6 Months Baby: Schedule, Sleep & Favorites!

July 25, 2019

Happy HALF birthday to our ((not so little anymore)) baby!

It literally blows my mind that its been 6 months since we added Samson to our family! Its been a wild, fun, EXHAUSTING, half of year full of laughs, smiles, and of course tears...from him, and some from me. Haha. #hormones.

I haven’t posted an update on here because for awhile it seemed to be very “status quo” but I feel as though once you hit 6 months, things start to change and quick. First and foremost: they’re moving. SOS.

Second, they’re sitting (or almost sitting) and…

THREE: FOOD!!

Development:

I’ll start first with some of the development stuff going on these days. Sam is rolling in both directions and trying so hard to crawl it is CRAZY. He is almost NEVER in the spot that I left him in. He’s just started to scoot backwards which is always the first stage they go through! Homeboy is going to be crawling soon which means RIP to me getting anything done around the house!

My other two refused to be caged into a pack and play (they screamed bloody murder) so I’m hoping he takes to it because I’m probably going to have to throw out every single toy we own because our house is basically a choking hazard. Kidding. But we really are going to have to do some serious organizing of the toys in a few weeks! Mom’s of multiple children I’m sure you feel me!

Sidenote- I’m not one to put baby into a pack and play for long periods of time because I do think how our kids were mobile/active quickly was because we let them roam (they all walked at about 10 months!)— BUT I will need it for things like…going to the bathroom, making dinner/eating or showering. You know, basic day to day necessities.

He is trying pretty hard to sit up on his own but still needs a little bit of help! We’ve moved into the regular stroller (YAY for getting rid of the carseat as a stroller). This is amazing because he likes walks so much more! He now sits in a high chair as well and the Summer Infant activity chair. He also sits/bounces in the Fisher Price bouncer/activity jungle! He loves playing with all of his activity jumpers and the toys they have on them- cause and effect, etc. Or just simply tries to eat them. lol.

He laughs, giggles, smiles, coos, and makes all kind of noises! I guess you would have to to make yourself heard being in a house of 3 rowdy boys. HE LOVES his brothers and laughing and giggling with them. He is sooo interested in everything they are doing!

He’s cut 2 tooth and another one on the way as we speak! Growth wise he is clocking in at about 18.5 pounds— 60th percentile in weight and 80th for height!

Nursing

Sam is nursing (or gets a bottle of pumped milk when I’m not home) every 3 -ish hours. Nursing is still going really well although he does get pretty distracted in the day because there is so much going on ((especially with his brothers!)) He also is just pretty much the most smily thing ever and will just stop eating to look up and smile at me! I honestly just want to freeze time in those moments.

He does still wake at night to nurse. Usually around 11 and then at 4 am so its really not that bad. The last few nights have definitely NOT looked like that though. Thanks, teething!

A little part of me died inside when we started solids a few weeks ago. It is such a bittersweet moment, another sign that he needs me a little bit less. Maybe its just me, but I always feel a little bit sad as a nursing mom that the breastfeeding journey is going so quickly and will be over before I know it! This is probably my favorite age to nurse- you still have such great, intimate, moments but the time in between nursing sessions is longer (ie. your life has SOME flexibility #YES), your boobs aren’t as big/engorged, and any kinks you had nursing before are sorted out!

Solids

We started offering solids in the morning (when he was most fresh right before he turned 6 months old. He would wake, and I would nurse him. Then I would wait about an hour or 75 minutes and then offer solid food. We gave him cereal to start with but he didn’t seem to love it…I will probably add it back in now that we are doing 3 meals of baby food a day.

His favorite is probably sweet potato but he likes it all! He’s had carrots, apples, sweet potatoes, prunes, bananas, and butternut squash. I probably could have started him 3-4 weeks earlier (I know a lot of people that start around 4 or 5 months) but he was growing great and the dr. suggested 6 months.

We went from once a day (breakfast), to twice a day about 10 days later (breakfast and dinner), and just this week I started him with breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes he wants a lot (1/2 jar) and other times he only has about a tablespoon. I let him take the lead!

Sleep

Ah, yes. Sleep. I feel like I’ve pretty much given up on this for awhile. Between teething, him learning to roll over …its been a long couple of months. I can’t tell you how many nights I had to roll him back over onto his back because he could only turn one way!

So, needless to say Sam has NOT slept through the night. I think his longest stretch was about 8 hours and right now he normally goes 7pn-11pm/12 am, and then goes back to sleep until 4 or 4:30 am. Then eats and goes back to sleep until 6:30/7. I try to look at the positives in that I’m only waking once between 11 pm and 7 am.

However, the last few nights have been ROUGH. Baby boy is in some serious pain and has needed some TLC! Usually I look to do official sleep training around 7-8 months so stay tuned for that!

Napping & Schedule

I FINALLY weaned Sam off the swing about a month ago and I’m kind of annoyed with myself that I didn’t do it earlier. It honesty took him like 2 days to adjust and he naps great in there. Right now I still have him on a Eat, Play, sleep scheudle with his wake time anywhere from 2-3 hours depending. I aim for 50-75% of his naps at home in the crib, and the rest on the go (ie. stroller or car seat).

For naps, we have a routine of a lullabye, close the blinds and put him in the sleep sack. We rock him for a few minutes and when he gets drowsy we place him in the crib awake. He’s honestly a good self soother so we got really lucky with that. He still naps usually 3 times a day and naps range anywhere from 2.5 hours to 45 minutes! Hopefully by 8 months he drops his third nap and we can transition to two naps!

Here are a few of our 6 Month Baby favorites:

Great Baby seat for the tub! He moves around SO much and this keeps him upright and in one place.
Fisher Price jumper
Pack and Play- keep them contained!
Fisher price Mat- still good for this month!
Summer Infant Activity center
Bibs- he is a drooling machine!
Stroller
These spoons are the best for solids
I had this car for my other two boys and my 2 year old still plays with it! Soo good for 6 months & up!
Noodle and Boo are my fave bath products. On sale through the #NSALE! Stock up - also makes a great baby shower gift!
Space Saver high chair!

Loves:

Putting anything in his mouth
Smiling
Baths
Walks
Jumping in his jolly jumper/Fisher price
his family
Food!

Hates:
Being left alone in a room

xo

Alex

3 months old: Sleep, Favorites, & Routine

April 17, 2019

hiiiii friends!

Yesterday was a HUGE travel day but also was Sammy’s three month birthday! We celebrated by hopping on a plane (his first plane ride) down to florida!! I can’t even tell you HOW MUCH I was looking forward to this! I haven’t had a vacation since August and haven’t travelled at all because the end of pregnancy & newborn life! And while vacation with a little baby can be harder (especially with 2 other children) its still nice to be in the sun even if you aren’t in the comforts of your own home (which is hard with two littles!).

We were actually supposed to head down on Monday but our flight was delayed 3 hours (!!) and we woulden’t have departed until 9 pm! Yikes! We ended up calling and were able to change our flight free of charge to Tuesday late morning (THANK YOU SOUTHWEST you da real MVP!!) so…yeah. Bummer that we missed out on a 1/2 day of our vacation but #sorrynotsorry …I’m not feeling a 11:45 pm arrival in Orlando with a 3 month old, 2 year old and 4 year old! LOL. I’m so glad we switched our flight because everything went really smooth. No delays, landed early, and he pretty much nursed/slept the whole time. I may or may not have gotten a DVT during the plane ride because he was sleeping on me (lol) but at least he was well rested. He was awake for take off and landing, and slept in the car on the way to our place.

Three Months Old

SO, here we are. THREE months old. 12 weeks have come and gone and I still can’t believe it. We are out of the dreaded “fourth trimester” and the best is yet to come. This first 3 months definitely went by a lot faster than my time with my other two boys. Not sure if its because its my last, or because I have two others to look after….!! But anyway, I think I can officially say that Samson is by far the most laid back baby that we have had….evidenced by how he travelled yesterday. He just went with the flow and even last night adapted to the new place really well and slept good. My older two definitely were more sensitive to change so that has honestly been such a blessing! Of course, any baby is a lot of wok and he is by no means perfect & cries/gets fussy! But he is really a very placid, happy smiley baby most of the time. I guess you could say I “did my time” with my first because he was the complete opposite!!

Breastfeeding

Nursing is still going great. Baby boy eats every 2-3 hours, the engorgement (and most of my crazy oversupply) is finally gone, and I’m finally starting to leak (less). I think by now, after nursing my first for 13 months and second for 15 months, I’m used to the commitment of nursing. While it is super draining, I love it. I love the bond, I love the snuggles…and while I would love to start slashing macros and get “my body back” I remind myself this season in life is so short, and to soak it all in. I definitely struggled with this during the first year of my other two boys life, so I’m really focusing on that and just saying “breathe. It will be okay. It will get easier.” This will all come in good time. I guess this all comes with a bit of experience.

I pump when I’m away for work and I will be posting a review (I promise!!!) of the willow pump!! Unless I’m at work, I really try to plan my outings around feeding to minimize how much he gets the bottle (and how much I have to pump!).

I did have to go away for a work trip for one night and that was SO Hard but also so nice because I slept through the night! But he did great with the bottle while I was away and I have a freezer stash of milk so all was good.

Sleep & Routine

I still have Samson on a EASY schedule. Eat, Activity, Sleep, and then YOU time :) It seems to be working out. I don’t have set nap times, just awake time guidelines. Generally he lasts anywhere from 60 minutes to 80 minutes of awake time and then its time for a nap.

Sammy is a pretty good napper and I’m working on getting him consistently napping in the crib. Up until a week ago he was napping either in the swing or on the go (ie. in the stroller!) His naps are definitely shorter in the crib but he DOES go to sleep without any sleep associations. I do put him down fully awake and he puts himself to sleep which is literally amazing- i could never do this with my other two. It just goes to show you can raise them all the same way but honestly a lot of it is down to their tempermant!

I know his routine will evolve as he gets older and become more of a “schedule.” I always see it starts with a set bedtime and morning wake up becoming more consistent. I’ve definitely noticed that over the last month so if you’re a first time mom, this is the place to start- a set bedtime and wake time in the morning. Sammy seems to wake between 7-7:45 am and go to bed between the same time at night. Which brings me to nighttime sleep. The biggest topic when it comes to infants!

Currently he goes down for bed at about 7:30/7:45 and usually sleeps until 1 or 2 am. Then he goes back to sleep until about 6 am where he eats and goes back to sleep until 7 am or so. So, he is a pretty good sleeper. Could be better, could be worse!

I do think having a bedtime routine helps but isnt the be all-end all. His bedtime routine is still the same that I discussed last month where I play a lullaby, bath (if no bath just lotion/massage) put pjs on, and nurse. Then I swaddle and put the white noise on and feed the other side, and lay down in crib. I have tried a few times to have him sleep with his arms out at night (unswaddled) and it was a complete disaster so I’ll try again in a few weeks!

I’m hoping I completely miss the 4 month sleep regression because a majority of the time he puts himself to sleep. Here’s hoping…

Milestones

Samson is babbling and cooing even more, smiling 24/7, and lifts his head up really well during tummy time (which he hates!!). He can roll to his side sometimes…but is nowhere near rolling completely over. He has definitely discovered his hands (they are constantly in his mouth) and the dreaded drooling has begun. Luckily he only spits up every now and again!

Loves…

Being held
milk
his bouncy chair
His fischer price mat
sitting in his swing
smiling
going for walks
the jolly jumper

Hates

Car rides
tummy time
being unswaddled
loud noises

Here are a few of our 3 month favorites for baby:

Baby Boy loves his bouncer || Play gym || Car Seat cover- great for nap time in the stroller and shielding from wind/sun! || Kick Piano Gym! || Finally figured out how to use this wrap! LOVE it. || Great sound machine and super portable for travel! || I have loved this swing for all 3 kids! || Jolly jumper-awesome for burning off some baby energy! || Nice & Warm car seat cover, easy to put on/take off. A must if you live in a cooler climate! || Freshly picked moccs! SO CUTE. Loved these for seb & now for sammy! || PB crib || THE BEST stroller ever || stroller system for the stroller and a britax car seat || Baby Tub || I LOVE these joggers from H & M || My diaper bag-people don’t even know its a diaper bag. I get so many compliments on it! || Fave baby wash/products || Cute jumpsuit for baby || 2 pack jumpsuits || Slub jersey shorts || Cotton pants || How adorable is this whale onesie set || Baby Einstein toy || First faves from Gap- I love their line ||Star onesie || My boppy = my life the first year!! || Drooling starts about now- these bibs are the best || Got this sun hat for my little bub! || Best toy ever for babies! || Sammy loves to lounge in his Dock-a-Tot! Love the buffalo plaid on this one || Best little UGG booties for baby :)

Have a great Wednesday! xo

Alex

2 Months: All about Baby, Sleep & Routine

March 19, 2019

Happy Tuesday everyone & Happy 2 months to our little babe! This is the best part of the “fourth trimester” for sure…once you hit month 2 everything starts to get better ((a little)) every day! You’ll always have “good” and “bad” days but things are on the up and up moving forward. 2 months signals baby’s first smile, a few giggles (soon!), more interaction, more sleep AT NIGHT and LESS CRYING y’all. #winning

Samson really has settled in the last 2-3 weeks. Weeks 3-6 were hard. Like really hard, not gonna lie. But once we got past that, our little guy is as happy as can be, sleeping longer at night, growing like a champ, and gave us our first smiles. He seems to be pretty laid back, even through the dreaded “witching hours” that haunt me from Max’s early days (and even Seb would get pretty fussy). He still catnaps through that time period (or doesn’t nap at all) but he isn’t THAT fussy so I’m thankful for that!

Routine & SLEEP

I wanted to share what routine Sammy is on. Everyone is different; some people might think what we do is quite “rigid” and have baby on no schedule; while others need more structure than what we do. I try to be somewhere in the middle realizing we have other kids and I can’t sit around the house all day catering to his naps-Especially when I’m on my own on weekends/nights and the kids want to get out of the house ((also for my sanity lol!)

I know there are all kinds of books “getting baby on schedule” like Moms on Call, etc. but for me forcing baby to wake at certain times of day at only 8 weeks is hard. I also think with older kids its hard to have such structured times for naps when you have preschool pickups, or have to get out with the other kids activities. In addition, Sammy usually does a 4-7 hour sleeping chunk at night (which is great for a 2 month old) so I don’t really think I have the need to change anything right now!

I am reading “Moms on Call” however for other sleeping tips though and just for ideas so if you ARE looking for some more structure and just help in general I would recommend that book for sure.

Currently Sammy is on an Eat, Play, Sleep schedule. He honestly settled into that on his own and its worked really well. My two others were the opposite where they nursed before they napped. I tried to incorporate that schedule with Max & Seb but it just never worked with them and sometimes you just have to listen to baby! I do like the Eat, play, sleep schedule because he won’t be associating sleep with nursing (and me, for that matter) and me nursing him before naps when he gets older (bc tbh I love nursing them to sleep :) ) will be on MY terms, not because he needs it to fall asleep!

Sammy is different; he self soothes A LOT better than my other boys which I think helps. I’ve also been trying to be mindful of letting him TRY to self soothe before rushing to get him during a nap or during the night. What’s helped me a ton is the book “Bringing Up Bebe” and what the French call the “pause” where they wait and observe their child rather than pick them up right when they make a sound.

“When a French baby cries in the night, the parents go in, pause, and observe for a few minutes," Druckerman explains. “They know that babies' sleep patterns include movements, noises, and two-hour sleep cycles, in between which the baby might cry. Left alone it might 'self-soothe' and go back to sleep."

Let me be clear in saying that this is not cry it out by any means; its just simply observing and allowing baby the opportunity to self soothe. If he doesn’t, I intervene.

We have him on a one hour- 75 min wake schedule. So basically that means when he wakes up, he has generally one hour of awake time before he has another nap. His wake times I base off of research on wake times and ultimately how long he is able to stay happy for awake time. He eats, sits in his bouncy chair, plays on his activity mat, does some tummy time and when he starts to get fussy/and or hits an hour (usually they tend to coincide) we head upstairs. He naps in his swing currently. I would love to wean him off of that but I’m not sure that will happen anytime soon! He usually takes around 4 naps a day and sometimes (like Saturday) they are horrible cat naps…then other days he has longer naps (90 min-2.5 hours). Erratic naps are still normal at this age so I’m not super worried about it. Generally the morning naps are better and longer; later in the day they are shorter (30-45 mins!).

Bedtime is usually between 7:30-8:45pm. Sometimes he goes down really easy and puts himself to sleep after making noise/whining for a little bit. Sometimes he does full on cry for a couple minutes; usually I wait it out to see if he can overcome it himself. After 3-4 mins I usually go up to soothe him. Then there’s other nights I have to put him down when he is fully asleep..meaning I wait the dreaded 15-20 mins waiting for him to go into his “deep sleep” so he doesn’t wake up right when I set him down because he’s just not able to soothe himself. And thats totally okay, especially because he’s still so little and we all have bad days #amirite??!! I have been working really hard at the “self soothing” though because in order for baby to sleep well, they have to know how to put themselves back to sleep. So this is pretty much #1 on my list of things to conquer.

Last night I had all 3 kids for bedtime….so let’s talk about that. Ha. I’ve had them on my own for bedtime on my own probably 8 times now. Every night is different because Samson still doesn’t have a “set” bedtime so I never know how its going to go!

But last night went SO WELL. Do you ever have those nights that everything goes well and you can’t. even. believe. it. Like am I the BEST MOM EVER?!! haha. ((and then the next day is a complete shit show!) But anyway, I got the baby down ((the boys had a snack and watched a Disney movie)) and the Routine was as follows:

Lullaby on (I have an app on my phone)
Draw blinds, etc
Massage with lotion, Change into jammies, wash face
Turn Lullaby off, nurse one side
Turn white noise on & swaddle (this is the swaddle we use, I love it because it doesn’t ride up around his face)
Feed other side
Put down awake

This whole process took 30 mins.
I put him down fully awake and he made a few noises but went to sleep on his own! And I was able to give the older two full attention after 7:30 pm and put them to bed without a screaming baby in the other room. Like I said, this doesn’t always go this way, but I sure felt like a ROCKSTAR last night. lol. He did wake up after his first sleep cycle and cry out, but it was for about a minute and he went back to sleep on his own.

And if you are reading this, and your baby is the same age as mine/older, screams every time you try to put them down, and NEVER self soothes, PLEASE DON’T COMPARE. Like I said, my oldest I never could have even attempted to put him down “drowsy but awake” this early on. Every baby is different and getting them to learn how to sleep is HARD. They all do it on their own time and you just have to listen to them and see what they are ready for. Listen to your momma instinct!

Last week Samson had a little cold so I had him sleeping in the rock and play to keep him elevated. He seems to really like sleeping on the angle and had his best sleeps in there. Nighttime sleep in the Rock and Play the last week has been AMAZING so this is why I’m resisting moving him from there. Do you blame me?? He has been doing 6-8 hour stretches at night. So basically he goes down at 7:30/8:30ish and then sleeps through til 2 or 3 am. Last week he even did a 8:45 pm-4:30 am. #GOALS.

Before he was sick he was sleeping in the dock-a-tot and was doing one 4-5 hour shift right when he went to sleep. I’m working on getting him in the crib without the dock-a-tot but it didn’t go so well saturday night. I’m not sure if its because he was so overtired from the short naps he had so I’ll keep persevering.

And don’t get me wrong-sometimes after his “long” stretch of sleep (the 5-7 hour window) he might get up every 2 hours after so some nights are harder for me than others!! Especially if he goes to bed earlier (like 7:30/7:45) and then he’s sleeping 7:30-2 am, and then up again at 4, and 6 am. Ick.

I’ll keep you all posted on how this progresses and anything I can pass along to you!

Breastfeeding

Nursing is going great. He weighs more than 13 lbs (in the 90th percentile for weight lol) so he is eating so well. Nursing sessions have cut down in time for sure which is great. I’m still leaking like crazy and getting engorged (especially at night) but I’m sure that will level off in the next 4-6 weeks.

I recently got the Willow pump in the mail and I’ll be trying that out and reviewing it here on the blog! For those that don’t know what it is, it is a wireless and cordless pumping system. It is also very quiet and you can pump on the go-while you’re playing with other kids, driving, while you cook, and you can even lay down pumping!

I do try and do one extra pump a day to stockpile milk; in addition to what Samson drinks we put my breastmilk in my older sons oatmeal (shh don’t tell!!). My middle boy also sometimes likes to drink it still out of a cup! I usually do this pump earlier in the day (morning) and pump only my right side. This side produces more milk for the pump; then I just feed on the other side because I know baby can get what he needs from there because they are more adept at pulling milk while breastfeeding than the pump is.

Milestones & Personality

Like I said before, Sammy is pretty chill. He loves to sit in his bouncy chair and look around and could honestly sit there for a good 15 minutes without a peep! He loves looking out the window, and likes taking walks. He doesn’t love car rides but is definitely getting a little bit better with it! He started smiling about 2 weeks ago (around 6/7 weeks). He kicks his legs fast when we speak to him and its so fun to see his reactions! I can’t wait for that first little giggle. He is also starting to enjoy his bathtime more and more & when he’s on his activity mat he sees everything so much more clear. Looking forward to when he is able to fully hold his head up and jump in the jolly jumper!

Brothers

The boys are honestly so awesome with him. I only worry about Seb because he is only 2 and doesn’t fully understand that he could really hurt the baby. But every single day they talk about Samson and tell me “he’s my best friend” ummm. HEART MELTED. Makes all the long nights and hard days worthwhile! Max is actually a pretty good little helper if I need something too!!

It’s going to be a little crazy no doubt trying to find a routine with all three boys but I think the biggest thing you learn after going with one to two kids is to just ROLL with it! So that’s what I’m doing…

2 month favorites

Here are our favorite 2 month baby favorites!

1.We’ve started to put Sammy in the bumbo for short increments! Its great for when you start solids and just somewhere “new” to put baby when you have to make dinner or tend to something else.

2. We love Mortimer the moose toy!

3. This baby einstein toy was a fave of our older two and plays fun music to catch their attention!

4. More toys

5. The shusher- amazing for on the go soothing!

6. This is a great early sit up seat for baby when they are young! Especially when you have other kids…keeps them entertained but still supports them!

7. The Mommy hook- but with a phone charger on it!!

8. Fun jungle gym that has a fun area for them to kick!

9. LOVE these mickey onesies!!

10. Baby towels from PB

11. Rattles

12. I want to get this portable sound machine!

13. Dock a tot that he loved sleeping/lounging in

14. The must have boppy for breastfeeding mamas

15. The rainforest play mat that we have had for all 3 kids!

16. Swing= LIFESAVER

17. The bouncer we have that he hangs out in

18. The best stroller IN ALL THE LAND. HANDS DOWN!!!