Austin – Month 6

Austin has reached 6 months old. Wow! It feels like the last month has really flown. 6 months is a big milestone for babies. It’s when a lot of exciting stuff starts to happen.

Sleeping

The early morning wake up looks like it’s here to stay. He pretty much always wakes up sometime between 4 and 5am and then will chat and laugh to himself for up to an hour. Eventually, he does go back off to sleep but he’s pretty noisy. I know it’s not hunger or sadness, as he’s not crying or even whinging. He’s just chatting, singing or wants to play. I’m getting used to the early morning start and can normally catch another hour when he goes back off.

He’s really getting the hang of long naps. He’ll quite often nap for an hour and a half at lunchtime now, sometimes longer. It will only happen if we are at home. He sleeps well in his bed but not quite so well out. I think it’s noisier and there’s too much to see.

We’ve moved him into his own room. I was going to wait until after Christmas, but he’s had another growth spurt and no longer comfortably fits in his Snuzpod. He’s taken really well to his new room and goes to sleep for naps and at night with no issues at all.

Morning nap – 8:45am – 9:15/10:00am
Lunchtime nap – 12:30pm – 2/2:30pm
Afternoon nap – 4:30pm – 5pm

If he wakes up after 3pm from his lunchtime nap, we don’t give him another nap.

Feeding

We moved Austin to 10oz feeds at just after the 5-month mark. He was regularly finishing his 9oz, so we started giving him more. Due to this, I also took the decision to wean him a little earlier than the 6 months. Only a couple of weeks earlier, but he was very interested in the food we were eating and I felt like he needed more than just the milk. We’ve started very slowly, giving him baby rice and formula first and then introducing a series of vegetable and fruit purees. He’s tried everything we’ve offered so far and not spat anything out.

We’ve gone with purees first and when he’s a bit older we’ll give him finger food to see how he gets on with it. I’m really enjoying preparing his purees for him as it’s inspired me to get more different fruit and veg, rather than sticking to the same ones we always have. So far he’s tried carrot, sweet potato, squash, potato, parsnip, apple, pear, papaya, mango, broccoli, cauliflower and banana.

Nappies

He’s still in size 3 nappies. I think he’ll be in these for a while. They seem to cover a good range of shapes and sizes.

Mental Development

We’ve had some words from Austin. We’ve had a couple of ‘hellos’, ‘Mum’ and ‘Mumma’. Apparently, Dad is an easier word for them to say, but he’s not even attempting a ‘d’ sound yet. He’s great with ‘m’, ‘l’ and ‘h’. He’s also developed a lovely shriek, which luckily he doesn’t seem to use in his early morning wake-ups.

He seems much more aware of his surroundings and he turns his head when he hears people approaching the room, even if he can’t see them.

He had a big mental leap at the beginning of the month and I think it really upset him. He was very clingy and very whingey for a whole week and I found it very hard to entertain him and keep him happy. But I kept telling myself it’s just a phase, it will pass and it did. But it was tough – one day, in particular, he cried pretty much all afternoon and by the time my husband came home from work, I was ready to cry too.

Physical Development

Austin is now very competent rolling from his front to his back. He now has the perfect way to escape tummy time. He can roll back to front, but gets stuck on his arm once he gets over, so then rolls himself back.

He is able to sit up by himself for a few seconds but he’s very wobbly and I think he’ll need much more practise before he can sit up unaided. It’s nice that he can sit up with support as he’s got some new toys which really require him to sit up to play with them.

He’s quite comfortable sitting in his high chair and his stroller. He can hold his head up really well and I think he enjoys being able to see more from the stroller. He’s always looking around, taking everything in.

He’s really competent with his hands now. He passes toys easily from one hand to the other. He can move around his playmat, roll over and reach the toys he wants. It’s also really useful as he can pop his own dummy back in when it drops it during a nap. It’s amazing how much his hand movements and coordination have changed in just a couple of weeks.

There hasn’t been much movement on the teeth front. The bumps are looking more prominent and he is very chompy on his hands and his teething toys, but nothing has popped through yet.