Griffin is 6 Months Old!!!!!

Griffin is 6 months old… time for an update!!!

Even though I started Griffin last month with a loose bedtime he has taken things into his own hands, he has a VERY strict bedtime now of 8pm. If I try to keep him up one minute past 8pm at night he goes nuts! He is just so tired and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I would actually prefer him to go to bed between 9-10pm so that he sleeps in a bit later in the morning but no such luck. Since becoming a parent I am learning that as much as I want Griffin to conform to my schedule, it usually ends up with me conforming to his lol.

He has been sleeping pretty good, waking only once or twice to eat during the night now, and after his bottles in the middle of the night he puts himself back to sleep. The first stretch of the night we usually get between 6-8 hours before he needs a bottle. He spends 99% of the time in his own bed now and Jeremy and I are starting to talk about retiring the co-sleeper and pulling back out the crib to set it up.

One nice thing about formula is that Jeremy can help me in the middle of the night if I need him to. I still feed Griffin about 90% of the time because it is one of my favorite activities to do with him, but it is nice to get a break if I am REALLY tired or feeling sick. Usually I take care of Griffin throughout the night and if he wakes up early Jeremy gets up with him and I get to sleep an extra hour or so. It works well for us.

When Griffin wakes up in the morning or from his naps and he is well rested and ready to be awake, he doesn't cry to come out of his bed right away. What he does is play with his feet, roll back and forth, talk VERY loud, even good naturedly yell, or screech! So some mornings he does this and I just let him play until he starts to get irritated that he is being ignored. Often times he will do this for 10-20 minutes before we get him up and out of bed.

Griffin is a very good eater and loves his fruits and Veggies. I made him some more homemade baby food a few weeks ago and he likes it all. He eats about 1/2 cup of fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, and about 1/2 cup of veggies and rice for dinner and then drinks Formula in between. He is drinking anywhere from 25-30 oz a day depending on how hungry he is and how much baby food he eats each day.

He has also had a few finger foods and eats them very well. He won't pick them up and put them in his own mouth but will open his mouth wide for me to put more in. If I put a small piece of something on my hand and hold it out to him he opens his mouth wide and then tries to bend forward far enough to grab it with his mouth directly from my hand, lol. He has tried the baby cereal puffs, tiny pieces of noodle, freeze dried yogurt melts, tiny shreds of turkey, some pieces of pancake and even small pieces of the soft saucy part of the pizza dough. He liked them all expect for some reason was not the biggest fan of the yogurt or pancakes. Sometimes he even grabs my hand and fusses at me to give him more FASTER! Griffin has also had "tastes" of other things like ice cream, cool whip, sweet and sour sauce, and broth if I am eating soup. He totally loves tasting new things and makes the best faces lol

We also practice drinking from cups now so that he can learn there are other ways of drinking besides his bottle. He gets practice with a sippy cup, and with a regular cup. It is usually a messy process with more ending up in his bib and on his tray than in his mouth, so for right now he is just getting water. He will bite the sippy cup and this makes the water dribble out, and when I put the regular cup towards him he opens his mouth wide and tries to grab it. I have to watch out or he will spill it all in his haste to "get it". When the cup gets to his lips he sticks out his little tongue laps at the water and gulp gulp gulp and then pauses to catch his breath, it's so cute!

Griffin is so very close to being an independent sitter. Right now he can maintain his balance for up to a few minutes at a time but I have to stay right there and pay attention because when he starts to loose his balance he is not very good at catching himself and tends to bonk his head. He will usually try to catch himself if he looses his balance to the side, but not at all if he starts falling backwards.

He will also scoot/army crawl towards a toy if he wants it but he moves very slowly and it's quite the process so he will not go more than about a foot without getting mad. I think he wants more speed!!!

Just the week before he turned 6 months Griffin got up on his hands and knees in the crawling position all by himself. The first time he only maintained the position for about 3 seconds before he collapsed back down but I was so excited and now he is doing it all the time. It's like he knows it's a position where good things will happen but he can't quite figure out what to do. He usually ends up loosing his arms first and face plants with his butt still in the air. Luckily it's not a far fall so it doesn't make him mad, he just tries again.

We were bathing Griffin in the shower with one of us every morning since he was about 3 months old but in the last few weeks we had to switch back to the bathtub because he is getting too heavy! He loved the shower and would grab for the water and smile and talk to the water, but he loves his bath time too and will splash and squeal!

Griffin is becoming very sensitive to the people around him. For example if I am playing with him and want to pop into the bedroom to grab something or into the laundry room to flip a load of laundry, he will scream! He even sometimes fusses if I am in the same room as him if I turn my back to him so I can do something, lol funny boy. He doesn't always do it, only if he wants my attention. Also If someone is holding him and he decides he wants someone else instead he will turn his body towards the person he wants to hold him and reach his arms out and sometimes even fuss, like "hello, I want you, pay attention!"

Griffin also shakes his head no. I'm not sure he knows what it means but there are times I could swear he does, lol. I'll do something and he shakes his head no, so I say yes and shake my head yes, then he shakes his no in answer. He will do it over and over sometimes. Maybe it is just a conditioned response but it's hilarious!

Griffin's new favorite song this month, is my version on "My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean" I sing

My Griffin lies over the ocean
My Griffin lies over the sea
My Griffin lies over the Ocean
So bring back my Griffin to me!
Bring back!
Bring back!
Bring back!
Oh Bring back my Griffin to me, to me!

When I sing the bring back part, I turn my head away from him when I say bring, and toward him when I say back and he laughs and laughs :)

Most days I can not believe it has been half a year since I gave birth to my little Griffin, 6 months since my tiny squirmy baby was placed in my arms!!! It's funny because it seems to have gone so fast in some ways, for example how could he possibly be so big already or how could he ever have been that small, but at the same time it seems he has been a part of our lives forever. I barely remember how my life could have felt complete before him. I can't imagine life without him. We waited so long for our little boy, we hoped, and prayed for this baby. I cried so many tears, in fear that I may never meet him, and yet God choose to bless us and entrust us with one of the most important jobs in the world. I'm so glad to have the privilege of being this little boys mother, even when I get no sleep, I'm covered in spit up and he has been fussy all day. When he puts those chubby little hands up to my face and looks at me with his big round gray/blue eyes and says GAHHH, I know it's all worth it and I'm right where I was meant to be doing exactly what I was meant to do. Mommy loves you Griffin!!!!