Mind and Body After Baby: 6 Months

Half a year already? No! It can’t be. 

From this to this in a blink of an eye.

I normally discuss how I’m doing for my Mind and Body After Baby updates, but this month, I really want to focus on Henry.  But before that, I’ll quickly give you a body update – I’m officially at my pre-pregnancy weight.  Wahoo!  I think I hit this goal a few weeks ago.  My body definitely doesn’t look the same, but it’s pretty close, and generally speaking, I feel like I did before I was pregnant. 

In total, I gained 35 pounds, which is at the top of the healthy gain range.  In hindsight, I guess I put on a bit of ‘unnecessary’ body fat, but I don’t think I would do anything differently.  I exercised regularly; I ate mostly healthy foods.  My body needed the weight for whatever reason.  The number on the scale is just a number.  The most important part of my Body After Baby story is the realization that, if and when I have a second baby, I will do everything in my power to stay active up until delivery.  I walked and swam regularly while pregnant with Henry, and I really believe it was one of the key factors in my ability to have a drug-free birth.  And it helped me bounce back relatively fast – I was running four weeks after delivery.

Alright – it’s Henry time now.

I wanted to focus on Henry this month because I feel like the past four weeks have been so important.  All of the sudden, Henry’s developmental milestones are FLYING by… I feel like he’s growing up so fast.  It makes me really happy, but it also makes me a little wistful as I watch him inch closer to being a toddler and away from a baby.  I guess that’s parenthood, huh? 

Henry is a master crawler.  He is so proficient at the army crawl (on his stomach) that he doesn’t bother with being on all-fours much, but he can do it when he wants to.  He began to crawl at 5 months, 1 week, which was definitely early and a big surprise.  If I turn around, he’s suddenly in the other room!  Scary.

He can also sit up unassisted now for long, long stretches.  A few weeks ago, I put him into a sitting position and timed him on my phone.  He sat up for a minute before falling over.  But just a few days later, he was sitting up like it was no big deal.  Now, he sits up all the time and rarely likes to be on his stomach or back.  He can also go from crawling to sitting up in the blink of an eye – I call it “pop up baby” because he just POPS up into sitting and looks around like, “Hey! Cool!” 

This week, Henry started to pull himself up into standing positions using furniture as leverage, which scares the daylights out of me.  He does this most often in his crib when he wakes up from a nap.   

Heeey. You come here often?

What does all this crawling, sitting, and standing action mean?  Well, it definitely means more falling.  I feel like Henry falls over all of the time.  I spend 90% of my day trying to stop him from eating non-edible objects and catching him as he tips over.  He’s fearless!  As a side note, do you know that the entire world is one giant choking hazard?  Yup. 

He’s developing other new skills, too.  The other day, Kristien called me over.  He was giving Henry a bottle, and while drinking, Henry was passing back a little teething ring between his left and right hand, over and over again.  This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s huge – so much hand-eye coordination going on in that little brain.  I also gave him a sippy cute filled with water, and it took him about a week to figure out how to drink out of it. 

Because Henry has become so mobile, I created a playroom for him.  I asked other mommas if they ‘trap’ their baby into play spaces, and I got so many different answers – some moms said no, others said absolutely.  I decided it probably depends a lot on the baby’s temperament.  And Henry is definitely the kind of baby that occasionally needs to be trapped in a safe space.  I bought a faux-hardwood play mat and what I lovingly refer to as a baby cage (I connected it to a system we already had with duct tape to save cash; now that he’s pulling up on stuff, I will probably buy another baby cage to connect everything properly).  The mat and cage went into the eat-in kitchen and – TADA! – a baby playroom was born.  Hi, I am that person who let their home be taken over by baby crap.  And I don’t even care.

And, of course, Henry was successful sleep trained and started to sleep through the night.  AMEN.  Best milestone ever.

One milestone that Henry is still working towards is talking.  He JUST started to really babble (as opposed to making squeaks and squeals).  As a matter of fact, when I drafted this post on Monday, I wrote how he wasn’t babbling at all, and then, on Tuesday, he went nuts.  He’s doing lots of “goo goo ga ga” and “gee! gee!” and I’ve heard a few “bababa.”  And a week ago, he figured out his name – he whips around when you say, “Henry!” – which is super cute.  A sure sign of our vainness – I spend al my time trying to convince Henry to say “mama”  and the Husband works on “dada.”

Other Henry facts:

• Likes:  Going for walks, petting Pippa and Maggie, his baby cage, toys that light up, taking big boy baths with mom or dad, chewing on non-edible objects, meeting with our mommy group, going to childcare at the gym.
• Dislikes:  His jumper (so over it), his car seat.
• Teeth:  None!
• Sleep Habits:  Three naps during the day, sleeping through the night from 7:30 – 6:20.
• Clothing Size: 3 – 6 month.
• Solid Food:  Henry has treated sweet potato (yuck), pears (yum), and broccoli (yum).

Alriiight.  I re-read this post and realize that most of is it crazy momma speak.  But you know what? I am so happy and so thankful.  Henry’s health is not something that I take for granted in the slightest.  I look at Henry and know that if just one gene was expressed differently, our entire world could be different.  Not necessarily bad-different, but perhaps.  You never really know.  I take my physical abilities for granted far too much, but having Henry makes me look at everything I do in a new light.  Being able to crawl, walk, and talk are wonderful gifts that not everyone receives.  I feel so incredibly blessed to be healthy and have a healthy child.  It’s so easy in our society to feel like we don’t have enough of something.  I fall into this trap all the time – not enough money, time, material things, pretty clothes, whatever.  I try to remind myself frequently that we are lucky in so many of the ways that actually matter. 

Six months of growing, learning, playing, and laughing.  And I wouldn’t change a single thing.  Well… maybe less crying.  We could all do with less crying!