He is six months old today.
He is...not Dylan. Who knew? He is up and crawling, and fast, more than two months before she did. He can pull to standing, given the opportunity. He has NO INTEREST in sitting unassisted because that would be too sedentary and he won't stay that way for even two seconds so I can't even tell if he can do it. He takes a bottle, I think because we glared at him suspiciously from the moment he was born until he took one. He's been the gassiest baby on record, but is in the midst of outgrowing it. [He is also possibly outgrowing the unceasing constipation now that I've gotten a critical mass of solids in him, but no one wanted to know that.]
He has eaten, unquestioningly, peas, carrots, apples, pears, bananas, dates, and oatmeal. I offered him avocado today, which I equate with eating butter, and he knew, in that moment, that I was trying to poison him. Dylan came over and tried some too and offered the same opinion. Fine, more for me.
He has traditionally not slept very well, with absolutely no reliable naps and hit or miss nighttime sleep for the past few months (see related: gas). I have been having daycare-anxiety flashbacks since I go back to work in a month, so starting two days ago I made up my own version of sleep training and put him through boot camp. The cornerstone was going cold turkey on the nursing to sleep, which he was completely dependent on. We've already seen a dramatic difference. He took two decent-to-excellent naps both today and yesterday and slept more than eight hours in a row last night and eleven hours total. He is getting really good at snuggling up with a blankie and sucking his thumb and getting himself all sleepy. We didn't do anything like this with Dylan because I didn't ever want her to cry and didn't really think anything would work, but now I wish I had done SOMETHING. She had so much trouble sleeping at daycare and when we traveled, and maybe it could have really helped her. We were also very involved with helping her sleep for a long time, which was okay but took away most of the time we non-babies might have spent together in the evening. Mostly I just want Ollie to be able to eat and sleep when I'm not around, and I am now feeling for the first time like that might actually be possible. As a side effect my quality of life seems to have dramatically increased. It is, however, Day Three of boot camp, so who knows.
We've been weighing him every week to make sure he doesn't pull that not gaining weight thing again. I think he's back up slightly above the 10th percentile, at 15 pounds as of Monday. His drumsticks certainly look more substantial.
He is into everything. We have been forced once again to address the classic problem of how to make water accessible to the dog, but not the baby. It is a paradox wrapped in an enigma but not wrapped in bacon (vegetarian and whatnot). Dylan has been so excited as he's gotten to be more like a baby and less like an appendage, and is always asking what developmental stuff will be next. We all like having him around.
To summarize: Ollie--two thumbs up. We shall keep him. I recommend getting one for yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment