6 Months

Owen is now closer to being a toddler than an infant. I am writing this post about a week late and it seems like he has done so much in just one week. I have a feeling the next couple of months are going to be full of many firsts and changes with Owen. He is starting to try and lift himself up on his hands and knees when he is on his belly. He rolls all over and now does it with an intention to get to something. He scoots (mostly backwards) and wiggles all over the floor.

His sleep has gone done hill in the last month. First I thought it was his cold, then his 2 bottom teeth came in, and he was waking every 10 minutes to 1 hour. Yes, 1 hour would be the LONGEST stretch he would sleep. I was in a sleep deprived fog (one of the big reasons that I haven't updated this blog much lately). Finally I started to realize that he is just using me as a pacifier, of course he can't be hungry that often! So I decided that Owen needed to learn a new way to get himself back to sleep. I reluctantly started letting him cry when I knew he didn't need anything. It was really hard. I needed Eric to hold me back and sometimes even that didn't work. But one of the books I read said that babies cry in protest. If Owen cries when he needs to have his diaper changed I do it anyway, so why should sleep be any different? From what I hear, it will only get worse from here...that is being a parent who sets limits and makes tough love decisions for my sweet baby. After the first night (with about a 25 minute cry) he quickly seemed to learn that he was not going to be able to nurse around the clock. I also stopped swaddling him so that he would have his hands free to suck on and soothe himself back to sleep.
Eric has even been able to calm Owen to sleep twice in the last week. Up to that point Owen had not fallen asleep in Eric's arms. I think we needed to break this habit and we are all much happier. When I go in to his room in the morning he gives me a huge smile. :) We still have a few rocky moments. We went on vacation to Florida for a week and that certainly changed things but our first night home we basically started over again and he did great.

Owen is eating a little more these days. He recently tried mango, squash, and prunes and liked them all. He tries to grab the spoon and bring it to his mouth himself, only to gag himself with the spoon.

He is a sweet boy who almost always has a big smile and even a little giggle for his mom and dad.