Am I missing something?

Okay, a disclaimer...we've been spoiled with our son's overnight sleep habits from early on. I've got a few friends, they know who they are, whose children have an aptitude for late night shenanigans and WILL. NOT.SLEEP. So, I really don't intend to complain here, but rather give a little hindsight on how I just about missed a major  milestone!

What? You mean to tell me you actually need sleep, mama?

The past two weeks have left me pulling out my hair, wondering what I am doing wrong to cause my once "goes down at 7 and wakes at 4 and back to bed till 6" child to adopt the "fights going down at 7upat8upat9upat11upat1upat2willnotgobacktosleep unless mama is holding me" schedule. It's exhausting. It's sad. It was making me feel like I was going to lose my mind. Babies need sleep. Moms and dads need sleep.

So, then I thought I figured it out. It must be one of the solids he's been eating. Surely, it's gas. Eliminated that particular solid from his diet, and still....up up up all night long.

Then I blamed teething. But, a quick look in the mouth, and nothing. Nada. Zilch.

One day, he felt warm. Took his temperature. 101 f.

OH MY GAWD what a bad parent I have been! He's got a fever! That's why he isn't sleeping. Oh me, oh my, it's all my fault. How did I miss this?

I did give him Motrin, and monitored his fever. Up and down between 99 and 101 for a few days straight.

Okay, my baby is sick. But he acts fine during the days. Happy actually.

I had a pediatrician appointment scheduled for the 26th, and it was the 23rd. I could wait 3 days. Other than the fever and night waking, he seemed in normal spirits.

And then, on the 24th, as we were playing a game of pat-a-cake which is like oh so fun and evokes a ton of giggles, I saw it.

A tooth!

Yes, Sal cut his first chomper.

Hence the fever and the night wakings.

What a stud.

He took a trip to the pediatrician yesterday, and he got weighed in kilos, and measured in centimeters. It was all Greek to me until I pulled out my iconvert app and punched in the numbers. 15 lbs, 14 oz and just shy of 27" tall at six months. That's a 2 lb and 2 inch gain in 2 months. Not too bad! Since he has had a fever, we will be going back for immunizations some time in the next couple of weeks, once it subsides. The ped seems to think he may have a virus in addition to the teething, hence the prolonged low grade fever. Nothing serious, and it should run it's course. No sense overloading him, even if he is a stud.

SIX months old

Yay! I'm 6 months old!

Mom & Dad can't believe it!

Oh mama, enough with the pictures!

It's hard to believe that 6 months have passed since delivering Salvatore. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday, and others, it's hard to remember what it was like to have a newborn. I'd almost forgotten what those first few weeks were like, and thinking I'm ready to do it all again....that was, until the past few nights when Sal so kindly decided to be up every 3 hours or so. I'm not sure what it is, but I think we might have the trifecta of growing, gas and teething to blame.

I've been putting frozen fruit in his mesh teether and he just goes to town on it. Add to the fact that fruit over here is to die for, and well, his mama might have let him have too much nectarines this week. Tummy troubles kept him up well past bedtime a few nights. Lesson learned.

I think my favorite thing he's started to do ( well, most of the time anyways), is his pterodactyl shriek. He sounds like a bird/dinosaur and does it whenever he is excited. Sometimes we put him down for bed, and he will just do the pterodactyl till he tires himself out. It's not a cry, it's a happy little scream. Remind me in a month that I claimed to "like" it in this post. Haha.

Sal can get up on all fours, but has no idea what to do next. His attempts at crawling end there. Or on his face. Or about 3 feet behind the toys he was aiming for. He scoots backwards right now, but I have a feeling he will get those arms and legs moving together and take off pretty soon.

He got a BUMBO chair, and seems to like sitting up in it to eat. I have balanced him a few times to sit on his own, but he topples over with the slightest breeze. I know some kids crawl before they sit, so he will do it on his own time.

 We met some new friends and moms that are all expats over here and attended a playgroup for the first time. I'm looking forward to going to more and giving him a chance to interact with other kids near his age. It will be nice for him to have "friends" to play with as he ages, and it's nice for me to be able to hang out with a group of nice ladies.