Dear Asa,
Happy half birthday! August was a particularly hectic month as we prepared for our big move, but it was also a month of major milestones for you:
1. You mastered rolling over.
2. You started eating solids.
3. You began sleeping for longer stretches overnight.
After weeks and weeks of waking up every hour at night, you suddenly started sleeping in three-hour chunks again. I can’t remember if it was before or after you transitioned from a swaddle to a sleep sack; we went back and forth trying to figure out what would help you sleep better. Verdict: It didn’t matter. We just had to wait it out.
I continued to nurse you every three hours for a few nights, but we wanted to see if you could skip a feeding. Daddy started going into your room when you woke around 1am to soothe you back to sleep. Lo and behold, it worked… for the most part. Although you aren’t consistent, you proved that you could give us a four to five hour stretch of sleep between 11:30pm and 3:30am. Nobody would mistake that for “sleeping through the night,” but it offers your exhausted parents a tiny reprieve.
It’s not true that babies sleep longer once they begin eating cereal, although it didn’t hurt. You gobbled up your first serving of cereal shortly before you turned six months old and are proving to be an excellent eater. If I’m not mistaken, you might also be a slightly neater eater than Levi was at your age.
What must have helped you sleep better, I’m convinced, was when rolling over from your back to your front while asleep stopped freaking you out. Just like your big brother, you are much happier to sleep on your tummy. Unlike Levi, however, you sleep with a security blanket (in addition to your pacifier) that you rub around your face and drape over your eyes. Of course, I frequently check when you’re sleeping with it and move it out of the way if necessary.
Despite sleeping better in your crib at night, you’re still unable to nap in it during the day. You much prefer your swing and can stay asleep in it for an hour or two, depending on the time of day. Unfortunately, it died toward the end of the month, and you haven’t been as keen on sleeping in the MamaRoo. (I think you’re actually too big for it already.) Our next goal is getting you to nap in your crib.
When you aren’t crying because you need something (sleep, milk, a clean diaper, etc.), you’re such a happy boy. Everybody says so. There’s literally a twinkle in your eyes. You love to laugh and snuggle and grab my face and hair. Thankfully, I’ve noticed a decrease in my postpartum hair loss this month, though you nearly always have a strand or two entwined in your tiny fingers.
Your happy place is the Jumperoo, which you tried for the first time this month. You’re content to bounce in it for up to an hour! You also use your baby seat often, as you’re not sitting up on your own yet. Maybe this month, peanut!
At your six month appointment, we were convinced you were going to be in the 100th percentile for weight because compared to Levi, who needed extra calories when he was six months old, you are such a big baby! Surprisingly, you only weighed 18 lbs (60th percentile), but you were 28.5″ tall, putting you in the 98th percentile for height. You have officially graduated into size 6-9 month clothing — or size 6-12 month, depending on the store. I’m looking at you, Baby Gap.
You still nurse every three to four hours, and when you drink from a bottle, you can finish 5 oz with no problem. You don’t have a set nap schedule (#secondchild), but you sleep in the morning and afternoon and are now going to bed IN YOUR CRIB around 8:30pm. Woot woot! When we are in New Jersey next month, I hope to get you on a more regular eating and sleeping routine.
Now tell me: How the heck did a half a year go by so quickly?
Love,
Mommy
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Asa turned six months old on August 26, 2014. (Yes, this update is very, very late.) I’ll be taking a monthly baby photo of him next to his Blabla doll on his birthday to document his growth the first year.
PS – My struggle with postpartum hair loss the first time around. Plus, all of Levi’s and Asa’s monthly baby photos.
Those eyes!!!!! #swoon