Maddox - 6 months

December 21, 2015

Baby Stats:

Weight

17 lbs 8 oz

Length

27.5"

Sleep

Maddox is getting better and better at sleeping. We hit a little rough spot over Christmas due to traveling. Each night we were away, he was up every 2 hours and when you are in a home with others, you just feed the baby so they don't wake everyone up. So that's what I did. Luckily, when we got back home he back to his normal sleeping habits. Goes to bed around 7 and wakes in the 5 am hour sometimes the 6 am hour. We stopped doing the 9 pm hour dream feeding in between 5-6 month and he did great. We now feed him a bottle @ bed time and he sleeps right through the dream feed.

Daily Routine

About mid way through the 5-6 month transition, we switched things up. He started getting solids and we eliminated the dream feed. He gets up around 6 and I nurse him. Then goes to daycare all day. Get's fed when we get home at 5, then solids for dinner and then a bottle of breast milk at 7. In bed with lights out at 7:15.

Feeding

We introduced solids a few weeks after he turned 5 months. He was more than ready. We are using a combination of purees and baby led weaning with feeding him solids. He loves to eat the heads off broccoli. It's super cute how excited he gets about it. Still fed breast milk 6 times a day. When he wakes, then around 9, 12 and 3. I nurse him at 5. He has solids at dinner time (and we started right before his 6 month birthday feeding him solids @ breakfast). Then gets a bottle at 7 pm bed time. All bottles have about 5.5 ounces in them.

Has loved everything we have given him. Broccoli, avocado, squash, banana, applesauce, pears, peas and sweet potatoes.

Diaper Size

Still rocking cloth diapers during the day and he is in size 3 Honest brand diapers at night. 

Clothes Size

Carter brand 6 month PJ's he has has mostly outgrown. They are not tall enough for him. Still wearing all 6 month size clothing. 

Hair Color

His hair is growing at a rapid pace I feel like. It's very brown and the top is longer than the rest which is fun to play with.

Eye Color

Still blue and his lashes are growing so fast. I'm happy to see he is going to have long lashes like my other 2 boys!!!!

Milestones

Celebrated his first Christmas. Traveled to WI for a long holiday weekend.
Played in the snow for the first time.
Got his first bout of pink eye
Started solid food
Started sleeping 12 hour stretches
Got his first tooth...and the second one soon followed!

Likes

HIS THUMB...OMG we have a thumb sucker! It's the cutest thing!!!
Eating...kid loves to eat.
Army crawling. He loves to move around when we leave the room.
Smiling - he is seriously the happiest baby and barely ever cries.
Will hang out in his crib after nap time and wait for us...it's seriously so awesome.

Dislikes

His paci...won't take it anymore. Just plays with it if we give it to him.

Shots...baby boy hated his shots @ 6 months..first time I Heard him cry in a long time...that's how happy is is.

Mama

I survived being a single mom for a whole week when Tate was gone on a business trip. That's when all the sickness started...colds, pink eye, wheezing, coughing, etc. It's one thing after another right now and I can't wait to get it gone. I'm staring tax season this month so that is daunting to think about. I wonder how I am going to do everything and still be a great mom to the boys and a wife to husband. I keep telling myself it's only 12 weeks. I just need to remember to let some things go. I'm still working out 3-4 days a week. Just doing weight training really. Love our garage gym.

2016 Goals

Each year Tate and I make goals, not resolutions. We actually have been making goals when we celebrate our Anniversary also for what we want to happen in the next year. I thought that was good enough. But then I saw on FB this post by Rachel Cruze (Dave Ramsey's daughter) about 7 areas you should focus on when making your New Year goals and I loved it. So when Tate and I sat down for our NYE sushi date (at home after boys were in bed), we made goals based on this list of areas for the 2016 year. I can see us doing this ever year now with these areas.


Intellectual:
Tate - his goal is to read 2-3 books this year. Now to some this may seem very small, but Tate and I are not book readers so to read this many will be big. We love reading books about financing, retirement, business, etc. To me they are like 'self help' books but in many different areas of life including career, personal and family.

Bridget - read 4 books this year. That is one a quarter. I already have 3 in mind so I really hope to accomplish this goal. I think by setting aside one night a week to focus on reading will really help this goal.

Physical:
Tate - Bench press 225 lbs and Squat 275 lbs (sets of 6). Tate works out everyday with his job but it's more cardio and endurance and not weight lifting. Now that we have our home gym he would love to build back up his muscles with weight training.

Bridget - Lose body fat %. I don't want to lose weight...I actually want to gain by converting fat to muscle. I would love to grow my booty, arms and legs. I would love a washboard stomach (wouldn't we all). More importantly, I want to feel good about myself, fuel my body with healthy foods and set a good example for my boys on balancing it all.

Spiritual:
Tate and I would love to focus this year on praying together. We learned how important this was during our wedding prep classes through our religion. We both feel weird and out of place when we pray together, but we shouldn't. I want to get to a place where we pray together regularly and have it not feel weird.

Family:
We would love to plan some sort of family even once a week. It could be sledding, go to the park, game night, movie night, etc. Time set aside for just family time.

Social:
Once a month getting together with friends. Game nights, dinner dates, kid play dates, etc. It could be anything but setting dates and getting together is a must.

Career:
Tate - open club 2. Tate and his boss are in the works of getting things in order for this to happen and Tate's goal is to make it happen this year.

Bridget - Focus more at work, meet billable hours goal each month and continue to bring in business. I love my job and enjoy going to work every day. I want my time there to be work so I can continue to improve and when home, focus on home. I feel like I am constantly combining the 2 which is not fair to my family when home and not fair to my work when at work.

Financially:
Pay our mortgage down to $145k. This is HUGE you guys but Tate and I believe this can be done. We made a goal on our Anniversary to have it paid down to $150k by October 2016 so if that goal is met, I don't doubt we can make it to $145k by the end of the year.

Great goals that Tate and I are prepared to dominate!!! Bring it 2016...we are ready for you :)