Six months

Last week Paul hit the six month milestone.  I can’t quite believe he’s been here with us for half a year now.   He seems to be growing at such a rapid rate, and while he’s still our ‘small Paul’ he also seems so big compared to a few months ago…

Paul has been an inquisitive baby since the day he was born.  At just a few hours old, his eyes were wide open, taking in this new world around him.  At six months he can’t stop looking around. He loves to be ‘up’ – sitting in his pushchair, being carried in my or Adam’s arms or supported on his own two legs. He grins furiously darting his head about, babbling in his own little language.

In the last couple of weeks he’s made massive gains towards crawling.  He pushes himself up on both arms and while he hasn’t quite worked out you need to use your legs to move forward, he’s got a mean commando wriggle happening. No longer can we leave him to play on his mat in the corner of the lounge room.  He now manages to wiggle all over the place and I think we’ll be baby-proofing the house very soon.

At six months, he’s develop a keen appreciation for books and loves to help me turn the pages.  Sophie the Giraffe is probably his favourite toy because she squeaks and is great to gnaw on, but his soft Winnie the Pooh comforter gets plenty of dribbly hugs at nap times.  Paul also loves when we sing to him, and my rather tone-deaf rendition of ‘Bananas in Pyjamas’ appears to be the number one hit, much to Adam’s dismay.  Kisses on his belly and energetic games with daddy are also very much enjoyed and a new found habit of resting his head on my lap makes me smile every single time.

Paul’s recently started on solids and so far broccoli and blueberries appear to be the most pleasing. Most food seems to end up squished in his little chubby hands, or in his high chair, but a few little morsels are getting eaten. Adam was rather chuffed when he tried to grab a piece of Yorkshire pudding out of my hands this weekend past.

Sleep has been a bit of a struggle these past few weeks.  After starting life as a really solid overnight sleeper, Paul was suddenly waking three, four, five times a night often screaming. It’s been tough on all us.  We know it’s probably linked to teething and Paul hitting developmental milestones, but after a few particularly rough nights we decided we needed to try and work towards us all getting more rest overnight. While we’re only a few days in to this new regime we’ve already seen improvements, particularly with day sleeps which have always been a struggle. Suddenly instead of fighting his naps, he’s going down without even a whimper and we’re back to much longer stretches of sleep overnight.

Although at times I miss our sleepy newborn who would nap for hours on my chest, I’m loving this current stage.  It’s noisy, messy but so much fun. Hearing Paul giggle when you tickle him under his chin, or watching his face light up when you blow him a kiss is just the tonic I need at the moment, in this new crazy world.  Down the track when this is over, I hope I can look back at this time with fond memories – intense family togetherness, an acute awareness of even the smallest little milestones and lots and lots of cuddles.

Have a wonderful week.

M. x