Parenthood: 6 Month Update

Tatum at 6 months

Tatum has officially been in our lives for half a year, which is crazy! He’s gone through a massive growth spurt (which we generally feel happens on a weekly basis with this particular kid) and he’s developed many new skills. It’s amazing how much he’s changed these past few months and we’re really starting to see his personality shine through.

Story time

Wearing a personalized shirt from Cheerily

Napping with dada

Tatum’s learned to do a handful of new things over the last 3 months. He’s babbling and really exercising those vocal chords, he rolls over, he can rotate while lying down, he grabs things and he sits, stands and jumps with support. It’s probably a common thing with babies but once he learns a new skill, he obsesses with it and doesn’t stop.

For Halloween we dressed up as Alan, Ellie and a baby dino from Jurassic Park

The week before Halloween, we decided to start sleep training since we learned that between the 4-6 month age is the best time to begin. We used the Taking Cara Babies program, and luckily for us it worked for Tatum. From the first night we started, he was sleeping by himself in his room and was completely weaned off of night feedings. Within 2 weeks he was consistently sleeping 10-11 hours through the night. Daytime sleep is another story. We follow the recommended wake windows for his age but most of his naps end up being really short (about 40 minutes on average). It’s a little difficult to get housework done or eat full meals with short increments of time to ourselves, but on occasion he’ll nap for 1-2 hours. Despite the challenges with daytime sleep, he sleeps well at night and Brentley and I are happy to be getting a lot of rest again!

Eating oatmeal with blueberries

Right before Tatum turned 6 months, we began feeding solid foods to him. He’s the cutest little eater! We introduce a new food every other day to rule out any potential food allergies, and we also offer him a combination of purées and handheld finger foods (baby led weaning). His favourites have been mangoes, apples, steak and eggs. He’s enjoyed most foods and the only one we can confidently say he didn’t like were peas. We’re hoping they’ll grow on him since we have still have a bag (that we bought just for him) sitting in the freezer.

All dressed up and nowhere to go

Modeling a scarf that my cousin had knit for him

To say Tatum’s a big baby is an understatement. We’re now in 12-month size territory, although some tops and bottoms still look a tad cropped or fitted on him (I blame certain brands for running small). I foolishly bought several 12-month sized summer clothes for him while I was still pregnant, so Tatum will now be wearing t-shirts and shorts in the winter. We’ll just need to crank the heat up a bit in our condo and it shouldn’t be an issue!

Checking out the winter village at the Distillery District

We’ve seen the most change in Tatum these last 3 months, not just physically and mentally, but in his personality as well. He has his “moments” like all babies do, but he’s been a pretty happy baby who’s as chill as ever. One of my favourite times of day is when he wakes up in the morning and we enter his bedroom to say “good morning” and start the day. Once he sees us he flashes the biggest smile! He’s also always happy to see Brentley when he returns home from work. He’ll watch him do his afternoon workouts, and eat lunch at the kitchen counter. Lately Tatum’s been doing this thing where I’ll be nursing him and he’ll stop, stare at me then reach up and caress my face. It’s weird, but sweet and hilarious at the same time.

Tatum’s been the best baby and the silver lining to an otherwise dreadful year. We spend the most time together, yet I often “miss” him when he’s just asleep in the other room (someone tell me this level of obsession with your baby is perfectly normal!). It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that I’m almost halfway into my maternity leave. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: even though our days feel long, time really does fly when you have a baby! In some ways, the quarantines and lockdowns have been blessings in disguise. They’ve forced us to spend most of our time at home, and just being present for Tatum. We’re not going to take all of this precious, quality time we have with him for granted.