Isaac is 6 months old!

Today my baby boy turns 6 months old! {Happy Birthday Isaac!}

We have his 6 month check up on Friday, so I won't have his 6 month height and weight stats until then, but rest assured, he is a healthy, growing boy looking more and more like a little man every day. He remains long and lean, although we started him on rice cereal once a day this past week, and I swear he's already chunking out from it as seen by his new chubby thighs that actually look a little rolly polly.

Highlights from his 5th month:

As I just mentioned, we recently started introducing Isaac to "solid" foods. We've been waiting until he turns 6 months old to really introduce solids because of his food sensitivities and intolerances to certain foods in my breastmilk and his family history with food allergies. However, he has been so curious and attentive while we eat, that we went ahead and tried it once a day, and it's going fabulously (minus the slight constipation). He's such a good eater! Very polite too, only trying to grab for the spoon on occasion. Otherwise he sits still, places his tiny hands on the tray, and opens up wide for the spoon - he's too cute, but I'm not sure how long his "polite" eating will last so I'll enjoy it now. I'm looking forward to giving him new foods to try this month and praying he won't react to any of them (which he shouldn't because they are the least likely to cause a reaction).

The most significant milestone this month for Isaac has been cutting his first teeth! As I've mentioned in prior posts, he's showed signs of teething for a couple of months now, and finally one morning as he was sucking on my fingers, I felt something sharp and checked! Sure enough, there was a little sliver of a tooth poking through, and two days later (January 14th to be exact), I could clearly see 2 little teeth! They are his bottom two central incisors and didn't seem to cause him any noticeable pain or discomfort.

Other than that he's gaining more and more awareness of his body and all the ways he can move around as he gains more control. He's really jumping around in his bouncer now, he is a champ at rolling from back to tummy both ways, likes playing on his tummy a lot, is doing amazing push ups, and has rolled from tummy to back a few times, but mostly on accident - he's still working on that skill. He also sleeps only on his stomach now - place him on his back and he just rolls to his tummy.

Unfortunately, his sleeping through the night has taken a little hit because he wakes up on his tummy frustrated he can't move, but he's still going to bed and waking up around the same time as last month - around 7:30-8pm bedtime, wake up between 7-8am. His napping during the day has been less predictable this month but his awake time his quite predictable at 2 hrs and then he's out. He generally takes a morning nap, an early afternoon nap, and a late afternoon/ evening nap now, but sometimes that changes and he has more naps that are shorter. He hasn't napped for 2 hrs straight since last month; most naps are an average of 45min-1 hr 20min. This month's struggle has been making it from his late afternoon nap/ early evening to bedtime - he's typically waking up at 4:30-4:45 which means he has to make it 3 hrs until bedtime, when he can only stay awake for 2 hrs, but he can't take a nap an hr before bed and we can't move bedtime up otherwise he's up at the crack of dawn and we can't push nap times back... so we're just taking it in stride and dealing with it as best we can (sometimes this month our best friend has been the baby Bjorn carrier which we had to break back out again).

So our typical schedule with 5 month old Isaac: wake up around 7am and feed him, then he'd relax and "digest" in his little reclined chair and then his swing while I showered and got ready for the day, then he'd play while I grabbed some quick breakfast, usually playtime is a rotation of his bouncer or rolling around on the floor, just this past week he finally started to appreciate playing in his Bumbo, then around the 1.5 hr mark he'd relax with me on the couch and suck his fingers, then 15 min before naptime we're in his room for a diaper change and "setting the stage" which includes drawing the curtains, playing his white noise, putting him down in his crib, and winding his mobile, he then falls asleep almost exactly 2 hrs after he woke up, no crying or anything, just rolls onto his tummy and he's out. We then repeat the routine when he wakes up, usually around 10-11am, feed, play, sleep. Usually during that wake up time we run errands together and he still enjoys taking in the sights and smiling at people while we're out and about. He's great at playing in his carseat while we drive and he'll smile and coo. His next naptime is around 1pm maybe a bit earlier, and then we repeat again, feed, play, last nap of the day, feed, play, bath, feed, sleep.

Oh and he still has his baby blues!! I'm telling ya he has his grandpa's eyes and they're staying blue! Also, he continues to baby babble which sounds more like a sing-song to me, but I am starting to hear "d" and "g" sounds every once in awhile - looking forward to hearing "da-da" soon! He also likes being carried on my hip now and holds on - I've been waiting for this stage for a very long time and I love it!! Seriously, his baby hugs are the best... Love cuddling him and loving on him and smiling at him so he smiles back at me. Oh and he definitely knows his name now!

I'm sure I've forgotten some fun details, but all in all, this month was the best... really it just keeps getting better and better! He's so fun! He continues to make me smile and laugh, and I love him SO much!