I thought I’d share a little personal update today on the blog. I’ve been in Cape Cod since the end of June staying at my mom’s with Tommy. Nick was down for the long holiday weekend but went back to Boston during the week for work.

So, it’s been Tommy and Mommy for the most part with the help of my mom here and there. I chose to stay down for this reason. It’s great being able to have her to watch him so I can write an email or finish a blog post.

A few other perks living in the Cape now include cooler temperatures, having a grill for dinner, homemade ice cream, the best lobster rolls and oh yeah, the beach.

Tommy will be officially 6 months on Tuesday! I can’t believe how fast they have gone. Six months come with a lot of milestones and here is where we are…:

Eating Solids?

We were given the OK to start with solids at our 4 month check up however I read too many articles on the interweb (which obviously knows better than my doctor… j/k) that suggested we wait until 6. I was reluctant due to my online findings but really, I was just lazy.

I gave him some avocado Memorial Day and he went from 1 dirty diaper a day to 5 for a week! I’m sure it wasn’t the avocado but I decided to hold off again until we became regular again.

Two weeks later (!?) at 5 months, I gave him organic sweet potato from the Late July baby food line, which was given to me by my sister.  He loved it. I thought I’d be the mom to make all her baby food but the jarred was easy and there.

He also liked the bananas. In fact, Nick and his mom gave Tommy an entire jar in one sitting while I was in Nantucket! He is a boob guy and wasn’t drinking much milk out of his bottle so I guess he was pretty hungry.

I tried giving Tommy mashed up fresh bananas but he prefers the jars. We also tried sweet potato tonight and he couldn’t stop coughing or gagging. I think we needed to add more breast milk or water to make it more watery. We stopped after a couple spoonfuls came back up. Sigh… mommy fail. I thought you just pureed some cooked veggies, no?

I also gave him long pieces of carrot, watermelon and cucumber to gnaw on. This is sort of the Baby Led Weaning method which I need to read more about, but since T puts everything in his mouth, I thought would be fun for him. He LOVED the cucumber and watermelon. Carrot, not so much.

Sleeping Through The Night?

Well, this one depends on what you consider through the night. He doesn’t sleep 7 to 7. He does go to sleep at 7pm very easily. About 3 weeks ago, we followed the recommended protocol for “sleep training” out of the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book. The first night he cried for about 20 minutes. The second night he cried for about 10 minutes and he barely cried the third night. The crying wasn’t hysterical either, I could not have dealt with that.

He honestly goes to bed right at 7 pretty much every night now and doesn’t fight it. The only time he didn’t fall right asleep at 7 was when we missed an afternoon nap and he was over-tired.

He sleeps 8 hours straight but going to sleep at 7, that means he’s up again at 3 am. He does wake up at least once at night and yes I feed him because my boobs are about the explode! He has gone from 7 pm to 5 am without feeding 3 times so I have hope that my 7 to 7 baby is in reach but know that it is perfectly normal if we don’t see it for a while.

Right now our sleep looks more like 7 pm to 3 am, feed, 3:10 am to 6:15 am, but every day is different.

Is he napping regularly?

Nope. He has no nap schedule which is probably why our sleep is unpredictable. He goes back to sleep 2 hours after waking up, so his schedule is determined by how long his naps actually are and what times he wakes up at. More often than not, naps are 30 minutes. Sometimes, we have 4 naps a day.

On Sunday, he slept for 2.5 hours on Nick from 10:30 am to 1 pm! He loves sleeping on his Dad but other than that, this boy is a cat napper. I often time my runs and walks for his naps because it’s the only way he’ll fall asleep on schedule to avoid getting over tired and cranky AF.

Teeth?

No teeth!! I don’t see any either but he sure loves to chew on everything!

Rolling Over?

Yep. Rolling like a champ both ways, and only sleeps on his stomach now!

Crawling?

Ok, most 6 month old’s are not crawling and T is not, but he so wants to and is right there! It’s so cute. He likes to do the plank, sorta down dog and crawl backwards. He can move forwards but it’s not your typical crawl. He can push up into a table top position and then kinda thrusts his body forward but can’t figure out the arms yet. He’s got the legs down but the arms need some help.

Words?

No official words but I swear he says Mama when he’s really upset. He is a chatterbox some days and quiet others. He isn’t shy with smiles but he is very particular about his giggles. You’ve gotta work for your giggles.

He just started to get upset when people leave.

Any sickness?

We’ve been super lucky in that Tommy hasn’t gotten sick yet really. He had a stuffy nose for a few days after I caught something in Nantucket but we haven’t had to make any emergency trips to the pediatrician.

What size clothes is he wearing?

Tommy is wearing 9 months and up clothes. His bathing suits are for 12-18 month old’s. He has 3 bathing suits that were never worn… insert crying emoji here.

We don’t have an official weigh in but I think he’s 22 lbs. He was 21.5 before we left for the cape so I’m going to assume that he gained another half pound.

Favorite Toys

Tommy still loves his Sophie the Giraffe and Baby Einstein music player <- buy this toy! For $7 it will save you HOURS of crying, I promise. These two are seriously life savers. He also loves a good plastic solo cup with a little water in it and water bottle. It’s the simple things in life.

Lately, Tommy is just a very squirmy guy. He’s still smiley but he no longer wants to cuddle with me. Flying with him right now is terrifying. I wish we had traveled more already! Three to five months was the sweet spot! Even bringing him to lunch has lost it’s appeal. Sure he can sit in a high chair but he doesn’t want to sit still. I know this too will change quickly.

I’m sharing this stuff to remember it myself, and share my journey with moms like me who aren’t sure what they are doing. All kids are different. You can laugh at my lack of baby knowledge but hopefully don’t judge. I’m not trying to preach or give advice but share what has worked for us and what hasn’t.

We will be on the cape for another week and then will be back for Tommy’s 6 month check up. I miss my fitness classes but having fun jogging along the beach with T in the jogging stroller.

New video on Tuesday featuring the things I regret buying for the baby so make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don’t forget!