Samuel is 6 Months

I can’t believe Samuel is 6 months old today. It’s pretty hard to believe that we’ve had a baby for half a year. All of the cliche sayings are true once you have a kid… “time flies”, because it seriously does. And honestly, it’s hard to remember life without Samuel. Maybe because I haven’t slept a full 6 hours since February but thats neither here nor there.

Samuel is full of laughs and pretty much laughs at anything we do. He probably thinks were crazy but thats okay because those little giggles are seriously the best. He loves his daddy so much but he is a mama’s boy for sure. He also is falling in love with Prairie, our German Shepherd. He likes to watch her walk around and loves to pull her hair and “pet” her. She wants to give him more kisses than are allowed. Prairie still doesn’t understand that barking is not acceptable when the baby is napping but we’re working on that. He started rolling over about a month ago but just lately he’s started rolling every chance he gets. He loves to blow bubbles and roll his tongue. He says nananana and dadada but not on purpose of course. We started him on baby foods around 4 months and he’s just now starting to really enjoy them.

Samuel takes medicine for his hemangioma, twice a day. He knows when it’s time for his medicine and loves to make faces while we try to get him to swallow as much as possible. He sticks his tongue out like it tastes horrible and then laughs at me when I laugh at his faces. The hemangioma has shrunk SO much! It’s crazy what this medicine is doing. If you’re curious, his doctor suggested we treat it because of the location on his face. If we didn’t give him the medicine, it would have grown for the whole first year of his life. It was very tight and bulbous when he was just 2 months old, so I can’t imagine what it would look like if we weren’t treating it. The doctor said it would be dangerous if he scratched it and it would cause bad scaring. Anyway, he’s doing amazing and it should be gone by his first birthday!

Lately, Samuel loves to grab drinks when were drinking them. He loves cold water and would drink a whole cup if we let him (and spill/spit it out). He has started grabbing everything in sight, which makes me worried about the future of baby proofing everything. Since he can roll, he’s already started grabbing things that I thought were out of reach. I don’t know what i’m going to do when he’s mobile. Samuel loves his grandparents! Granbob and pop (my parents) and Gran and Grandpa (Simon’s parents). My mom comes and stays with us one or two nights a week which is a LIFE SAVER! He thinks his aunt Carrie is soooo funny! At first, she was the only person who could make him laugh. It drove me crazy! He is such a good baby, loves diaper changes and bath time. He will entertain himself for small periods of time but not long enough for me to get anything done around the house.

The thing we are struggling the most with is sleep. He doesn’t do well in his crib since we took the swaddle and Snuggle Me away. He also has to be rocked, fed to sleep most of the time. We have been working on laying him down while he’s still awake but that hasn’t been working lately. I have resorted in co-sleeping with him in his bedroom and so far this is working the best for us. I guess I will sleep in the same bed as my husband again one day. Samuel is still breast feeding and doesn’t go longer than 3-4 hours without eating during the night. And I promise you I have read/tried everything. I am not mentally ready to do “cry it out”. We tried the Ferber method a few weeks ago and I just can’t handle it yet. Maybe once he’s a little older (8ish months) i’ll try it again. I am lucky enough to be able to stay at home with him during the week, so I try to nap when he does. Simon or my mom stays with him when I have a photoshoot and I also teach an online anatomy lab for CCCTI. All things I can do from home, for the most part.

These last six months have been so amazing and exhausting. I am becoming more patient and understanding for sure. I have realized the crap around the house can wait, i’m learning how to raise a child and keep him alive at the same time. Having a baby has taught Simon and I a lot about each other. We are constantly working on our relationship and figuring out how to navigate parenthood while trying to keep the flame alive (emphasize trying) haha.

If you have made it this far, you’re the real MVP. I’m mostly doing this for myself. Anyway, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last 6 months. Enjoy and thanks for reading!