Bailey: 6 Month Update

Happy 6 month birthday, peanut! I cannot believe you're half a year old already!!

 

Age: A whopping 6 months! NO WAY!!! I swear, I was driving myself to the hospital SURE I was going to be sent home like yesterday. NO WAY is she already 6 months old. UNBELIEVABLE.

Weight/Height: We have our doc appointment tomorrow, so I'll know for sure then... but, I'd guess about 13 pounds. I'm beyond excited to see just how much, though. Girl is filling out for sure. Just look at those cheeks. I can't even handle it.

Sleep: Ooooooh, sleep. We started this month out ROUGH. We were in the midst of moving and dealing with a time change and not having the Hubs around much. Add to it that I think (based on her CONSTANTLY knawing on her hands and OMG the buckets and buckets of drool) she was teething. Oh, and maybe add a little 4-month sleep regression (I know she isn't 4 months old, but she was a premiee so she could have been going through it a little late). Yeah.... not good. I think she just kinda got all outta sorts. We had one night where she was up at midnight and then again at 1:50am. Which doesn't sound SO bad... except that she (and I) was up until 4:30am. Wowza. Let's just say she wasn't the only one crying that night and that there were obscene amounts of coffee drunk the next morning.

Anyway- luckily sleep got back to normal... which still isn't GREAT, but SO, SO, SOOOO much better than it was for those weeks. So, we're back to about 1 wake up in the middle of the night and her going right back down after eating. While I want her to sleep through the night as soon as physically possible, I'll take it.


Nursing: Still going well, though she's starting to get much more aware of the world, which is WAY MORE FUN than nursing sometimes. I try to nurse in a quiet room to help avoid distraction. Hopefully it doesn't start becoming a huge issue. Anyway- overall still going great. While I was working, I was nursing at 6:30am, 6:30pm and then 11pm-ish if the Hubs isn't around to give her a bottle, and again at 3am-ish. Then, she gets bottles of pumped milk at 9:30am, 12:30pm, and 3:30pm. Now that I'm home with her, we're nursing for all the sessions except the (now) 10pm-ish bottle of pumped milk from the Hubs. So, yes- I'm still pumping. BOO! But, only twice a day now which is SO MUCH MORE doable.

Likes: Her daddy! Seriously. Those 2 are the most adorable things together. Melts my heart every, single time. She gets a big goofy grin when she hears his voice or sees him. Plus, they do this "Rock Party, Dance Party" thing when she gets fussy where he dances around with her and sings like a crazy person. BEYOND adorable. I just can't even. I die.

She also really likes her feet lately. She's obsessed with them.

Oh, and right at the end of Month 5 (like, legit- last week), she became OBSESSED with Sadie. She'll even laugh just looking at her. She reaches out for her and wants to touch her all the time. It's beyond cute. Now, if I could just teach her not to GRAB and SQUEEZE (& trust me, girl has a grip!) Sadie each time, we'd be in business. Baby steps, people.

Dislikes: Same. Carseat. Girl just hates it. I explain each time that it's not negotiable, but she does not care. We've tried sitting in the back to entertain her, sun screens to keep the sun off her, cranking the AC, and every other thing we could think of. She'll SCREAM an entire car ride and then stop the second we pull her out of the car. Silly goose.

Special Moments/Milestones:  Getting those feet to her mouth! She'd been working on it for weeks and then one day- BOOM-- contact! Now, she can't keep them out of her mouth. It's the cutest. Love, love, love.

She also met the Easter Bunny and had her first Easter.

Truth be told, Easter is not a big holiday for us and we weren't even going to get her pic taken with the bunny, but we passed by a local custard place that had a bunny there for free pics so we stopped by. She did great with him (is the Easter Bunny a him?) and didn't fuss or freak out at all! I'm glad we did get her pic taken... I mean- how cute is she?!?!?

Looking Forward To: Starting solids!!! I think we're going with a loose Baby-Led Weaning approach. Which is really just a fancy term for when you continue to breast feed (and baby getting the VAST majority of her nutrition from b-feeding), but start introducing solid, whole, real foods to baby, as well. No jar/pureed or baby food. It just makes logical sense to me. I think we will do SOME jar food/spoon feeding, but I also think we'll  mainly give her real, whole foods and let her feed herself.

Sitting in her "highchair" seat-thing, getting used to it! She's SO BIG now!!

 

We very intentionally waited til 6 months to start solids, per our pediatrician and the AAP recomendations.  As Bailey is a preemie, our Doc was VERY FIRM that we wait til 6 months. I also did a lot of research (like this article, this article , this article and this article) on it and decided it was best for Bailey and our family to wait. I got a LOT of "why haven't you started solids?" and "she's starving! give her some cereal!" and "she's not sleeping because she needs solids!" (especially from older women... like, you'd be amazed how many strangers stopped and would talk to me about it. WEIRD.). I once had a lady in the baby aisle tell me to find the bottles that you could give them cereal through and that I should start with that "if I cared about my baby". WOAH. People feel strongly about this whole food thing. I get and respect that each family has to do what is best for them and I genuinely appreciated the friendly advice, even if I didn't agree with or follow it. This is what was best for us. Nothing against anyone who started solids sooner or who gave me that advice. Just not for us.  Simple as that. I'm a firm believer that we all have to do the best for OUR situation, which is very, very likely going to be very different than the person sitting next to yous situation. Neither is right or wrong. It is what it is. We've done and will continue to do what's best for our family.

 

Not Looking Forward To: Crazy smelly diapers after start solids? LOL. I don't know... nothing really. Loving each new day and moment with her. :)