6 month baby and postpartum update!
After some rocky weeks there during the 4 (turned into 5) month sleep regression and some random fussiness, he has been a much easier, happier baby lately and it has been even more fun to hang out with him. Also, I feel like 6 months is a real chunk of time that I have been doing this mom thing and I am not a total newb anymore. I mean, I still only have one baby and it’s not like he’s crawling or drawing on the walls yet, but I am doing much better with handling things like going on errands with him, something that was so hard and seemed impossible a couple months ago.
6-month-old baby
Six month milestones… Let’s see, he is getting better at sitting up by himself, although he’s still not reliable with it. He has been doing amazing at sleeping through the night since we did the tiniest bit of sleep training in the middle of the night a few weeks ago. (He has been able to put himself to sleep from wide-awake at bedtime for a while now, but around 4 or 5 months he started waking up 3-4 times a night, not hungry, just not able to self soothe. So my friend suggested that we really just had to let him cry at those random wakings for a few nights and he would figure it out. Well, it was really hard to just leave him crying, but we only had to do that for ONE night next night he slept for 10 hours before waking up hungry.)
The past couple weeks I have had to wake him up myself so I could feed him before leaving for work! Or on weekends, one time he slept until 6:53 AM. One time around 5 AM, but still. Then he goes back to sleep after feeding and he has been sleeping in a little! Makes me feel like myself again, getting almost enough sleep and being able to take care of things in the morning before he wakes up and needs me.
He is doing all kinds of cute, classic baby things like his little sounds and happy, gummy smile. He lights up when he sees me when I come home from work which is so cute and heartwarming! He also does this thing where he reaches out with both of his hands and grabs my face and pulls his face toward me. (As long as I have kept his nails trimmed, it is only very slightly pinchy and painful!) So cute. He completely mastered flipping over from his back to his stomach a while ago, but has yet to figure out how to get up on his knees in a crawling position, or to reliably flip back over onto his back. So he gets frustrated on his stomach stomach a lot. He wiggles around like crazy during diaper changes and when we put him down or in the Rock N Play (he'll outgrow that any day now) and puts everything in his mouth, even his toes!
We have tried giving him solid foods several times now, and while he really likes them, he is still learning the concept of putting something in your mouth, chewing/gumming it, and swallowing it. His favorite way to eat the foods we have offered has been sucking the mashed sweet potatoes with coconut oil off one of our fingers and holding our hand on both sides like he does the squished/oval-shaped bottles we used that go with my breast pump adapter set. So he has eaten a couple teaspoons of sweet potato now (in total, not at once unfortunately), as well as a few tiny nibbles of carrot that he was able to get himself. He understood picking up the solid chunk of carrot better.
Music calms him down when he's fussy and I've found he can hang out with me while I make dinner if I put on some upbeat Pandora. He also likes when we sing to him and my mother-in-law swears he was humming with her once!
He also loves looking in the mirror at baby and mommy. Adorable. He captivates people with his big, blue eyes and curious or happy face! Jason and I think he is the cutest, greatest thing ever and can’t imagine our lives without him. These 6 months have been the hardest of my life and this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done… but I am still so happy and proud.
6 months postpartum
I'm doing pretty well emotionally, though am generally overwhelmed at this parenting thing. It is what it is and I am learning! Probably my worst and biggest postpartum symptom is low back pain. I’ve had a lot of low back issues in the past, but they got so much better with regular strength training which I was doing for several years before getting pregnant. Now, I haven’t worked out regularly in basically a year because during my pregnancy I was either too sick, too tired, too busy, or without gym facilities so I really didn’t stick with it.
After pregnancy, my abs have are no longer stretched around a big belly/have nothing to brace against and have forgotten how to work, so all of the strain is on my low back when I do even simple things like lift the baby. I talked about this a little in this post. It’s still going on. I am still seeing a physical therapist for pelvic floor PT, which has turned into working on these low back issues.
I weighed myself for the first time in a while before writing this post and I'm down to 2 pounds lower than my pre-pregnancy weight, which was a low for me in a while. I am still breastfeeding and hungry a lot, but snacking on high-protein snacks and generally eating pretty clean, lower sugar. I think all of that has helped. (Losing weight has never been easy for me... until now, I guess.)
But... weight loss not always a measure of health. I'm very grateful that I've been feeling confident and not paying too much attention to the way my body looks, and that I can wear my old clothes again, but... I am aware that my butt, legs, and arms are much smaller than they used to be when I was strength training! I did like looking and feeling stronger. I tried getting back into some workouts (mostly bodyweight since our gym is still not set up in the garage) and even with plenty of modifications, they caused a flare-up in back pain. I really miss being able to do exciting workouts and see progress. One day.
Oh, the other troubling symptom I have right now... postpartum hair loss!! It's going strong! Started around 5 months, maybe a little earlier, and I can't believe I still have any hair on my head. For a while my hair still felt normal, but now I can really tell around the front and sides and when I do a ponytail. I think I need a hair cut or something to make my hair look... different? Better? I think it's too long and floppy now. I really hope this hair loss phase ends SOON!
I also wish I had some pictures of myself to add to this document-ative post, but I don't. Moms are always behind the camera, right?! I want to try to get some photos of me that I like soon! Like me holding Otto, wouldn't that be nice? Must do hair and makeup and upgrade from yoga pants first... :P!
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