Luke at 6 months!

 

Luke is such a happy, sweet boy. He's funny. He loves his Daddy, his brothers, and his dog (and Mommy, but he's always loved her) and gives them the biggest, sweetest smile.


At 6 months, Luke is:

-Eating solids: So far Luke has had pears, sweet potato, butternut squash, apples, bananas, avocado, and rice cereal. For real solids, he's tried Mum Mums, baby puffs, and he has gnawed on some really hard toast. Now that he's 6 months old, we'll get more adventurous.


-Having some trouble with nursing: Between the cold earlier this month, and the ease of the bottle, Luke and I have been having some trouble with nursing. I don't know if my letdown is too strong or if there is too much or too little milk, but sometimes he really does not want to nurse even though he is hungry. I'm trying to be patient about it, but it is challenging! It also takes some time for us to get back into the groove on my days off. So Friday it is rough but by Monday we've figured it out...and then I go back to work on Tuesday. He's still nursing before bed, sometimes before naps, and in the middle of the night. But his nursing sessions are shorter.

As you might expect, he's taking more from the bottle and may be going through a growth spurt. We're almost out of frozen breastmilk! So I have to try to keep my supply up (even though he's not nursing as much) so that I can pump enough for him to drink when I'm not around.

I also got some formula as back-up, but because I've been on a dairy, soy, and now gluten-free diet, he's going to have special milk-free formula. Yuck! It stinks and the teeny tiny bit he had smelled terrible. I'm going to try some milk-based formula to see how he reacts (see below) because it tastes so much better!

-Sleeping better: We had a bad week or two with sleep because the boys all had colds, but everyone is doing better. Luke is waking once, if at all, at night. It's a nice change and I'm knocking on wood!

-His usual schedule is roughly:
         7am wake up
         9am-10:30am first nap
         12:30pm-2:30pm second nap
          5pm-6pm third nap
          8 or 8:30pm bedtime

But the third nap is going away so bedtime has been moving up.

-Waking up happy: We really can't beat the smiles when we get Luke up from a nap or in the morning.

-Silly and funny.

-Almost crawling: Luke gets up on his knees and rocks. We're trying to show him how to move his knees and hands, but it hasn't clicked with him yet. Any day now he will be on the move.

-Rolling over both directions: He just started doing this outside of the crib and thinks it's hilarious that he can roll across the playroom.

-Dangerous on the changing pad and in the bathtub. He rolls over on the changing pad--actually he barely stays on his back. In the tub, he slithers down like a wet noodle, tries to roll over, or, if he is sitting up, leans forward until his face is in the water. Needless to say we have a hand on him at all times!

-Running all over the house in his walker...And getting into trouble in the kitchen.

-Squawking like a pteridacyl: Brice did this too. I think this is how Luke hears his brothers. They do kind of yell/squawk.

Daddy's peekaboo was a little too much of a surprise for Luke!

We love you sweet boy! Happy half birthday!