Six months already! We can hardly believe it. Michael and I both feel this has been the quickest six months of our lives.
Of course life is like that. Time only seems to go more quickly the older you get. And maybe even more quickly with the more children you add to it. Still, time seems to go especially fast here in Australia, despite our relaxed lifestyle. Living in London, I was always looking forward to the next thing — on weekdays I looked forward to the weekend, and in the winter I looked forward to the spring. Individual days could be busy, fast or hectic, but the weeks and months seemed to pass slowly as I waited for those future events.
For the past year, I have found a general sense of calm and happiness in the every day, revelling in the ordinary daily moments of life and the seasons as they come and go. Counterintuitively, the days, weeks, and months have flown by faster than ever before. Six months seems to have gone in the blink of an eye! It feels like only yesterday we were holding newborn Wilkie in our arms that magical night he was born. And yet… it’s hard to remember our lives without him. That’s the funny thing about babies, isn’t it?
Mother ramblings aside, here are some things we want to remember about Wilkie at 6 months old:
- He’s a happy, smiley baby… unless you put him in his car seat (though he’s getting better of late).
- He has two bottom teeth and likes to put everything in his mouth. Yesterday I found him sucking on his own forearm!
- He is SO ticklish! More than any of our babies. You can just tell him you’re going to tickle him and he starts to giggle.
- He loves being outside and is so happy at the beach.
- He loves being nude. If he’s cranky, sometimes all you have to do is take his nappy off.
- He loves when I sing to him. He can be crying hysterically and stop in a second when I start singing. He especially loves ‘You are my Sunshine’.
- He eats three meals a day and is quite adventurous and advanced with his eating, even happy to have chopped-up food instead of mashed.
- He’s our most ‘booby’ baby. He loves feeding and doesn’t even get distracted yet (I remember other babies getting so distracted on the boob at this age, making it difficult to feed in public).
- He’s always kicking his legs. We don’t remember the other kids doing this. His legs go, go, go in a pedaling like motion. We joke he’ll win the Tour de France one day. Haha!
- He’s rolling over from back to front and front to back.
- He scootches himself backwards when he’s on his belly.
- He’s not sitting up yet on his own, but he’s not far away.
- He’s a really light sleeper, which is challenging in a small house with six other people in it. When he naps we use ‘white noise’ to mask the cacophony that is our everyday lives.
- He still wakes and feeds at least three times a night. I’m trying to get him to sleep in his own bed, but he’d prefer to sleep in our bed with a boob in his mouth all night. You’d think, after five babies, I’d know how to get a baby to sleep through the night, but I’ve just become more relaxed (and lazy?) over time. I think it’s partly because I know how fleeting this time is; this phase will pass and he’ll be sleeping soundly in no time.
- He’s very possibly the most loved baby on this planet with four bigger siblings loving on him constantly. He definitely enjoys the attention.
Six months ?! Yes, it’s incredible.
He is as cut as his brothers and sisters !
I don’t speak english very well but i’m happy to practice with your blog.
I put in a part of my head the song “you are my sunshine” for a next baby I could have (I sing “A la claire fontaine” for my son).
Beautiful, Courtney, and one can hear your happiness through the lines. I have been following your blog and your Insta for a really long time time (you are one of my biggest mum crushes, together with Claire Alexander-Johnston), so I would really like to know if you and your beautiful Family will be staying in Australia forever?
Love and greetz from a Mummy in Germany.
This makes me consider a fifth babe. 🙂 he is a cutie!!
Hi Courtney. I just wondered if you could give an update on Wilkie’s sleeping now a few more months have passed? My daughter is 6 months now, and would also happily spend all night on the boob! I’m co-sleeping with her which I enjoy and I’m happy to continue for a bit, but the problem we have is the evening. She starts off in her cot about 7:30pm but since she’s so used to just rolling over and feeding back to sleep in the night, she wakes every 45 mins – 1 hour and has to be settled /rocked each time until I go to bed around 10pm and take her into bed with me. I feel like the co-sleeping and feeding on demand has caused this problem where she can’t self-settle and it means my partner and I are still rarely eating dinner together or even in the same room for much of the evening. Have you found this? Any advice gratefully received at this point…!
Hi Lauren,
Thanks for sharing. I can totally relate to what you’re going through. I feel like it was quite similar for us when Wilkie was around that age. I can thankfully report that he’s sleeping so much better now. He is such a light sleeper (more so than any of my other babies!), and I think we were waking him up during the night because he was in our room and our floors are creaky, and he could just sense us so close to him. So about a month ago we moved him out of our bedroom and into his own little room (which meant we had to kick the girls out of their bedroom and now all four of our kids are in one room!), and it was the best thing we’ve done! He slept through the night for the first time ever and has spent the past month sleeping so well. Every once in a while he wakes in the night and has a little grumble/cry, but is able to self-soothe himself back to sleep in less than five minutes. I think it’s just so helpful that he’s in his own room and has that bit of separation.
I also think that it’s timing too. Despite co-sleeping and feeding on demand with all of my babies, they all started sleeping through the night from around 10 months… and it didn’t really require me to change too much. It just felt like a natural transition at that time.
With Wilkie, I am now feeding him at bedtime and when he wakes in the morning (usually around 7am), but am no longer feeding him during the night. I think once babies know they won’t be fed during the night, they generally stop waking as much. But it obviously has to feel like the right time for you and your baby, and I’m sure you’ll know when it is.
I don’t know if I’ve helped at all. I have a really good friend who is a consultant to mothers (on all phases from baby’s sleeping up to the teenage years!) and is always happy to hop on a phone call to chat if you’d like me to give you her number? Just talking with her always makes me feel so much more secure, and therefor more confident in how I approach each transition with Wilkie. Let me know. I’m happy to pass on her contact info.
xx
Courtney, thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me, I really appreciate it. For some reason the auto complete changed my name in the comments, it’s actually Laura! Anyway, this is very helpful. I have been trying not to read too much about sleep training or other people’s advice because I feel in my gut that she’ll sleep when she’s ready, but it is sometimes hard to hold onto that when you’re so tired and no progress is being made! It’s good to hear Wilkie has got so much better. I see some light at the end of the tunnel!
I will certainly get back in touch about talking to your friend in a few months if things don’t get any easier! I think my daughter is a very light sleeper too so we’ll try her in her own room too. I have also tried not feeding her but only for the first few hours she wakes. I sent my partner in to settle her each time as I felt if it was me she would expect the boob to come out! How did you manage the transition from feeding on demand to not at all at night?