Riley: Six Months

At six months, Riley is finally more than a food-eating, poop-generating, narcoleptic machine. He laughs! He (tries to) talk! He plays with toys! He vibrates every part of his body in sheer excitement if you happen to throw a glance his way! What fun!

We forgot how quickly they grow and develop as babies. The developmental milestones keep coming fast and furious. And little Riley just takes it all in stride - his eyes wide, his fist shoved in his mouth.

Luckily, he transitioned easily from Mellow Newborn to Mellow Infant. He’s definitely getting a mind of his own, though. He shoves the booger sucker (aka bulb syringe) away with great might, makes an annoying, fussy “eh-eh-eh-eh” sound until he gets what he wants and turns away at the sight of the medicine dropper. (Which makes no sense because that is NOT the medicine we grew up on. That stuff tastes like candy. It just doesn’t seem right.)

We’ve been working hard to get Riley to sleep through the night. It began, as we previously wrote, a couple months ago. First, we had to get him to fall asleep on his own following a bedtime routine of milk, reading and a little rocking/singing. Most nights, that’s the way it goes. Sometimes, though, he falls asleep nursing out of pure exhaustion, and I’m just too exhausted myself to wake him up so he can fall asleep again. Other nights, he fights sleep like it’s the devil, requiring return visits to his crib side to offer a pacifier and a hand to hold.

After all that, he sleeps worse now than he did as a newborn. He usually wakes up a couple times a night, requiring the pacifier and a hand to get back to sleep. We’d like to let him cry it out, not because we’re cruel, but because that’s the way they learn. Unfortunately, that keeps all of us up, including Holden, who isn’t being the greatest sleeper himself. Riley gets a “dream feed” around 9:30 p.m. before we head off to bed, and we try to get him to go at least seven or eight hours after that before he eats again. He does come pretty close most nights, but he constantly changes it up on us. He pretty much stalls out at seven hours, even though he has gone more - so we know he can, which is very frustrating.

There was some optimism that the introduction of “food” would help him sleep longer, but, like his older brother, that was not the case. I shouldn’t really complain though because, compared to Holden at six months, Riley is a great sleeper. We know it could be so much worse than it is.

Little by little, we’re catching glimpses of Riley’s emerging personality. What stands out most is how affectionate he is. The whole hand holding thing is big for him. He likes to stroke our hands with his soft little fingers and grasp our fingers in his fist, sometimes waving them around like he does with his toys. It’s somehow very relaxing for him. He also gives little kisses, diving his big, hard head toward ours with his slobbery mouth agape. One of his teachers at daycare told a story the other day of how she was holding both Riley and his friend Taylor, who is a few days older. Taylor was crying and Riley kept reaching his little hand out to hers, and tried to kiss her. She didn’t seem so into it, but he gets total props for being a gentleman.

It's just nice having such a sweet little guy around. The babyness of it all is so overwhelming, and I find myself daydreaming at work about soft wrist rolls, milk breath and hair so soft it feels like suede. Soft, sweet Riley man.