Yup, daddy brain in full effect.

Forgot to post these up…and just finished post-processing. I swear it’s more tough than it should be…I mean, he’s nearly 7 months old and not even walking or talking yet. I’m sure I have more surprises in store for me soon….

The funny thing about chronicling his growth month to month…is you can really see him change physically, and even his cuteness factor changes. I thought he was so cute in his 1 month picture, but looking back…the mixture of his baby hair falling off, and new hair coming in, and not growing quite into his head left him looking a little like George Castanza from Seinfeld. His latest pictures are definitely a step in the right direction…(observing as a completely impartial dad)…

 

Time is flying.

I thought I’d post every week, but Aarya’s 3 hour segments (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You) make the day’s speed by- and before I know it, it’s 6 pm and we’re getting ready for bath time and the evening routine. Sitting down and post-processing pictures is almost impossible to (I still haven’t done Christmas and Thanksgiving posts from 2014!!) I give made props and respect to mommy bloggers that can manage their kids and blog – it’s a feat!

But this time has been precious. I’m lucky to have a wife that supports the home while I spend these few weeks with him, and lucky that my kid is awesome and absolutely adores me as much as I him.

His little developmental milestones have been a hoot.

He doesn’t like me being far away from him….

And he makes it known.

And if you move, he’s going to follow you around…scooting. belly crawling like a little penguin, and doing whatever it takes to get into your lap,

Besides scooting, crawling, and chewing, we’ve taken on an enormous task to regain our overnight sleep. Aarya’s sleeping patterns went to hell in a hand basket at a week before his 6 month birthday, so we had to enlist the help of Devon over at Mama’s Best Friend, a doula and sleep expert that has started to help us with this process.

And it was a painful process the first night – getting him into his crib and to sleep on his own entailed slightly more than an hour of me and my wife switching back and forth calming him down in his crib as he screamed at the top of his lungs. Devon was by our side, just outside the door, coaching us along as she used our Wifibaby cams to see what was happening like a CIA agent on an operation!

Night 2 wasn’t as bad, we put him in the crib, and about after 5 minutes of crying, we patted his back for 5 minutes and he passed out. He slept without us, in his crib, with a few interruptions until 5:45am! Night 3 was last night, and he went down around 8:15pm and woke at 5am – what the heck??!! We slept a whole night, and he didn’t need a feed? We can’t thank Devon enough for the support as we continue this campaign for ending Mommy and Daddy’s sleepless nights!

A 6 month old baby is a very complicated being.

Layers and layers of emotions are developing in that little head, along with teeth, all while body parts are growing in all sorts of fun directions. And everything we had been enjoying, like sleeping a little more at nights, being able to predict his emotions, and the personality we thought we knew, completely changed.

His sleep stopped on January 18th, 2015. He no longer could sleep alone, he was uncomfortable in his Rock and Play, and the swaddle was a failed effort.

I’ve written about how he was sick, but after he recovered, he was essentially different. He was teething and uncomfortable, but his ability to perceive the world, and the fact that he knew who I was and was unhappy when I was outside of a 4 foot radius, became an emotional tour de force to handle on my own at home. I had to eventually call in the parents, when I foolishly thought I could handle him on our own, to help out. He was up every 45 minutes, and when awake during the day, he was fussy, clingy, and a bit of a mess.

So my little mobile guy was clearly changing – he is now doing a belly crawl, he’s pulling himself up, and he hasn’t quit chewing on everything! He’s able to recognize preferred members of his “home care crew”, and crawl there way. He’s in the walker here and there, and an extra saucer, but by and large he likes being free and scooting or pulling around. It’s kind of awesome.