Parenthood: 6 Months

Routines & Sleep

This hasn’t changed a lot in the past month.  She can be awake 2-3 hours at a time, naps 3-4 times a day (usually 3) and we try to get bedtime to happen around 7 or 7:30.  In the last month, she had been waking up a bit more during the night – usually twice, but sometimes once, sometimes thrice.  She has been often wanting to wake up for the day at 5 or 6 am, which isn’t great timing for our morning schedule, but we make it work. We put her down awake for naps. She usually doesn’t cry, but if she does, we try to rock or bounce her to soothe her.

For nights, we very recently moved her from the bedside bassinet into the crib in her room.  With the extra space, she started rolling to sleep on her stomach, and seems to sleep better overall – but it is still a new transition and we’ve had good and bad nights.  Her nursery is quieter and darker in the mornings, and it may help with the early wakings.  I really truly miss having her inches away from me in the night, but it seems like this is resulting in better sleep for her.  She still often nurses to sleep, but sometimes she doesn’t seem to want to, and I put her down awake, and she drifts to sleep on her own.

Childcare

I super love our childcare arrangement!  The nanny share is going great. We are really comfortable leaving her with the nanny and other child each day,  confident she is well cared for. It makes it easier to be at work. She has gotten a couple colds, which I suspect is from frequent outings to the park, library, and music class.  I guess this is a mild preview of the year-of-sickness that I hear comes with daycare.

I’m disappointed that our share most likely can’t continue beyond the fall, and am dreading the transition. I know she’ll be just fine in daycare, but I love the care and attention she gets with the nanny share, and I don’t like taking away the nanny. On the other hand, assuming we go through with the daycare transition, we’ll have secured a spot for her until she is ready for kindergarten in a several years. We also will explore the idea of a new nanny share, but it feels nice to know that we have an option of daycare nailed down.

Eating

She’s still primarily breastfed, and I’m still eating  limited dairy, which agrees with her. I avoid milk (replaced with almond/cashew milk) and anything with significant amounts of cheese/cream. She seems to be fine if I eat things with butter or baked with milk or small amounts of cheese.

We just started some real food!  We’ve started with purees and oatmeal, mostly because that is what I’m most comfortable with and it seems simple.  This is a rough plan we may follow. I like the concept of feeding her normal people food as soon as possible, but it makes me a little more nervous.

Personality / Milestones

In general, she’s been an easy going and happy baby (except when she’s not).  I marvel at how different it is from the newborn days, how much easier it is to take her places, how easy it is to hang out with her at home. She can be so much fun with her smiles and laughs.  She’s also an extremely cute little baby.

She found her feet this month!  It is so cute!  She started consistently rolling from back to front, usually when she wants to get a better view of something.  She doesn’t roll to get places, but she has started trying to army crawl a bit and seems frustrated that she is mostly immobile. She can’t sit unsupported, but enjoys sitting and standing with support. She also has a lot more vocalizations this month.

She achieved a weight of 14 pounds and 1 oz at her 6 month checkout – still small for her age, but ticking up a bit in the percentiles.  She’s come a long way from the ~4 pound peanut she was when we brought her home!

Money

We spent a little bit on feeding supplies – plastic bowls, spoons, bibs and such. We’re starting to scope out baby proofing items.  I did buy a few purees to get us started on foods.  I hope to make my own, and I also don’t expect her to be on purees for too long… but I’m realistic and making my own is not something I was sure I’d have energy for.

I’ve put a few of her newborn items up for sale – the bassinet and swing. We purchased so much second hand that we should recover much of the cost –  plus we will free up some space!  These things are too large to store “just in case” we decide to have a second, and we can always hit up the second-hand market again.

Co-parenting

I feel like we are doing well here lately, and I’m grateful. It should be the default that both parents are equal parents, but it still is a struggle in our culture. T is a great dad, and extremely hands-on with her.  He’s great at playing with her and entertaining her, as well as the more tedious tasks.  The feeding still tips the scales in my direction, but T takes on more dog duties to try to help balance it. Plus, it is all a relatively short time.  People keep telling me how short babyhood is, and it is proving to be true, seemingly all the sudden.