Monday, October 21, 2013

six, err.. seven (!) months


six  err.. seven (!) months

I didn’t mean to be absent for so long. It’s just that the autumn yucks set in about a month ago and we’ve all been afflicted. When we first talked about sending Augie to daycare, we worried about his getting sick, but the pediatrician assured us that it was either now or in kindergarten. Somehow it never occurred to us that we’d be sick too. Josh has had a month-long cold and cough that has left him still hacking, even after weeks of extra rest and a z-pack. And every time I recover, I end up with another cold three days later. Strangely enough, Augie seems the least bothered. I guess that tells you something about our “mature” resilience.

At seven months, Augie is just now starting to develop emotions other than extreme and constantly delight. He’s still a remarkably happy baby, but this week, we’ve noticed him emitting little grunts of displeasure every now and again. It’s as though he’s finally cultivating preferences. If anything, this is reassuring. We’ve worried — mostly in jest, but come on — that anyone who is as happy as he is must be a little “off.”

When I was helping a friend at a work party last weekend, I got paired with an old hippie. We got to talking about Augie and his happiness, and she asked if either my husband or I was anxious or a little depressive. I laughed. Yeah, of course. She then launched into a theory about babies knowing what’s needed of them. In her reading, Augie is always happy because he just knows — preternaturally — that that’s what we need. That that’s what we can handle. Maybe.

But on to the stuff I don’t want to forget:

:: after introducing solid food at 5 months, we’re giving it up at 7. Augie just isn’t interested and it’s making us all crazy. We’ll try again in a couple weeks.

:: the little mister sits up well on his own (that was a 6-month milestone) but shows no real signs of scooting or pulling up.

:: he laughs and squeals all of the time, but I can’t discern any word-like utterances. He loves to say “geeeee,” which I think he’s picked up from “Augie.”

:: I’m not sure where we are in terms of sleep. He still wakes up after about 7 or 8 hours and then comes into bed with me to nurse for the rest of the night. I’m guessing that we could break this habit, but frankly, it’s fine with me and I end up falling back asleep. And now it’s so cold at night that I’m struggling to figure out how to keep him warm enough to even sleep that long.

:: he loves to play peek-a-boo and he loves to dig for toys in his basket (i need to get pictures of both this week).

1 comment:

Maura said...

oh man I wish I could see him in person. He sounds delightful. Keeping babies warm at night is a pain in the arse. And did I tell you about how Frank projectile vomited anything that wasn't super pureed for the first 6-9 months of eating solids? I mean serious projectile vomit. He was Mr. Gaggy. You are so smart to go with your gut and not push anything. It all gets sorted out. B