Apart from during growth spurts he seems to pretty consistently want milk every three hours (day and night). During the last month or so he has been easily distracted by what is going on when we are out so he takes the bare minimum of milk to take the edge off his hunger then he stops (kindly flashing my nipple if I’m not careful). He uses the quiet nights to catch up on feeds when I want to be sleeping.

I don’t remember how well my eldest slept at a similar age, but I know Little was waking up pretty much hourly after her sleep remained broken from the four month sleep regression. Night times vary hugely for Baby Boy, but if he’s had enough milk in the day he will go to sleep between 7 and 8pm then wake up every three hours or so until waking for the day around 6am.

Night times aren’t reliable though and we have some nights where he will wake up for an hour to chat and others where he is awake for the day by 5am! I’m so glad his Dad get’s up with him when he is up for the day early, but the night chats (like last night when he was awake between 4 and 5 am) are up to me.

In the last couple of weeks there have been three nights where he has gone over six hours at night without milk. He hasn’t always slept for that whole period but he has resettled without milk so that’s progress. 

One of the differences between Baby Boy and his sisters is that it is easier to get him to sleep without feeding him to sleep. It’s the one good side effect from Little constantly waking him. His sisters were dependent on me for nap and bedtimes at the same age and although there is no substitute sometimes, if he isn’t hungry others can get him to sleep. Hopefully this might mean a little more independence for me as his food intake increases.

I was never sure about having a boy. Girls are all I have known both growing up with sisters and having two daughters. For the first few months I probably referred to Baby Boy as “she” as often as “he”, but that was habit more than anything else. There are still a few times that I think it would have been easier to have three girls, but I love my son with a fierce passion. He is my rainbow baby, the baby it took so long to finally hold in my arms. The child that makes my family feel complete.

Happy half birthday Baby Boy.