Six months

Did you think I'd hung up the ol' blog for good? Not yet, my friends. At the very minimum I HAVE to write these monthly posts if only to copy and paste them into Truman's ever-growing digital album. I'm all about memory preservation and this blog holds me accountable for documenting monthly birthdays at least. We'll see if I find the energy for anything beyond that.

My baby boy is a half year old and it totally boggles my mind to know he has been with us for six whole months now. In some ways it seems like he's been our little man forever and there never was a time before Truman and it other ways it seems like it's flown by at lightning speed. Either way you look at it, I have a baby who is growing up before my very eyes and like I say every month....this stage is SO much fun!






This month we started 'solids' after much debate and we've had our ups and downs with this new venture. For the first three days on rice cereal, Truman got about two drops actually in his mouth and the rest came dripping out in defiance, which makes for great pictures but it puts a hole in this breastfeeding mama's heart. Truman you are WASTING my precious liquid gold buddy! The horror.



But we stuck with it and after those first few days we started to notice more and more of the bland sticky stuff being ingested. And then he started to LOVE it and even reach for the spoon and immediately quiet down when we started to mix up the concoction. Great, right? Well then came the fun time when Truman didn't poop for 5 whole days which is basically like the drought of the century for my ultra-regular guy. We kept bracing our selves for a major explosion and it wouldn't happen but lots of grunting and straining made me think poor baby was totally constipated and hating life, so we stopped rice cereal for a few days. And on his last day of daycare I got a call at 8 am (after I filled them in on my pooping woes, and vowed to call the doctor that day), and it went a little something like this:

-"Julia?"
-"yes"
-"This is Miss Linda and I'm calling to say that Truman pooped!!!" (said in a triumphant voice)
-"That is wonderful news, tell me all about it, please! I need details here." (like a crazed mother obsessed with her child's bowel movements. I was literally so excited that my baby crapped his brains out and the daycare worker shared in my excitement. Radical)


So yeah, it was totally fine and not hard or bloody or anything gross....well, except it is pretty gross now that it's not 100% breast milk but not too horrendous just yet. After that little episode we added rice cereal back in and started giving it twice a day instead of once, and haven't had any other backups. We started baby oatmeal for the morning meal this week and although I think it tastes much better than the rice (yes, I must taste test them all even though I'm eating my own breast milk which is pretty gross) Truman seems indifferent. In fact over the past week he's lost a lot of interest in the solids because he's so darn distracted by everything else going on in the world that he loses his focus. Silly babies. Just when you have them figured out they go and change it on you.



As a side note, can I just mention that I am really happy and proud of myself for being able to breastfeed without supplementing for 6 whole months. It's been rough at times and pumping at work 3-4 times per day totally blows. Breastfeeding as a working mom is really really different than being at home, and I envy those who don't have to deal with bottles and measuring ounces and stressing over matching input and output each day. Oh and by the way, I have mastitis for the THIRD FREAKING TIME right now and thought I might die the other day at work from a fever and boob pain. But darn it, breastfeeding the babe is something that allows me a wonderful bonding experience with Truman. Especially when I've been gone all day and need to reconnect with him--I wouldn't trade it for the world and hope to continue as long as I can. I can honestly say that I keep going along this breastfeeding journey because I truly like it, and because he obviously likes it too, and because my body is still producing enough to sustain big baby boy despite my long hours away from him. I am blessed and lucky and determined...and some say a bit crazy. But I like breastfeeding my son and so I will keep going as long as possible. But seriously, no more mastitis, okay breastfeeding gods? Three times is plenty for this lactating mama.



And now, my friends, let's talk about Truman's gross motor skills and the fact that he has conquered so many milestones this month (ahem, coming from his proud PT mom): T-dogg is now officially rolling from his back to stomach on a consistent basis, albeit only towards his right side. And although he HAS gone from tummy to back now all of a sudden he's forgotten how to free himself from his face-down position. So of course, he freaks out and cries and gets really mad about it until we roll him back over. He's gotten so good at pulling all four limbs off the ground while on his tummy that he's like a little Superman on the floor. And I swear he's even trying to crawl at times, pulling his legs under him, and pushing up onto his hands to straighten his elbows. Yes, little (fat) dude is finally getting the hang of this 'movement' concept.




He's all about sitting up with a little support, or just prop-sitting, big boy style.

I think his fave is still standing up with our help of course because he loves to bear weight through those chunky thighs. And those feet? They must taste divine (way better than rice cereal) because they are constantly shoved into his throat.


His hands are even more gourmet than the feet but actually, now that I think about it, Truman isn't too picky with what goes into his chomper. In fact, after 5 months of failing at sucking a pacifier, this month he began to take and love the paci and I'm pretty sure it's because he loves to bite and suck to help his 'teething.' I swear to you he is teething....but no teeth are yet to be seen. I MIGHT feel a little bump coming up but I'm not too sure. But I do know that the child will bite down hard onto my hand or anything that comes within a 3 inch vicinity to his mouth so something has to be going on down below the gum line. Darn elusive mystery teeth. Where are you?

What else? Truman's upper body skillz are just as honed as his lower body because dude loves to grab toys and mommy's face and daddy's chest hair whenever possible. His aim is dead-on now and big brother Henry has even gotten groped a few times now. It's so cute to watch Truman enthralled with Henry and they both love each other to death. I'm sure Henry will be a bigger fan of Truman when he starts tossing his food at the pup, which will probably make up for the fact that Truman is bound to yank a few handfuls of fur out with those porky arms of his. Hank doesn't seem to mind just yet. :)


Vocally Truman is obsessed with yelling/screaming/emitting blood curdling cries just for the heck of it. Even Tony and Lois can hear Truman when he really gets going from downstairs which is awesome, because I'm sure our neighbors think we are torturing the kid. But really he's quite happy and content when he screams....it's like he's just discovering that he can make those sounds, and he's totally stoked about it. He'll laugh without being tickled now which is pretty much the best thing in the entire world. Actually, when I come into the room and he makes eye contact with me and subsequently smiles a huge gummy grin and flaps his arms around in excitement---THAT is the best thing in the entire world. Scratch that: I think my favorite is when he is nursing and he lifts his hand up to my face, then rests it on my chest. Have I mentioned that I love my baby boy? :)

And what good would a monthly birthday post be without mentioning the mecca of all parenting: sleep, or the lack thereof. This month I really hoped for things to change on the sleep front, meaning I was hoping he'd start sleeping for longer than a 5 hour stretch at night. But of course, Truman has his own agenda and it usually does not involve sleeping past 12:30 or 1 am before he needs a meal.

We're starting our bedtime routine with a daily bath in the kitchen sink at 7 pm now, because rice cereal appears in every fold he has even after we wipe him down. By 7:30 we start to nurse and at about 8 pm I'll lay him in his crib even if he's still awake. He'll put him self down after that following a short wrestling match with the seahorse and I'll go to bed by 10, although I did try 'dream feeding' him a few nights before I went to bed, too. It didn't really make much difference because nine times out of ten he'll be up at 12:30 or 1 ready to party. I guess sleeping for 5 hours the first stretch isn't awful but it's not wonderful, either. I'm still taking him to our bed after that to nurse because I firmly believe that I need as much sleep as possible and it just doesn't work to feed him in the rocker, or to try and ward off a feeding with just a pacifier. Co-sleeping for the rest of the night works for us and I just wish I didn't feel so guilty or like I need to justify that decision with everyone. Why do we as moms feel like we have to defend our choices all the time? And why do we have to be so judgmental to other moms? Can't we all just hold hands and sing and support one another, Amen? End of random tangent...carry on.

So yeah, he's up at about 1 am and I think he'll usually feed about 3 times before my alarm goes off at 5:15. But I'm just telling myself that he's A. Teething (phantom teeth, they have to appear someday!), B. Going through a growth spurt (because he is looking quite big lately), and C. This will not last forever. All three of these answers are great blanket statements for any concerns with parenting, you know. Also I'm going to pick up a book from the library called 'The No-Cry Sleep Solution' because it sounds amazing from the reviews online. I just don't have the heart to let Truman cry it out...call me a pansy, but I don't think that method is for me. And I'm not totally okay with the idea that we just have to deal with frequent night wakings either. We'll see if the book is as amazing as I'm hoping it to be. Of course, I'm secretly hoping that Truman will just magically start sleeping for long stretches at night because he did whip out a strong showing of seven hours in a row the other night, sleeping until 3:45 am. It. Was. Amazing.

(speaking of amazing, this is my new favorite pic of mister man...doesn't he look like an angel in the clouds or something?)


Well this post got rather lengthy and perhaps a bit too detailed. But that's what happens when I don't update the blog with real happenings for way too long. I won't even discuss the fact that I have 9 pages of new pictures on Flickr I've taken recently that are ridiculously adorable. Maybe a wordless post is required after this wordy one, huh?

(Note the awesome bald spot. At least he is growing hair now!)


Six months: my baby is even more interactive, and fun, and happy than ever before. I love you Truman. Can't wait to spend more time with you as I start my new job soon. But before that, our first airplane ride to Missouri for some quality family time. Can't wait!