6 months

My son is 6 months old as of yesterday.

That's crazy!

It goes so fast. He's been so much fun for the past 3 months. Increasingly active and aware and capable of playing with objects and with me and DH.

He has all four teeth. Two of them came in around 3.5 months and the other two around 5 months. They're not all the way in, but they're easily seen (and felt - ouch! luckily he doesn't bite me very frequently...)

He's a joy. He's cheerful and giggly, and only fussy if tired or hungry. Sleep has continued to be great. For the past few weeks he's been waking up once between 4am and 5am and then going back to sleep until about 7am. Although DH was gone for a week and of course most of that week C decided to wake up around 6am.

But last night, for the second time this week, C slept entirely through the night. And last night he didn't even wake enough to make cooing noises to himself - we didn't hear a peep until 6:20am (he went to sleep at 5:40pm)! If I can get a good nap day (don't ask about the last few days of naps...) I'd like to shift his bedtime to more like 6:00 so he's asleep at 6:30pm and sleeps until 7:00am.

He's on the cusp of switching to two naps, though as I mentioned we've had a couple of really rough nap days this week. His 6 month appointment is this afternoon, so he'll get a bunch of shots, which probably won't help the rest of the week be any better. I suspect he's still below 50% percentile on weight, but hopefully hasn't dropped further. It's always fun to get his new measurements.

I've been interviewing babysitters and tomorrow night we're starting a regular date night babysitter so DH and I can get out to dinner and/or a movie and/or see friends. I still need to find someone I'm happy with for during the day on weekdays, when I have appointments or errands that conflict with nap time.

DH hasn't been able to take as much time off as he'd like. In April we went to Hawaii for a week. In May he had work travel so he only took a long weekend to be with me and C. This month he had a week of travel that took him away from work, so he's not taking more time. I'm pushing him to block out weeks for July/August/September because if he doesn't protect the time he won't be able to take it...

We're starting solids on Saturday (because DH wants to be there when we do) - current plan is sweet potato, broccoli, avocado and pancakes. We're doing baby-led weaning so no purees. I've been having him sit at the table with me (in his portable high chair that attaches to the table) when he's awake and I'm eating lunch. And I set up his real high chair this morning and let him sit in it. He's been fascinated when we eat for at least a month - watches the fork go from plate to mouth - so I think he'll be really into it. I ordered long sleeve bibs on a friend's recommendation...

My joint pain has been improving, though I've screwed up my knee in some way and am currently doing physical therapy for it. My fingers are improving, but still (again?) painful - probably because the numbness has gone away. But I wake up with painful finger joints, which I'm not excited about. My physical therapist (for the knee) said she had the same problem during pregnancy and it took almost a year for it to go away. Joy.

I'm below my pre-IVF weight, and actually have to go shopping because all of my pants are too big. I'm skinnier than I'd like to be, actually. I just don't have a huge appetite, and I struggle even to stay hydrated enough. That, plus breastfeeding, means I'm continuing to lose weight. I'm upping the fat content in my diet to try to compensate - I'd like to not lose more weight. Still squishy in my lower belly, and it's obvious when I've eaten since my soft muscles don't hold my stomach in as well, but I've never had a flat belly.

Breastfeeding has been going really well. Overall, I'm really happy with how my body has handled pregnancy, recovery and breastfeeding - my only real complaint has been the joint issues. No stretch marks, no crazy hair loss,

When we sleep trained C, we sort of forgot to keep giving him a bottle every couple of days and he fell out of the habit. He's finally gotten back on it - I can hand him a bottle and he'll drink 1-2oz happily, as long as he's hungry. If he's not hungry he just chews on the nipple and then forgets to swallow, lol.

He's much more comfortable with tummy time, and clearly wants to crawl though he hasn't managed to coordinate it. He's lifting his whole chest now, but hasn't also lifted his bottom at the same time, and doesn't seem to understand his feet can help him get traction. He wiggles from back to side to back to get to toys, and usually sleeps on his side.

He's very vocal, but not really with word sounds. Recently he's trying coughing as a method of communication. (I have allergies so frequently cough to clear my throat in the early morning when I nurse him.) He'll cough to himself for 15-20 minutes sometimes. I suspect he's also doing it because it gets our attention, since we make sure he's not coughing for a legitimate reason, so we're trying to ignore it.

It's very easy to make him laugh, although I have to keep coming up with novel approaches, since what worked yesterday usually doesn't work as well today.

I emailed my RE last night to inquire about timing for a FET this fall. I'd like to breastfeed until 9 months, which would be mid-September, and I need to know how long between weaning and starting the FET. In the meantime I've donated about 300oz of breastmilk to my local milk bank. Now that I have an empty freezer, I can start building a stash for when I wean - ideally I'd be able to get him those last 3 months using a freezer stash but I think that's probably going to be challenging.

I'm pretty calm about starting up FETs. Because we have known-normal embryos, and we know how to control my immune system, I'm not anxious. It may still take more than one transfer, as it did to get pregnant with C, but I don't have the uncertainty that I did before. We have a lot of embryos so chances are very good we'll be able to give C at least one sibling. Infertility is still something I talk about a lot. Frequently when talking with people about C, I mention that it took us a long time and a lot of help to have him (this is not uncommon in a lot of my circles, so I get knowing looks and nods all the time). I just turned 38, so I'll be at least 39 when we have our next child.

Sorry for the meandering post and brain dump - it's been a long time since I've blogged, so there's a lot to record. I've always used this space as a journal of my experience rather than a place to wrestle with issues. I do have a post in the works about all the egg donor/ART children's books I've acquired and which ones I like/don't like, so will try to get that one out sooner rather than later.