Cedar is 6 months old

Cedar is six months old today. And he's a biiiiig boy.

Obviously he's still growing like a weed, and doesn't show any signs of slowing down in that department. He's totally outgrown all of his 6 month clothes and most of his 9 month clothes, so we've pretty much just moved on to 12 months and over. He outgrew his original carseat a long time ago, and is about too big for the other one. He'll need to move on to the bigger car seat way before he's technically old enough.

He's been kind of crabby lately because he's teething, but he seems to manage a smile now and then.

He still isn't sitting up on his own although he's getting better at maintaining balance in your lap. He has yet to roll over, but he'll turn towards me laying on the bed. He likes sitting, so he keeps trying to do it on his own. He hates tummy time, but has his own variation where he likes to slump forward in my lap like he's doing the flower yoga pose.

He's gotten more interested in toys, but only in things that he can hold easily and put in his mouth. He's still only doing the one-hand manipulation of objects.

During the day, he usually takes 2 naps. His sleeping through the night went downhill when he started daycare, and he hasn't ever gotten back on track, so now we're stuck in the getting up at 2 or 3 AM pattern. That's just fact of life around here. He's also so used to getting up at 5:30 to go to daycare, that he automatically does it on weekends too...ugh.

He gets squirmy and kicky, but he still likes to be held--a lot. He's too big for any of my carriers, but he still likes to be carried, facing in or out, around to look at different things.

He's still a big smiler, although less so when he's teething. He also does a lot of chatting and babbling. He's usually in a good mood, most of the time, but this month he's had 2 teeth come in, so during that time he was not real fun to be around.

He still is a huge fan of sucking on his hand or his fingers, and is getting more enjoyment out of the pacifier than in the past. He still startles when you sneeze, or cough. When he gets tired, he gets real cranky.

He's finally outgrown his reflux issues. Finally, he can lay a bit flat at night without any issues.

When he's upset about something, he gets this look and does the red-faced howl. Then he stops to see if that got your attention, then if not, does it again. He generally only cries like that when he's really hungry or tired.

He's really a "daddy's boy" right now, and is all smiles whenever daddy walks in the room.

He still doesn't have much hair, but I've noticed there's definitely more. It's just such a thin pale blond that it's hard to see. His eyes are still grey with brown flecks so I think he's gonna have hazel eyes.

Co-sleeping

Every night, I lay in bed with my husband on my right and the baby who is snuggled up against my left side, my arm draped between him and the wall. He lays there nestled into my side with one hand up towards his head, his right leg draped securely over my left. Every now and then I can feel his fluttering movements as he drifts off to sleep, and the regular sound of his breathing as he passes out for the night. He's unimaginably soft, snuggly and luxuriously warm.

Did I think I was going to be sleeping with the babe in my bed every night? Not really, but from the moment he was born, he made it clear that he preferred to sleep in the same comforting proximity that he enjoyed for the previous 9 months. For the first month or so, he literally would not sleep anywhere except ON me. If I tried to move him, he would wake up and complain loudly. Co-sleeping became the obvious solution. Some people have tried to warn me that I'll come to regret it, but considering how much easier it is, I doubt that.

For one, I didn't want to deal with all the crying and hassle of trying to "train" a baby to go to sleep by himself (at a time of day where my patience has worn razor thin). By the end of the day, the very last thing I want to do is try to sell sleep to a reluctant baby. For my own sanity, I wanted bedtime not to be a super stressful thing. He didn't take to sleeping in a crib, so I didn't push it. I figure sleep should be enjoyable. Bedtime is actually mostly hassle-free, and I don't have to go through some complicated routine punctuated by tons of crying. Instead, when he starts acting tired (around 8 pm most night), I just give him a quick bath, put on a new diaper, feed him, and we drift off to sleep. It doesn't take very long, and once he's asleep, I can slip out of bed and stay up for a few hours (and climb back in bed when I'm ready).

The best part about sleeping with the babe is that it's much easier to respond quickly to a baby who's right next to you in bed, at the early stages of waking (before they fully wake up). If they're going to wake up at night, they're going to wake up, regardless of where they're sleeping. Since he's next to me, I can feel him starting to get restless and take care of the problem before it results in fussing and crying. There's nothing worse than trying to put a crying baby back to sleep at 3am. If they're right next to you, you can often get them back to sleep before they wake up enough to fuss.

He's never shown any signs of dropping his late night feedings, so not having to climb out of bed and turn on the lights is very appealing. I don't have to go looking for him in the dark, he's right there. All I gotta do is turn so I'm facing him, and he takes care of the rest, and drops right back to sleep. Maybe that's super lazy of me, but at this point, I'll go with it, because the end result is that I'm way more relaxed at night, and not worrying about how long it will take both of us to go back to sleep.

I doubt all the intimate contact and closeness will do him any harm. Especially since I had to go back to work after 12 weeks, it was my main way of reconnecting with him at the end of the day. I worried a lot about how securely attached he'd be after months of full-time daycare, but everyone says he's a very happy and content baby. It's especially nice now that he's older and doesn't want to be held quite as much. During the day, he's a much more active critter, but at night, he turns back into a snuggle-bunny. Gotta love that.