Life With Baby: Six Months Later

Photo courtesy of Aspin Photography

…well, almost seven months later.  My last Life with Baby update was written at almost seven weeks!

Life is simple these days, which is exactly how I like it.  We’re starting to feel slightly more competent as parents and have established a pretty good little routine.

Baby:  Everyone tells me that G is a really good baby, and he is, until the sun goes down.  Then he turns into a boob-crazed insomniac.  But otherwise he is lovely.  His development has exploded in the last couple of months, and he is just so fun to watch.  His temperament is still on the serious side, but as his skills expand he gets less grumpy.  I think his seriousness is more of a frustration about the limitations that his infancy imposes upon him.  When he does flash a smile or roll into a fit of laughter, you feel like a million bucks.

Birth:  I’ve started a post that reflects on our birth experience because it took me six months to really process the whole thing.  Six months of reading more birth stories than I did when I was pregnant, six months of dissecting every aspect of my labor that resulted in the unplanned epidural, and six months of discussing my thoughts and emotions with anyone who would listen.  I can finally say I have 99% made peace with G’s birth.  I am tremendously grateful for the wondrous experience that it was, epidural included.  More to come in another post.

Breastfeeding:  We have started on solids but only minimally, so not much has changed since I last wrote about breastfeeding.  I still big puffy heart nursing and hope we can keep it up for a long time.

Dogs:  People liked to warn me that two dogs and a baby would be madness, and that my love for the dogs would change and even lessen once my heart opened up to an actual child.  They were right that it would be crazy.  They were right that things would change, too.  The dogs are not nearly as spoiled as they once were and there are days when I want to sell them to the gypsies.  But they are still my first babies.

Sleep:  I know how dramatic this might seem, but I can’t really discuss our sleeping situation without crying.  We are still very sleep deprived, and I get upset and emotional when people encourage me to let him cry as a way to “teach” him to sleep.  Connecting sleep cycles is a developmental skill, just like rolling over or crawling.  Our baby, for whatever reason, is a little delayed in acquiring this ability.  It’s rough, and I feel like I’ve read every book, blog, or article out there about ways to encourage this skill to mature.  We’ll get there, but until then, I can’t talk about it anymore.

Visitors/Travel:  G is a great plane traveler so far.  Car travel is hit and miss.  We continue to entertain many family and friends from out of state and country, and feel lucky that despite the distance, G will grow up knowing the people most important to us.   

Weight/Body:  I gained 25.6 lbs while pregnant and had lost it all by my six-week postpartum checkup.  Somehow I did this while eating very large amounts of food.  Unfortunately my body still looks very different than it used to, and my weight loss has completely halted since six weeks. I would eventually like to lose at least ten pounds and increase my strength and stamina, but I’ve decided to give myself a year to pretty much do whatever I want and not worry too much.  Breastfeeding and bonding are more important than a few vanity pounds.

I’m excited for the next six months!