Holden Six Months

photo by Scott Stater

Holden will be six months old this friday. He is the cutest little thing. I'm a bit sad that our baby days are numbered.

He had his six month check up early, they let us fit it in last week when I took all the kids to the doctor for their bad colds.

Stats

• Weight 18 lbs 6 oz (50%)
• Height 25 3/4 inches (25%) this is the same height as Evan and his six months
• Head 44 cm
  

The doctor was surprised to hear that not only is Holden rolling over as expected by six months, he is sitting unassisted and crawling and has been for a few weeks now.

The other day I was bathing the trio in my bath which is near the family room. Holden crawled all the way over to check on us.

Holden is also beginning to pull him self up to standing so we had to lower his crib this week to keep him from toppling out.

He is still as happy as ever and the picture above captures the grin he gives freely. Every morning when he wakes up in our bed he smiles bright and starts cooing and squealing. He is irresistable.

photo by Scott Stater

Dear Holden

Thank you darling for being a sweet dream baby.

I am reminded by the numerous new parents at my office how tough those early baby days can be. I talk to tired moms and dads who speak of long jagged crying spells in evening or day and night sleep confusion keeping them up all night.

You never cause a fuss. Your only demand is that we feed you regularly and occasionally in the evenings we must stand and cradle you while swaying side to side. We oblige. You love to interact with us, cooing and making 'rasberries'.

Since two months old you have been going to bed easily around 9:30pm and sleep soundly through the night. You don't care for pacis (I've tried but you promptly spit them out) so there is no paci fetching in the middle of the night. You don't even cry out except for a sleep chuckle once in a blue moon. You must have good dreams.

You sleep so peacefully until the early morning when you cough twice to let me know it is time to nurse, then we cuddle together until morning.

Holden, you are already crawling a bit at just over four months! You are very strong, getting up on your hands and knees and lurching forward. It is cute how you push up to a runners start, other times you lift an arm up high trying to propel forward.

You keep a close eye on your big siblings, watching them run around like wild howler monkeys, and play. You even make their toddler squeals. I know you want to join in and it won't be too much longer now.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Four Month Weigh In

My mom took Holden to his four month appointment for me today so I could pack.

The doctor thinks he is just perfect, we do too.

Stats:

Weight 16 lbs 2 oz (75%)
Height 24 in (25%)
Head 42 cm (50%)

These days Holden is on the move. He is getting up on all four and rocking and doing a bit of backwards crawling. He can roll over and pivot. He is quick to smile and is makes lots of sweet sounds and raspberries. He has the prettiest skin, like peaches and cream, nothing like my olive skin, and his hair is getting very blond.

I'm off to bed. Goodnight. I'll post again when we return from Belize.

Holden Four Months

Our baby is growing up. How did this happen so fast? Look at him here standing by himself at the fence. He tried solid foods this week to mark his fourth month. We started with apples and a few days later tried banana, mmm delicious. He is still just the sweetest thing. `

Evan is very interested in Holden, he calls him 'Hold-ee' with the emphasis on the 'ee'. Lily is still the mamasita, very affectionate giving him lots of kisses and hugs. Will adores Holden too but he is a snuggle bug, which I love, and it is hard on him to have to share my lap time with the baby.

First Chuckle

I heard Holden laugh for the first time today! His sweet giggles are delightful.

It is fun to think of all the exciting first year stages we get to experience all over again - first laughs, solid foods, crawling, sitting up, first words, first steps.

I am getting a bit better about slowing down and soaking it all in, enjoying the moment. It's tough, our life is so full. It's rich but intense. When they are all trying to get in my lap while I'm nursing Holden it can be hard to enjoy their affection. But I'm aware that the day will come all too fast when they won't want to cuddle with us anymore. So until then I'll try to enjoy it.

The Baby

We often call Holden simply 'the baby' as in 'would you hold the baby while I pour us another glass of wine?'. I need to start using his name more. I wrote a thank you note to David's company last week and said 'thank you for the gifts for Hunter'.

Note to self: Hunter is Lisa's baby, your baby's name is Holden. The office manager posted the note on their bulletin board, but she told me not to worry, she would white out the name and correct it. Priceless.

Good Tempered Chunk

It is hard to balance the camera and get Holden to smile at the same time but here is my attempt from this morning. He is really the sweetest, easiest baby. I have started to worry that maybe there is a problem because he does not cry. Is that possible?

He does require being held in the evening after the big kids go to bed, but other than that he is super low maintance.

At two and a half months he is wearing six month clothes and a size 3 diaper. We had two nights this week where he slept from 10:15 to 7am! This morning he slept until 5am, nursed and slept until 8am. I will be starting work soon so I'll need to feed him around 6am anyway so that I can get ready.

First Month

Our sweet baby Holden is one month old today.

He is just starting to have more periods of quiet alertness and will look for me and David when he hears our voices. He still sleeps most of the time but is falling into some patterns of consolidated sleep and will sleep three to four hour chunks a couple times a day - at around 6pm, when things start to wind down at our home, and again aound 11pm.

He is also becoming a more adept nurser which means that I can snuggle with him at night and nurse lying down instead of getting up. Lately he has been sleeping in bed with me and David, something his siblings didn't get to do.

Physically I can see a bit of each of his siblings in his features. Holden has Will's big eyes, Lily's full lips and the same furrowed brow she had as an infant and Evan's long fingers and toes.

Happy first month birthday little love. We adore you.