The Grubers: Charlie's Sixth Month

(written previously)

Charlie’s sixth month was a roller coaster ride. He has become cuter than ever, but at the same time we faced some new and challenging difficulties.

The good news is his acne has gotten better again. Still some redness under the skin, but smooth for the most part. He has been SO much better in the car seat and at stores. I think he is able to see more and see farther away, because he is able to keep himself pretty well occupied while looking around. What a relief! I have continued the napping schedule of only two hours of wakefulness, and that has worked really well. We started giving him rice cereal on November 26th...such an exciting step! He did very well, hardly a mess at all. He was able to swallow it fairly easily. I was expecting more of a fight and more of a mess, but I think he was pretty ready. I get a kick out of Charlie when he is nursing or sitting in my lap because he has started to flap his arm up and down and hit his side. Pretty cute and pretty funny.

He is speaking more baby gibberish. So cute! He is trying to mimic our “mama” and “baba” sounds. This is all thanks to Grandma Gruber (Nancy). Jason and I hadn't really thought to do that with Charlie, but she tended him one night and we observed her doing it...and he has been jabbering ever since. So now we have started doing that with him, and he is all smiles and sounds. We have also noticed that he has become more distractible lately. If he gets upset or fussy, sometimes we are able to distract him with something else and he perks up. Super nice trick!

The bad news is his night sleeping has gone back to terrible! When he wakes up in the night (which is every 2-4 hours) we can no longer calm him back to sleep very easily. The previous few weeks, we have been able to go into his room and give him his binky, and that would calm him down. That no longer works. When we offer him the binky that makes him even more mad. Even when I try nursing him, he just freaks out. So we have had to take turns getting up and holding him, bouncing, walking around until he falls back asleep. It’s ridiculous.

We were so flustered and frustrated that it got to the point that we knew we needed to start sleep training the little guy. And, boy, I am so glad we did! Why didn’t we start earlier?!? The first night wasn’t even all that bad. He cried for maybe 15 minutes and then fell asleep. Over the next couple of weeks we continued the sleep training routine: when he cries, we go in and offer comfort (offer binky, whisper to him, put our hand on his stomach), and then leave the room and let him calm himself. The most he has cried out has been one hour before he falls asleep. There has been maybe once or twice that he has cried beyond the one hour mark and I have gone in to soothe and comfort him, but for the most part the training has totally worked. He is able to sleep for 6-8 hours straight now.

Since the day he started eating rice cereal, Charlie has been such a pill when it comes to taking a bottle. He refuses and refuses, arching his back, turning his head, and screaming. We have had to hold him down and practically force it into his mouth. Eventually (sometimes three minutes and sometimes ten minutes later), he finally gives in and drinks the bottle. So frustrating because a hopeful, quick feeding turns into a long ordeal.

So we have had a few “firsts” this past month: rice cereal, sleep training...another first was his first diaper rash! Such a sad, bright red little bottom. I know it has to do with the new rice cereal he was digesting. Lucky for us, though, it only lasted a couple days. Thank you Desitin and Butt Paste!

On December 16th, just days before turning six months old, Charlie started sucking on his toe (he had just started grabbing at his toes about a week before). Really cute. He also started rolling from back to front and sitting on his own for short periods of time.

Picture and video reel:

Charlie's giggles at early five months