6 Month Baby Update + Thoughts as a Mama of Two

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I can’t believe we’ve already made it to 6 months with our sweet Lainey Bug! I love having these blog posts as journals to look back on and compare to Dolly’s 6-month update and some postpartum thoughts I jotted down three years ago. If you missed my post on Lainey’s 3 month update and newborn must-haves, you can read it here!

Lainey girl is rolling and scooting around all over the place. She’ll make her way across a room easily. We’ve also learned that she is LOUD — whether happy or upset, she will make herself known in a crowd.

I know I mentioned in Lainey’s 3-month update that she hasn’t been as textbook-perfect of a sleeper as Dolly was. She still wakes up twice every night to get full feedings, then goes back to sleep. It’s been interesting to see the differences between the two of them — besides the fact that Lainey is about 4-5 months larger in size than Dolly was. 🤪

Daily schedule:

7:00am Lainey wakes up to eat, then Dolly is up around 7:30.
8:00am breakfast & morning chores
9:30-10:30am Lainey’s nap #1 is usually on-the-go. This is when we run any errands, go to my meetings, bible study, etc.
11:00am feed Lainey, then Dolly has some free play time or we’ll do her school work
12:00pm lunch
1-2:30pm both girls nap, so this is when I get my work done.
2:30pm feed Lainey when she wakes up, then more free play, school or chores, depending on what we have going on.
5:00-5:30pm nap #3 for Lainey
6:00pm dinner
7:00pm bath & bedtime for Lainey
7:30pm bath & bedtime for Dolly

Thoughts as a mama of two:

I remember when we were trying to get pregnant again, all I heard from other mommas was how difficult it was to juggle two kids. So let me tell you: it’s not awful. Yes, there are hard days, but the good outweighs the bad tenfold. Even through challenges, not a day goes by that I don’t thank the Lord for this sweet, refining, incredible gift of motherhood. Below I’ll share a few tips that no one ever told me about being a mama of two, but I thought would be important to pass along:

Don’t blame baby – this is one I actually did hear about, because you don’t want to make your older child resentful towards their baby sibling. I tried to avoid using Lainey as my excuse for not being able to play or do something right away.
Intentional, individual bedtimes – I had to learn this the hard way. At first I would keep Lainey in her wrap on my chest while I did Dolly’s bath and bed (or nap) time routine, but it turned into a battle every time. The days that I put Lainey down first and had one-on-one time with Dolly (or my husband and I each took a child), things flowed a LOT smoother.
Give your older child a task – when I’m stuck either feeding Lainey or putting her down for a nap, I try to give Dolly an activity to play with or some kind of task to do (cleaning up, reading a book, getting her pajamas on, etc.) so that she feels important and independent, but isn’t waiting around while I’m busy taking care of Lainey.
Car seat positions – I tried my best to research this ahead of time, but I feel like I actually do the opposite of most people. My 3-year old sits behind the driver’s seat in my car, and my baby is behind the passenger seat. I did it this way, because when loading into the car, I can open the passenger side door, let my toddler climb across to her car seat and buckle my baby in, then make my way to the driver’s side to check Dolly’s seat belt before getting into the car myself. Same thing for unloading – unbuckle my toddler and have her climb across to get out on the passenger side where I’ll be taking my baby’s car seat out of the car. It flows so much easier than trying to unload from multiple different doors and sides of the vehicle, and I feel much safer in busy parking lots.
Stroller handle – something else no one told me about where these toddler handles you can attach to the stroller, car seat, your purse, belt, whatever you need! I keep ours on Lainey’s doona car seat, that way Dolly has something to hold any time we’re walking through the parking lot, store, park, wherever we are, and I know she’s safe next to me. Genius!

I wanted to end this post with a quote from Allie Stuckey’s book, You’re Not Enough (And That’s Okay):

“When we depend on [Christ] for strength in the midst of weakness, for peace in the midst of anxiety, for help in the midst of desperation, when we aim to mimic his unconditional love and self-sacrifice in all that we do for our families, we can rejoice knowing that our effort and exhaustion is never wasted — it’s being used for God’s glory, for our children’s good, and for our sanctification.”