6 Month Retrospection

Unbelievable, but Emily is now 6 months old. What happened to the time!? When I think back, there are moments when time was just inching along and it was going to be forever until bedtime. Then there are moments where I can't believe a week whizzed by and I'm not sure what I did in that time.

Whenever I have a moment to myself (it actually happens now!), I sometimes think back to how we have grown individually and as a family.

So here it is, a look back to the last 6 months

My 6-month old! ;.;

Sleepy Time

Remember when I said breastfeeding was the hardest thing ever? Well, here's hardest thing ever #2, sleep. Sleep is the next hardest thing. At first, it doesn't seem like a big deal because newborns sleep all the time and young infants sleep a lot and their sleep doesn't need to be regulated. For the most part they just need to sleep a lot.

That was the case with Emily at first. She ate, slept, pooped around the clock with little issue (except during her growth spurts; those are awful).

Sleeping at the hospital

Sleeping at home (That was her "nope-nope" face)

Then a couple months later she wouldn't nap really well. And then she hit 4 months and everything kind of went down the drain. She was going through sleep regression and having a growth spurt at the same time. I think was also in her wonder week period, so lovely. It was not a fun time and for a week we were not happy campers; mom and dad were exhausted and baby was grumpy. She also decided that she would not sleep as well as she used to.

That's when I decided that it was time to sleep train. So here's been our journey so far.

Photos of a sleeping baby never gets old

Breastfeeding and Its Trials

So learning to breastfeed was the hardest thing ever, for me anyway. One may think that it should be easy and instinctual; mom produces the milk, baby latches on and drinks the milk. This is not the case. No matter how prepared you think you are, experiencing it is another matter. Not only is this new to mom, but it's new for the baby as well. While mom learns how to have the baby latch on properly and her body produces milk, baby is learning how to latch on and suckle.

So here's my experience on figuring it all out.

A Minimalist's Guide to Baby Things to Start Out With

35.5 weeks! Where has the time gone?! Although, I have to say that July was a little slow. It was the same routine with just a few things to look forward to. Nothing new was happening at my prenatal visits, which is good since that's what you want. No surprises or problems is most definitely a good thing. Sure I had the baby shower, concert and Harry Potter night, but the rest of my days were pretty uneventful. And there wasn't really much baby stuff to do.

August is looking to be more exciting because that is when everything is happening (besides baby coming). We have our baby classes to look forward to and other events that we are going to on the weekends. And since it's coming closer to baby arrival time, prenatal visits are going to be more interesting since we will be talking about the delivery process and having last minute tests done.

I did want to share my list of baby things that I decided on getting. Not only because every mommy puts up this list, but I feel there aren't enough lists for people like me, the minimalist. We decided from the beginning that we didn't want a lot of crap for the baby so when I created Baby Lyons' registry, I made sure it only had items that we absolutely wanted. And it was items that we would need right away or soon after Baby Lyons was born. I'm not going to lie, resisting the urge to buy all the cute clothes, blankets and toys for Baby Lyons has been hard but my will power prevailed.

Sure it's pretty, but you don't need half that crap

Definitely don't want this

So here it is, baby things for the minimalist: