A precious six months

 [stef]

It's hard to believe we've been a family of 3 for over half a year already. That our little baby is six months old and the evidence of him growing and changing and learning is all around us.
Hudson hit quite a few milestones this past month. For starters, one of his front, top teeth is starting to push through his gums a little, causing him to gnaw whatever he can put in his mouth. His favorite thing to chew is definitely the strings on Ty's hoodies...or any sort of cord he can get to (not that we're negligent parents and are leaving all kinds of cords everywhere, but if there is one in his vicinity, he'll find it!).

While we were in BC, I started him on rice cereal as his first venture into solids. He loved it right away, as he does every cereal I've tried with him so far. Vegetables are another matter entirely. I've tried carrots, green beans and broccoli so far, but the horrified faces he makes when he gets them in his mouth, and the gagging that follows tells me that this might take a few tries, a few different methods, and a whole lot of patience (ok, so he didn't mind the broccoli too terribly much). I want to make eating solid food an enjoyable experience for him, and not a daily fight to stuff spoonfuls of lumpy green things in his mouth, just for the sake of him being introduced to vegetables. What kind of introduction is that? I plan on using variations on textures and flavours, but I'm also looking into something called "baby led weaning" (thankyou, Emma - I've never really heard of this!) - which is much more focused on letting the babe enjoy feeding themselves real food right from the get-go.

Another thing that has made vast improvements lately is Hudson's mobility. He can now sit completely on his own, and only tips over occasionally. Also, he's got the army crawl down pretty well now, and although it takes him awhile to get from point A to point B, he usually gets where he wants, given the stamina. He can get up on his hands and knees, but actually coordinating the forward motion along with balance and strength is another story. I'm sure that will come very shortly though!

Encouragement from Auntie Nadia

Wait for it, wait for it...

Aaaand - faceplant

When I was at Hudson's latest doctor's appointment, the doctor was mapping out a plan for getting Hudson going on solids, and I was asking about how much I still should be nursing, when to cut back and so on,to which Dr.Rajani eyed my warily and asked, "Are you still nursing him through the night?"
Gulp.
Like, three or four times a night, I thought to myself.
"Uh...yeah, a little," I replied. Really though, he's only six months old! Many babies are still nursing through the night at this age, right? Admittedly, I had been feeling like three or four times a night is entirely too often for Hudson to be nursing, especially when I know it's not out of hunger. But back to the doctor.
"Well, that's the first thing that needs to go, " came the stern rebuke. "He no longer benefits nutritionally from night time feedings. He should be sleeping 10 to 12 hours at night without being fed."
Wha-? Pfft! Hudson was barely going 2 hours without waking up and having me nurse him back to sleep. I know that that was partly my doing, as it was the easiest way to get him sleeping again, but at that point, sleep was (and still is) a big priority for all of us. Before going to BC, we had started letting Hudson "whimper it out" if he woke up immediately after putting him down for night. If whimpering turned into real crying though, I would get up with him to help him back to sleep. I still didn't feel right at that point to do the whole "cry it out" method, instead responding to his needs - but it was starting to get to where I knew we needed to do something different. I had full intentions of trying out some new tricks while we were in BC, but I quickly realized that Hudson had enough to deal with, with all the changes in environment, plus with getting sick yet again, so we took a fairly relaxed approach, and continued responding to his night time crying as usual.
However, that doctor's visit on Monday encouraged me to cut back the night time feedings, and officially start sleep training. That particular evening I was feeling pretty awful (all kinds of fun, stabbing pains in the good old LUQ), and went to swaddle Hudson after his cereal and bath, but he kept wriggling his arms out of it and crying at me as if I was the one freeing his limbs from the precious swaddle.
Ca, c'est le comble! I cursed to myself, and became more determined than ever to get rid of the swaddle for night time. That newborn need to be tucked and contained went out a little while ago, and habit has taken it's place. So that night I stuffed Hudson (okay...lovingly zipped) instead into a sleep sack, gave him his last feeding for what I hoped would be awhile, and placed him in his crib (the first time he's ever slept in it by the way - the first time he's ever slept in a different room than us, in fact!). Well, needless to say, my unswaddled child woke up almost instantly and started to whimper. And the whimper escalated into a full out cry, at which point I put my pillow over my head and prayed that it would be over soon. And 15 minutes later it was over. And he slept until 5:30 am. And has basically every night since then (with the occasional wake up and whimper). I didn't cut out night time feedings entirely - when he does wake up at around 5:00, I do get up and feed and cuddle him for about half an hour, because I don't think it's fair for him to go from basically being right next to me most of the night, to being all alone in a big, scary room without any kind of transition (for me, too!).
So yeah. Big changes here.
Naptime, you ask? Blehhhhh. That's how I'll describe it. But one thing at a time.

In other news, we're slowly getting unpacked here at our new home. I am finding this to be a difficult task, because of this particular age and stage. H isn't quite able to go everywhere he wants yet, so is often whining at me to move him or pick him up, his naps (slash breaks for mommy) are typically only 20 minutes long, but needs them every 2 hours (and the process to get him napping can be up to 1/2 hour long), I give him solids 3 times/day, yet he's nursing just as often as ever, plus regular chores and meal preparation and so on, so you see? But it will get done eventually! I'll post some pictures soon, but here are my highlights so far:
-Double sinks! A wash and a rinse sink.
-Big, slopey bath tub. By slopey I mean the non-tap side has a perfect angle for resting against and reading whilst taking a bath. Bliss!
-Ceiling lighting. It might not seem like a big deal, but after a few years of dim apartments with a few lamps as the only light source, it feels pretty darn good.
-Unslammable drawers! Just one of those novelties not to be taken for granted.
-Dishwasher. Yes, you heard me. Sweet, sweet dishwasher that saves me so much time. The other evening I spent an hour and a half washing loads and loads of dishes by hand (they were wrapped in flyers for the move...sick!), with Hudson strapped to me in his pouch sling because he was being decidedly clingy,  but never again! At least not for the next year and a half. So I will reap the benefits of having a machine do some of my dirty work until then.

So yes, we are enjoying our giggly, sweet, silly little six month old, our new house, and most of the changes. Country living has been decent to me so far: the other day I got myself (very embarrassingly) stuck at the end of my in-laws driveway, but in less than fifteen minutes, my father-in-law (who ran out from work), one of his co-workers, and my brother-in-law Erik (who happened to be at the right place at the right time with the right equipment) came to my rescue, and I was out and on my way. Plus, I haven't heard a siren, shrieks from a school playground, the beeps of a walk signal or honking from impatient traffic in weeks. There is something to be said about peace and quiet. :)