Week 27

Days 183 to 189 · 26 weeks 0 days to 26 weeks 6 days old · about 6 months This week your baby turns six months old. A typical baby now measures about 67 cm (26.5 in) and weighs about 7.6 kg (16.8 lb), but babies vary widely, and what matters is that your baby keeps following their own curve on the growth chart. Many babies are close to sitting on their own, and some already manage it for a few wobbly seconds. Solids are settling in, and it is time to move gently beyond smooth purees. For you, half a year of broken nights and steady learning is behind you, and this is a good moment to check in on how you are really doing. This week covers the start of Part Four, the 6-month check and vaccines, sitting, lumpier textures and constipation.

Day 183 · 26 weeks 0 days old

The second half of the year begins

Welcome to Part Four, which follows your baby from six to nine months. If the first three months were about survival and the next three about getting to know each other, these months are about movement. Over the coming weeks your baby is likely to sit on their own, start to creep or crawl, and perhaps pull themselves up on the furniture.

Their mind is changing just as fast. Your baby is starting to understand that things and people still exist when they are out of sight. That new understanding brings games like peekaboo, but also, for many babies, a new wariness of being apart from you. Their babble is filling with consonants, and soon you may hear long strings of "ba-ba-ba" and "da-da-da". Food becomes more interesting and more varied, with thicker textures and the first finger foods. Your home will need a fresh look, because a baby who moves can reach things that were safe a month ago.

You will find practical guidance on all of this in the weeks ahead, along with choking first aid, water safety and the value of a hands-on first aid course. As always, milestones come with wide ranges. Your baby will do things in their own order and at their own pace.

Try this: Write down three things your baby can do today that they could not do at three months, and keep the list somewhere you will find it later.

Day 184 · 26 weeks 1 day old

What happens at the 6-month check

In many places, babies have a routine visit with a doctor or nurse at around six months. The exact timing and who you see depend on where you live, so follow the schedule you have been given.

Your baby will usually be undressed down to the diaper so they can be weighed, measured and have their head circumference checked. These numbers go on the growth chart, and the shape of the line over time tells far more than any single measurement. Many babies have roughly doubled their birth weight by now, though this varies.

Expect a full physical exam: heart and lungs, eyes, ears, hips, skin and the soft spot on top of the head. Your baby's doctor or nurse will also ask about development. Can your baby roll? Sit with support? Reach for toys and pass them from hand to hand? Babble and turn to voices? These are conversation starters, not a test, and the answers are judged with wide ranges. If your baby was born early, development is measured by corrected age.

It is also your chance to ask about feeding, solids, sleep, teeth or anything else on your mind. No question is too small.

Try this: Before the appointment, jot down your questions on your phone, along with roughly how many milk feeds and solid meals your baby has in a typical day.

Day 185 · 26 weeks 2 days old

Vaccines around six months

Vaccine schedules differ from country to country, so the six-month visit looks different depending on where you live. In many places, babies receive another dose of some of the vaccines they had at two and four months, such as those protecting against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, Hib, hepatitis B or pneumococcal disease. In other places there are no routine vaccines at exactly six months. Follow your local schedule.

Six months is also the age when many places begin offering the seasonal flu vaccine to babies. The first time a child gets it, two doses a few weeks apart are often recommended.

Side effects are usually mild: a sore, red spot where the needle went in, some fussiness or a low fever for a day or two. The comfort strategies you used for the first vaccines at two months still work: feeding or cuddling during and after the needle, staying calm yourself, and offering plenty of closeness afterwards.

Call your baby's doctor if your baby has a fever of 40 °C (104 °F) or higher, cries inconsolably for more than three hours, seems unusually floppy or hard to wake, or the redness around the injection spreads widely or keeps growing after a couple of days.

Try this: Check your baby's vaccine record today and make a note of when the next doses are due.

Day 186 · 26 weeks 3 days old

Sitting up without your help

Sitting looks simple, but it takes strong muscles in the neck, back and tummy, plus a good sense of balance. Most babies learn it in stages. First comes sitting with support, propped against you or a cushion. Then many babies lean forward on their hands in a "tripod" sit. Finally, often somewhere between about 6 and 9 months, they sit steadily on their own with their hands free to play.

Babies reach this at different times, and babies born early are judged by their corrected age.

You can help by giving your baby plenty of floor time, both on the tummy and sitting. Sit your baby between your legs or in a ring of cushions and place a toy slightly to one side, so they practise reaching while keeping their balance. Expect topples, usually sideways or backwards, so stay close and keep the floor around them soft.

Infant seats that hold a baby upright, such as moulded floor seats, do not teach sitting and should only be used on the floor, never on a table or sofa. Real practice happens on a play mat.

Call your baby's doctor if your baby cannot hold their head steady when pulled to sit, seems very floppy or very stiff, or uses one side of the body much more than the other.

Try this: Spend five minutes today sitting on the floor behind your baby as a backrest, with a few toys within reach.

Day 187 · 26 weeks 4 days old

Six months in, how are you really doing?

Half a year ago you gave birth or welcomed your baby home. Since then, most of your attention has gone outward, to feeds, naps, diapers and doctor's visits. It is worth turning that attention inward for a moment.

Physically, many people feel largely recovered by now, but not everyone. If you still have leaking when you cough or run, pain during sex, a bulge or heaviness in your pelvis, back pain that is not easing, or a scar that still hurts, these are common and treatable, and six months is not too late to ask for help. A pelvic floor physiotherapist can make a real difference. Your mood matters just as much. Postpartum depression and anxiety, described in the early weeks of this book, can begin or show up later in the first year, not only in the early weeks. Ongoing low mood, constant worry, irritability, losing interest in things you used to enjoy, or feeling numb are all reasons to talk to your doctor or midwife.

And if you are doing well, notice that too. You have learned an enormous amount in six months.

Call your care provider if you have thoughts of harming yourself or your baby, or feel you cannot cope. If you feel unsafe right now, call your local emergency number.

For your partner: Ask the birth parent tonight, in a quiet moment, how their body and mood have really been lately, and listen without trying to fix anything.

Day 188 · 26 weeks 5 days old

Time to move on to lumpier food

If your baby started with smooth purees, the next step is to thicken things up. Over the next few weeks, aim to move from smooth to mashed, then to food with soft lumps, and to soft finger foods. By around 8 to 9 months, most babies can manage minced and chopped family food. Babies who start with baby-led weaning are already handling texture, so this step happens naturally.

Texture matters. Chewing and moving lumps around the mouth build the muscles your baby will later use for speech. Babies who stay on smooth purees for too long, past about 9 or 10 months, are more likely to refuse lumpy foods and become fussier eaters later.

Make the change in small steps. Mash with a fork instead of blending. Stir a little mashed banana or soft cooked lentils into a familiar puree. Offer soft pieces your baby can squash between their fingers, such as ripe avocado, well-cooked carrot or a strip of omelette. Gums are surprisingly strong, so teeth are not needed.

Expect some gagging as your baby learns. As you read when solids began, gagging is a normal, noisy safety reflex, quite different from choking. Stay seated with your baby, keep them upright and let them work it out. Try this: At your baby's next meal, mash their food with a fork instead of blending it, and watch how they handle the new texture.

Day 189 · 26 weeks 6 days old

Constipation can come with new foods

Starting solids changes what comes out the other end. Stools often become thicker, darker, smellier and less frequent, and they may show bits of recognizable food. All of that is normal. Constipation is about hard, dry stools that are difficult or painful to pass, not about how often your baby goes.

Signs include stools like small pebbles or one large hard log, straining with crying and a red face, and sometimes a streak of bright red blood from a small tear. Straining alone is common, even with soft stools.

If your baby seems constipated, offer sips of water from an open cup with meals. Include fruits and vegetables with plenty of fibre and natural sugars that soften stool, such as pears, prunes, plums, peaches and peas, and whole grains such as oats. Give a little less of very binding foods for a few days, such as rice cereal or lots of banana. Gentle tummy massage can help too. Do not give laxatives or suppositories unless your baby's doctor recommends them.

Call your baby's doctor if constipation lasts more than a week or two despite these changes, there is more than a streak of blood, your baby is vomiting, has a swollen or hard tummy, seems unwell or is feeding poorly. Try this: Add a spoonful of pureed or mashed prunes or pear to one of your baby's meals this week if their stools have been hard.