Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Six Months

Milestones:
-Sleeping through the night (finally!!)
-Sitting without support for a minute or so
-Standing with support

I'm a little late with this post but Benjamin is 6 months! I can't believe we are half way to the one year mark. It's so crazy to think about where we are and how far we've come. We are just enjoying our little guy (well, not so little really)! It's so fun to see him learn new things and grow.

We just had our check up and he's 17lbs 11ozs (50th percentile) and 27.5" (85th percentile). He is just getting so tall, when he stands up, he looks like a one year old! He actually stood up supported for the first time at 5 1/2 months and I couldn't believe it.
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His legs are just so darn strong. He now sits up unsupported for a few minutes but does still topple over eventually. He hasn't quite learned how to catch himself yet.
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He is getting really coordinated now and it's fun to see him play with toys and figure out how they work. He also can now drink from a sippy cup when he feels like it. He's eating solids a lot more now and is loving food! I've been trying to make his food but right now I'm making about half and buying the rest. He is so interested in watching us eat and wants to eat whatever we eat really and follows the fork from the plate to our mouths with his mouth open. It's really cute!
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He still has beautiful big blue eyes and long curly eyelashes that I can't get enough of and I hope they stay that way.
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Most importantly, we have finally made some progress on the sleep front! After trying every trick in the book, which didn't work at all, I just gave up and figured he'd sleep eventually...and he did! He now sleeps from about 6:30pm to 6:30am with 1 night time feeding anywhere from 1-4am. Although I'm still not getting 8 hours straight, this is such a huge improvement and it feels great to actually get some sleep again after 6 months of sleep deprivation. Woo hoo! It's so funny to see his personality regarding sleep though because when I was pregnant I used to joke that this boy never slept because I felt him CONSTANTLY kicking me, which actually was a relief, given the circumstances. He seriously fights sleep every nap and every night and will do everything he can to stay awake. He is just not a sleeper.


We took Benjamin down to the river to hang out for the first time and he had fun. The water was freezing but we dipped his little feet in and he didn't even seem to mind. He just lounged around on the blanket for most of the day.
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We finally worked out the nanny situation too. We found a replacement for our first nanny and she was really great...until she quit after the second day because the previous family she worked for offered her more money and more hours. Do people not understand what notice is anymore?! Anyway, I finally found a great woman who is a licensed daycare provider but doesn't currently have it open. My schedule worked perfect for her so we hired her and she is working out great! I think it's been about 4 weeks now and Benjamin is really getting used to her since she's here 4 days a week. She is great with him, finally knows his schedule really well and she even does the laundry and dishes! Benjamin still refuses to take the bottle, so we just finally gave up. We even tried the playtex drop in...which he did seem to like better than some of the others, but it was still a no go. Thank goodness I have the flexibility to go feed him through out the day, so I just take little breaks from work and breastfeed him and that works out really well. Plus then I get some time with him during the day, which is nice. :)

We also finally decided to have Benjamin dedicated at our church. It was a really special day and we had a lot of friends and family join us to celebrate. We felt it was really important to show that we know our son is a gift from God and we wanted to dedicate his life to Him. We pray that we can raise him to have a relationship God and that we can be godly parents to him. The video is a little far away but you can see it below.