Ben at 6 Months

It's incredibly hard to believe Ben is six months old already. Gone is the scrappy little early baby who failed to thrive and made us all so afraid. Ben is now a noisy (ish) smiley, happy, fat and joyful little boy who is fully a person in the house. He has an individual relationship with each of his sisters now, looking to each of them for different things. One is there to bounce him, one to be adored, one is already a friend and one to make him laugh. He's already, it appears, developing a deep affinity with things with wheels and sport, if his Olympic viewing is anything to go by :)

Thanks to learning to sit up just after he turned five months (and he seemed to learn this skill very totally all at once) he's been able to have tub paddling pool dips during our few hot days. He adores splashing and sitting in the garden and shouting at his sisters playing with the hose. This £2 tub from Tesco was our baby bath and became his outdoor pool very easily. Far cheaper and more versatile than a baby bath. Coupled with cute trunks from Kiddicare, he's really enjoyed his summer days (all three of them). Taking the chill of the water with some hot made it a very enjoyable experience.

Ben has also learned to roll, only back to front but it does mean he can now play with a few toys. He loves his Lamaze Lion and has happily enjoyed wet and dry cloths, the odd rattle and most things his sisters hand to him that make noise. Something about being an older mum has given me freedom to relax and be silly too; I've been sitting on the kitchen floor banging pans with him a fair bit. Admittedly my husband thought I had gone mad!

Nappies remain mostly Tots Bots, really can't beat them. I just adore this snoozy shot of him in one. This was the first time he turned over in his sleep. He rarely naps in the day though, mostly sticking to sleeping at night. He's so busy shouting and chatting. With some new dah! sounds, an emerging buh! and lots of conversational mewing, he's very talkative indeed.

Big change this month is weaning. Although we started some slush at 4+ months, due to me really struggling to keep up with him, he's only begun to have proper food in the last week. I'm loving the baby led weaning site and enjoying having him sat at the table. It is a bit messy though ;) I've not been very adventurous yet but he's getting the hang of toast, banana, apple and carrot.

I've been rather glad we sell these bibs to be honest. We learned, after I took this picture! He takes the odd bottle now, which is nice for us all and is beginning to be less breast dependent. Sometimes I'm sad about that, but we found it a real struggle and I'm glad we got to 6 months at all. I think he will probably be a baby who naturally self weans early but we will see.

The lovelist product of the month was the Stokke Sleepi we were gifted by Stokke. He was slated to spend his nights in a travel cot after he outgrew his Moses basket. I have to say this is just the most gorgeous cot and I've fallen utterly in love with it. SO convenient.

And here is the obligatory picture of him in his rainbow blanket. It looks  much smaller round him these days though :)

Sometimes I cannot believe we got this far. When I look back to the early days I see what a wreck of grief and fear I was. It was awful, so hard to believe in him and enjoy him. I forced myself to buy clothes a size too big, to make myself believe he would still be here but I didn't really believe it. This last two months I have finally begun to believe and it is such a relief. I feel able to relax, venture out to baby groups, make forward plans. It's strange to move forward from those two years of intense loss and despair but it is what it is and it is good to be where we are now.