How it’s been half a year with our tiny man is beyond me but here we are, six months later. Madly in love. So complete. This baby is a gem of a human. He’s so happy and smiley and chill. And a very different personality from his sister already. Not that she wasn’t happy, he’s just not quite as high maintenance as she was at this age 🙂 Maybe it’s a boy vs girl thing or a first vs second kid thing but he is no drama and I’m here for that.
Six to 10 months is my favorite baby age, and we are just entering that. It’s full of smiles and learning new skills every week but they aren’t walking yet. The golden age, I like to call it. The pressures of new motherhood have died down and Luca’s presence feels completely natural.
I had always said I only wanted two kids but after Luca was born I surprised myself and for the first time considered having a third. The experience was so different from the first time around and I loved it. I’ve since thought through the whole zone defense situation, and I’m 99% sure we’re done having babies. But I won’t say never because things change and who knows how we’ll feel in a few years.
In fact, our experience of going from one to two kids has been a whole lot better than I thought it would be. I wrote about that in more detail here. Amalia is absolutely in love with her brother. We definitely have some jealousy issues but the beauty and pureness of their relationship outweigh those difficulties by a long shot.
Luca’s schedule
Looking back at all of Amalia’s baby posts, it’s hard to believe how tight of a schedule we had her on. Luca’s schedule is a little looser but he gets 2-3 naps/day and sleeps pretty well at night so we’re a lot more relaxed about things. He generally wakes up around 7 or 7:30 then goes down for his first nap around 9.
Amalia’s naps were always around the same length but his can be 30 minutes or 2 hours and you never know what you’ll get! His second nap is sometime in the afternoon and the same thing goes for length. Once in a while, he’ll take a third nap but he’s pretty much dropped it.
He goes to sleep at 6 or 6:30 every night and conks out immediately after his bottle.
Luca’s eating
This kid…. He is constantly hungry. I looked back at what we were feeding Amalia at this age and she would have half a jar or pouch per meal and he is eating full salmon or chicken dinners (off our plates) or an egg or full avocado as well as a full jar of food or whatever I puree for him. He seems to prefer “real” food and protein as opposed to purees but he doesn’t discriminate. He will eat anything. We are not doing baby-led weaning or just purees, we land somewhere in the middle and are pretty go-with-the-flow when it comes to his solids.
As far as bottles go, he’s still sucking down 8 oz four times/day. He’s super tall and growing quickly which is a surprise to no one given his appetite.
Luca’s development
He is exactly where he should be developmentally but Amalia was so far ahead of him that it’s hard not to compare the two of them. We try not to, however, especially since his doctor and teachers all swear that boys generally do things a little later than girls. Amalia was fully sitting upright at this age and he still needs a hand with that, although he’s getting there! She also had two teeth by six months and he has none yet.
Here are some of his favorite things.
My favorite moments with Luca
Every morning I bring him into Amalia’s bed when she wakes up and his entire face lights up when he sees her. Watching her interact with him and make him smile and laugh makes my heart explode with love and joy and adoration. My favorite moments since he’s been born are when our whole family is laying in bed or on the couch and both kids are giggling in hysterics.
Photo by Julia Dags.
