Six Months!

Olivia Grace, you are SIX months old!

(Holy cow, how did you get to be half a year already?)

What have you been up to?  

*I don't know your official height and weight.  We'll find those out at your 6 month appointment on Tuesday.  From what I've seen, you haven't gained a ton of weight since the last appointment, but you have gained some length.  At least according to all of your high water pants! :)

*You are still wearing mostly 3 to 6 months clothes, but I have got all your 6 to 9 month clothes ready.  You've worn a few already.  (So we did make it a month like I said.)  You are still in size 6 to 9 months for footed pajamas.

*You are in size 3 diapers.  I was told you would be in that size forever.  I don't think you'll be in them as long as I was imagining.

*You are still drinking 6 bottles a day.  Most bottles are between 5 and 6 ounces.  We have just started to try to give you 7 ounces in your bottle in hopes of weaning down to 5 bottles a day.  It's worked once so far.  We'll see if we can keep it up.

*We tried switching to the faster flow nipples, but it was just too fast.  Surprising for how fast you eat.  We'll try again in a few weeks.

*You now know what your bottle is.  If you see it, you want it.  Since it takes 4 minutes to heat up, we try to make it a little before it's time to eat.  We now have to hide it until it's time for you to eat it.  You will even stare at empty bottles...even if you are not hungry.

*You are not on a set schedule, but we do have somewhat of a routine down.  You go to bed anywhere from 6:30 to 7:30 (depending on when I get home from work), and you sleep 11 to 12 hours.  You usually wake up once to eat--somewhere between 3 and 5 AM.  You nap every 2 hours, which means 4 naps a day!  I wish we were on the 9 and 1 o'clock nap schedule like all the books say.  However, you don't nap for an hour to 2.  You nap for 30 minutes exactly.  I have come to terms with this.  Ultimately, you are getting the 14 hours a day you need.  I have tried everything I can to extend your naps and it just doesn't work.  For now you eat every 3 hours.

*I forgot to mention this last month, but you sleep un-swaddled now.  You've been doing this since about 4 and a half months.  I did a week with one arm out, two days with both arms out, and then just got rid of it all together.

*You always want to go, go, go.  Your mind wants you to move about, but your body just can't do it yet.  So instead, you rock your upper body trying to tell us to move you.  I have a feeling that once you learn to crawl, you will be non stop!

*You learned to roll from back to belly on December 3rd.  Since then you are a rolling machine!  Unfortunately, you still haven't figured out/remembered how to roll back.

*You have sat up by yourself for a few minutes now.  You aren't great at it yet, so I never leave you sitting by yourself, but you are getting there.

 (She lunged at me, so I had to catch her!)

*Since you can roll over, you now sleep on your side or your stomach most nights.  Stomach sleeping made me nervous at first, but there really isn't anything I can do about it.

*You are still a fountain of drool, and you shove things in your mouth with force.  Those teeth have to be coming soon!

*You have also become a thumb chewer.  That's right.  You don't suck your thumb(s).  You chew them.  It's usually because you can't find anything else to shove in your mouth.

*You have started to hold your bottle on your own.  You don't do it every time, but if you aren't holding it by yourself, you like to help us hold it.  It won't be long before you'll be able to do it independently.

 (She's a nosy one.  She's always trying to see what daddy is doing.  He walked away into the kitchen and she peered around to see what he was up to.)

*You've just started having some separation anxiety.  I got called to the nursery last Saturday.  I kind of figured it was going to happen.  You hadn't even wanted to go to daddy during the day, and you started crying the minute I dropped you off.  You had never done that before.  Then we went to Little Man's house for dinner and Nana was dying to hold you.  You started crying immediately and didn't stop until you were back in mommy's arms.

*I think you reached for me for the first time last week.  Although, I haven't really seen you do it again.

*You laugh so much more now.  It's so fun to get you going.  Your laugh makes me laugh! :)

*Because of your new tub, you now LOVE bath time again.  You will kick and splash and play with bath toys.  You seem to do a lot of your laughing when you are in the tub.  Now our problem is getting you out.

*You blow lots of bubbles and are back to sticking your tongue out a lot.

*You are pretty much over most of your big toys.  You will tolerate the bouncer and play mat for short periods of time.  You will also tolerate the swing if it is in the upright position.  If it is reclined you cry almost instantly.  Really, the swing and bouncer need to go to storage.  I just keep putting it off because I like having a place to put you in a pinch.  I know... I know... You are a big girl now! :) 

*I have said for years that I had no doubt our child was going to give us a run for our money.  You are a sweet, sweet girl, but you know what you want/like.  You've started throwing little tantrums when you don't get your own way--screaming, kicking your legs with force!, and squirming about.  I've started telling you no and that we don't act like that.  Surprisingly, you seem to understand and stop or calm down at least half of the time, if not more.

*You've also started watching us with intent any time we put something in/near our mouths.  I'm hoping this means starting solids will be easy.

*You seem to be an outdoors type of girl.  You loved the heat this summer.  Now you enjoy the wind in your hair and on your face.  I wonder what this means for your future?

(The swing REALLY is about to go into storage!  Also, I never put her in there without buckling her in.  She would sit up and then topple right out.  I just put her in for a quick photo.)

*Things you love right now are: watching the squiggly line screen saver on the computer, your jumperoo, that snail musical thing, eating, baths, anything you can get in your mouth, watching daddy and being held by mommy.

*Your least favorite things right now are: not being able to see mommy, not being able to move, move, move, sitting still, reading (sometimes--only because it requires sitting still), and the reclining in the swing.

HAPPY SIX MONTHS BABY GIRL!

WE LOVE YOU!