Dear Ethan - 6 months

By A Wee Bit of Cake - September 09, 2016

Dear Ethan...

How can you be six months old already? It hardly feels like any time has passed since I wrote you your 3 Month Letter but at the same time it feels like it's been ages.

I feel like these past few months you have reached a lot of development milestones including:

Rolling Over

For some reason you can only roll from back to front and prefer rolling from right to left although you can roll from left to right if something catches your eye. You get a bit frustrated if you are on your front for too long but this leads me on to your next new skill...

Shuffling

Once you are on your tummy (and on your back too) you can shuffle around. You can't get very far but if I pop you in our bed or in your cot you can do a full 180.

Sitting Up

In the past month you have suddenly mastered sitting up. For a few weeks you could sit up for 5-10 seconds but had to be leaning quite far forward then one day the NCT mums and babies were over for a playdate and once you saw Lily sitting something just clicked and you mastered it there and then. From that point you have got stronger and stronger and can now happily sit for ages without any help. I still scatter a few cushions behind you though just in case you fall backwards.

Your Voice

Oh my, have you found your voice or what? We have went from a few oohs to screeching, yelling, blowing raspberries and giggling. You don't have a full on belly laugh but you let out this weird half yell half giggle sound with a giant smile on your face, it's so adorable. And speaking of smiling, you really are the smiliest baby boy we know. Your adore smiling at people and every one you see, whether family, friends or randomers when we are out and about, they all comment on how smiley you are - our little ray of sunshine.

In so many ways you really are perfect but our one negative is sleep. You nap for no more than 30 minutes at a time (I think I can count on one hand the days you have napped for longer than that in the past 3 months and still have spare fingers) which is quite frustrating. Sometimes you wake up smiley but other times it's obvious you are still tired but no amount of boobing, rocking or cuddling will get you back to sleep. No matter how early I put you down for a nap it can often take 20-30 minutes to get you to go over and then 30 minutes later you are awake again. You seem to sense when the car or pram stops too if you are napping and waken as soon as we arrive at our destination.

As for night time sleeping we have good and bad days. I'm still waiting on you sleeping through - one day eh? You tend to go down any time between 6:30 an 7:30, then often wake half an hour later for a quick top up feed and from then you tend to wake up at 10:30, 1:30 and 6/7am so not too bad. When we have a bad night I just bring you in to bed with us, it's much easier. The only downside is you have discovered how to pull on Daddy's chest hairs which is not a nice way to wake up!

Speaking of Daddy, it's been amazing to have him off these past 6 weeks on school holidays and watch your bond grow and develop. You are a total Daddy's boy and if he walks into the room you immediately stop what you are doing to give him the biggest smile and you start shaking in anticipation of getting a cuddle or better still, making dinosaur noises. It seems to be your new favourite thing to do with him.

Food wise we have just started weaning. Initially I wanted to wait until exactly 6 months and do pure Baby Led Weaning but we noticed over the past few weeks you were very interested in food so we started weaning last week, during the last week of the holidays while Daddy was around. We've offered you the odd pouch but you aren't keen on purees or spoon feeding, you would rather do it yourself. It's fun to watch you eat solid foods but nerve wrecking too every time we see you gag. So far you aren't doing too bad. You love meat especially steak and chicken but breakfast is still a battle. I'm sure we will get there in time though, I just have to trust you and follow your lead.

You're no longer that teeny tiny baby, at 16lb 13oz you have almost doubled your birth weight and are still a total boobie monster. When I look at your chubby thighs and those baby creases I feel so proud that my milk has done that. Initially I felt emotional watching you eat solids and seeing you find nutrition in other food sources but at the same time I'm pleased to have got this far and it's nice that other people (Daddy especially) can now take part in feeding you too.

You interact with all of your little baby friends so well now. We see the NCT babies every Tuesday and our Twitter group on a Wednesday. When you see them you give them your best smile and you love to sit with them and fight over toys (or suck toes, weird boy!). I also take you to Baby Sensory and Burley Babies. Initially we tried a bit of Rhythm Time which you really liked but once we tried Baby Sensory we were both hooked. I have never seen anything grab your attention the way it does (well apart from Postman Pat) and I'm so pleased we decided to enrol you on the course.

We've also done quite a bit of travelling these past 3 months. There have been 2 trips back to Ireland, a weekend in Liverpool, a trip to Birmingham and Banbury to see Georgie and co and a lovely day trip to Scarborough to round off the holidays. You are pretty good in the car but can get grizzly if you have been in it for too long. Considering you are only 6 months old you really are very well traveled!

I feel the need to stop the letter here and stop my rambling. It's been an amazing 6 months watching you grow from that teeny newborn to a little chunk that lights up our life every single day (even with those sleepless nights). You really are the best thing we have ever made.

Love you always,

Mummy xxx