6 Months

Honest Mom in the morning photo! All snuggly in bed, with both kiddos. My favorite place to be. :)

I've been a mom of two for 6 months (minus a day and a half). It seems crazy how quickly it's gone. The days seem so long, but the weeks/months are flying.

Oliver is a little candle burning bright! He's an incredibly happy, smiley, snuggly, loving little guy. Annabelle has her own special qualities, but she was not an easy baby. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have Oliver just like to snuggle with Jason--Belle wouldn't even let him hold her for a long time. Oliver breaks into a HUGE grin the minute he gets smiled at by one of us, and it makes laughter just bubble right out of me.

Health wise, Oliver is doing fabulously. His sunken sternum has started filling out, and his doctor remarked how great it looked a few weeks ago. His posterior tongue tie/high palate/weak suck are no longer issues for us. He's gotten a lot stronger, and nurses like a champ now. When he's suuuuper tired or ravenously hungry, we still have to focus on what we're doing, but for everyday normal feedings, it's become easy peasy, thankfully. He's still gaining weight on the slower end, but is steadily gaining and growing like a weed. He's grown 7 inches since birth (!), and is up to about 17 pounds. He's a long, lean little guy. His jaw is still a bit on the small side, but definitely catching up, and I'm confident that we won't ever need to do surgery on it.

So many things make Oliver happy :) He loves to play/interact with Annabelle, and has a special smile reserved just for her. He lights up just hearing her voice when she walks into the room. He loves nursing, but makes it clear when he does NOT want to, unlike his sister who would have stayed latched on forever if I let her, I think. Oliver also loves to be upright--carried upright, sitting in the walker, sitting in my lap, etc. He does not like being carried in a cradle hold, and prefers not to lay on his back all that often if he can help it. He is starting to really enjoy bathtime, and loves being naked :)

There are few things that make Oliver mad, but when he's mad, he definitely lets everyone around him know. He still doesn't love the car, but is doing much better. (Actually, side story--we had to do the farm run a couple of weeks ago for our farm group. It was just O and me in the car. It's about a 40 minute drive to the farm. After stopping 3 times before I got 2/3 of the way there, I just decided I had to get there and get it over with. So, I basically let him cry it out in the car. It was one of the most awful things I have ever experienced, EVER. But, he figured out how to fall asleep in his carseat, which he had never done before. I don't think he knew how since he's a tummy sleeper. Anyway, since that trip, he's done much, much better in the car, and even fallen asleep a few times since then, too). Anyway. Oliver also hates getting his nose suctioned (ew, who wouldn't?!). Right now he is disliking bedtime quite a bit since I'm working on helping him fall asleep without nursing to sleep. Beyond that, he's a happy guy who pretty much likes everything else!

Developmentally, O is doing awesome. He's army crawling everywhere, and is rocking on his hands and knees now. I'm sure he'll have crawling down soon. He's not sitting by himself yet, and is showing no interest in it but he'll figure it out sooner or later. He's starting to try and pull up in his crib from laying down, and is very good at crawling into my lap from the floor. His first tooth broke through today, and he has another that should be through by the end of the week, I'm guessing.

Food wise, we're doing baby led weaning with Oliver (just offering him what we're eating, not spoon feeding him purees), and following the same (loose) paleo diet that we eat. Oliver has had avocado, steamed cauliflower, banana, pear, steamed carrot, squash, egg yolk, and a homemade popsicle. To chew on but not eat, he's had a thick apple slice, raw broccoli and raw carrot. We've only been offering food for about 2.5ish? weeks, and he mostly sucks on it then spits it out. He seems to enjoy it when we give it to him, but doesn't seem to care when we don't.

Annabelle is an amazing big sister to Oliver. Amazing. She loves him so much, and tells him so unprompted. She worries when he cries, takes care of him if he is fussing, and is such an amazing helper keeping an eye on him when I'm in the kitchen and they are playing in the living room, or if I'm showering and they're hanging out in the bathroom together. I couldn't ask for a better little helper!

Mom-wise, I feel like I hit my groove only about 5 weeks ago. I still have days where nothing at all gets done except feeding and keeping everyone alive, but more often than not I'm back to being a relatively productive human being. We have mostly clean clothes, mostly home made food, and mostly happy kids. So I'm doing okay, right? :) I think it took 4.5 months to get there because really, those first few months just consisted of me holding a baby, sleeping, trying to feed the baby, and starting over. It wasn't until about 4.5 months that Oliver was content to be by himself for a little while, could go longer between feedings, and sort of started sleeping more organized sleep during the day. I'm thankful that I've gotten back in the groove, and also that I feel more comfortable going places with both kids. And hey--I've even gotten good at going places with three kids the days that I babysit! (feeling proud of myself for routinely getting a 3.5 year old, 1 year old, and 6 month old out the door. Not gonna lie).

I can imagine now why people say that going from 1 to 2 is harder than adding on after that. I felt like this was a HUGE HUGE transition. But now that I've been back to babysitting for a few months, too, it doesn't seem so bad to add one or two other kids to the mix. Though I have to say that our "plans" of having four kids may be halting after 3. Thinking about doing this baby stuff two more times makes me feel old. and tired. and old and tired. We definitely want one more, but after that, we'll have to see what God has in store for us.