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As I write this post, I still can’t believe 6 months has gone by. There are times when I feel like it’s flown by, yet there are other times that it feels like it’s been forever. I think part of the latter is the fact that the first few months were such a blur. With all the constant getting up in the middle of the night, learning how to breastfeed and care for a baby, times were demanding. I don’t remember it all clearly, so I”m so thankful to have a blog, and Google Drive where I house all my memories and photos.

The other night I actually defrosted a beef and vegetable soup that my mom made the day BEFORE Camryn was born. I remember her making that soup so vividly. And we actually went for like a 3 mile walk that night too. Who knew? It brought back some memories 🙂

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And now, here we are at 6 months. I realize I didn’t do a 5 month baby update. Cam has grown up so much since I last wrote about her at 4 months!

Personality

Cam is as curious as they come, and very very aware. She has been pretty aware from day 1, though. She won’t miss a beat now though. We recently started the phase where she recognizes when I walk away, and there may be a little crying. Now, she’s okay with it if I walk away from a few minutes but will make noise if I’m gone too long. She loves watching Tater and looking at Ed’s faces. She also loves my phone, so I have to be careful at using it in front of her (though I’m always taking pictures of her).

She grabs for anything and everything now, so baby proofing has started. Everything goes straight into her mouth. She crawled over to Tater’s bones recently and started chomping on it – ooops, mom fail! She is so vocal, and loves hearing herself scream in a high pitched voice. It makes me giggle every time. When she’s really excited, she moves her arms up and down really quick and tries to talk.

She is somewhat crawling – somewhere between the army crawl and full on crawl. She will crawl to me if I have something bribing her, like food or a kombucha bottle (no joke). She also started sitting up within the last week or so. Once she picked it up, she learned real quick. Now she can get to a sitting position from her belly. I’ll walk into her room in the morning and she’s just sitting up in the crib.

Cam Loves/Hates

She loves mom, dad and Tater. She also loves hearing her voice and making noises. She loves being on her belly and looking around. We put up this big circular play area (that we call baby jail) and she’ll just nudge her head up to the edge and stare out at us. It’s actually pretty funny. She has started entertaining and playing with herself, which I think is wonderful.

She loves pulling my hair, especially when we’re playing games. She pulls on faces too. She never sits still, ever, she is such a squirmer. So much to explore! She loves grabbing for whatever I’m eating or drinking, too.

We’ve tried Baby Storytime and the local park, and she liked the swing once she understood it moved! We are slated to start baby swim lessons at the end of this month!

She hates napping in the car or being forced to nap. She has the biggest fear of missing out, and will fight a nap as long as possible if there’s something going on. She’s not great with new people yet, though I think she is getting better.

Solids

We are just in the beginning of our starting solids journey. We are doing baby led weaning (basically, baby eats what you eat and they feed themselves), because I’m all about her learning to feed herself. I’m not in a rush though and taking things slow. She is curious about food, but I’ve seen videos of other babies going crazy and grabbing at the food on their high chair immediately. Camryn will study it and play around with it and eventually bring it to her mouth. Each food she’s tasted has resulted in the same questionable face. Like, what are you feeding me mom?

BLW is definitely messy. Luckily, we have Tater to clean up any food that lands on the floor. So far we’ve tried sweet potatoes (mashed and in finger shape), avocado, tomatoes, meatballs, rotisserie chicken, yogurt, eggs, spinach, toast with avocado, blueberries, oatmeal. I’m thinking I’ll introduce peanut butter soon. Likely as powdered peanut butter mixed with breastmilk. The newest allergen recommendations are to introduce them earlier, as there is a smaller risk of having allergies that way.

I am terrified of gagging so I just have to get used to it. I’ve watched many videos to learn the difference of gagging and choking. I took an infant CPR class during pregnancy and I’m thinking about taking another one just to feel more confident.

How I’m Feeling

Overall, I do feel like I’m much more efficient at being a mom than I was even 2 months ago. I really feel like I’m so much more in tune with Camryn’s cues. Breastfeeding is going well. Every day I am proud of myself that I’ve made it another day. In the beginning, I really struggled and didn’t enjoy it because it was more of a stressor. But, around 4 months, we hit our stride and things just clicked for both her and me.

Now, I do enjoy that time with Cam and I much prefer it to pumping! I’m hoping to breastfeed for at least a year, and I have a few weeks of breastmilk stored up now.

I can tell how much trust she has in me and it makes my heart explode. It’s crazy to think that I am keeping her alive. I love her chubby little cheeks and thighs. Just looking at her makes me smile. I always feel semi-distracted when I’m apart from her because I’m wondering how she’s doing and what she’s doing.

As far as sleep, we don’t have a consistent nap routine yet, but she usually takes three 30-minute naps a day. I wish they would be longer! She’s a pretty good night sleeper so the daytime naps are hit and miss. Occasionally, she’ll do an hour nap and when I’m really lucky, a two hour nap but not very often.

As for me, I find my mind going a mile a minute sometimes so it’s been an adjustment in learning to relax at night. In the beginning, I would go check on her every few hours to make sure she’s breathing and I have gotten better about that. But now I understand that as a parent, the worry just never goes away.

I’m happy that I have some time at home with her and some time doing work that I love. There’s never enough time on either end, it seems, but that’s life right now and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I have a lot of projects on my plate that I want to start, but some will just have to wait. Cam is really changing so much every day that I don’t want to miss too much.

I find myself getting really excited for the future stages, but at the same time, reminding myself not to wish away the present. Have you ever felt that way?

Do you have any little ones? If so, do you remember this stage?

Any fun weekend plans?