Saying I love you for the first time, by accident ?

Diana

I have been dating my boyfriend for almost 5 months. I know he loves me. But we haven’t properly said it yet. However he occasionally says thinks like “I’ll still love you even if…” or “I love and care about you….” “You are loved” things like that. It makes me feel awkward because I don’t know if he realizes what’s he’s doing, I feel like maybe it slips out. I haven’t said anything beck yet because I’m worried he doesn’t mean it like that. I’m waiting for him to say “I love you” and I think he wants it to be a special occasion not just like in passing. I have always said I love you way to early in relationships in the past and it always ends badly so that’s why I’m waiting for him to say it first. I’m pretty sure I do love him, but I’m just too scared to say it or address what he is doing in fear of losing him like I did with guys in the past. My question is how can I bring this up to him? That he needs to either tell me properly that he loves me or stop saying similar things and making my anxious.