February 6, 2016

thea - six months

I blinked and my baby is six months old.  Those middle of the night feedings seem never ending and the exhaustion lasts for days, but all of the sudden you have a six month old and you wonder where the time went.

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Thea's six month check up went well.  She weighs 16lbs4oz and is 26.5 inches long.  She dropped to the 52nd and 74th percentiles respectively (after being in the 90th in both at two months).  She has dropped the last few appointments, but at the moment no one is concerned.  She certainly looks like she is eating enough.  Her weight jump was just so large in the first month that I think it is almost impossible to keep up with that.  The doctor did say, that if we try to cut out night feedings it is fine, however I need to make sure she is getting significant feeds during the day so she doesn't drop too much further.  She is mostly in 9 month and 6-12 month clothes, wearing a size three diaper, and who knows what size shoes.  We busted out our favorite Robeez boots that are 6-12 month size, because she manages to kick even moccasins off.

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Our biggest feat this past month, was getting Thea out of the rock 'n play and putting herself to sleep.  The subject of sleep got to the point where I thought I was going to completely lose my mind.  She was waking up every 45-90 minutes needing me, only occasionally giving me a stretch of three hours.  She wouldn't stay asleep longer than 30 minutes in the crib.  She was still swaddled, despite being an all star roller.  It was bad.  It didn't help that the girl seems to have been battling a cold since Christmas.  I felt terrible trying to attempt any sleep training, but I could no longer function.  So we bit the bullet and did it.

My word I have never heard Thea scream like that.  The first night I was sure she was never ever going to fall asleep and she was just going to cry for hours.  But it only ended up lasting maybe 30 minutes.  I'm not going to go into a detailed play by play on the sleep training, but slowly but surely she is getting better about going to sleep on her own.  And we are down to only waking twice a night.  I'd prefer once, but going from five times down to two is pretty good.  Not to mention it isn't a two hour ordeal when she is up anymore either.  I nurse her, I put her back in the crib, I go to sleep.  Winning!

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Thea is so close to being mobile its scary.  She is very efficient at rolling back to belly, is getting pretty good at rolling belly to back, and seems to be our only child that is figuring out rolling can be a means of transportation.  She'll roll, scoot herself in a circle and roll some more to try and get at what she wants.  And I wouldn't be surprised if she was doing some sort of crawling by the next monthly update.  She can pull her knees all the way underneath her, rocks back and forth, and tries to slide her legs forward before ultimately face planting.  I'm so not ready to have to watch her like a hawk.  She can sit unassisted for very brief periods of time, but she is much too intrigued with trying to grab EVERYTHING to stay upright for too long.

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We made an attempt at baby food the last couple of days (so technically after she turned six months, January 31st, but whatever).  Despite the fact that my pediatrician was against it, we skipped rice and oatmeal and started with peas.  Sometimes I'm not sure my new pedi and I have the same views on parenting and raising babies, but for the moment I'm letting it slide.  Anyway, I had let Thea suck on a piece of fruit I was eating a couple times here and there, and she has been much more interested in watching us eat, so we decided to give the baby food a try.  The first spoonful that made contact with her mouth (going in her mouth is questionable, she didn't open very wide and it just kind smeared everywhere) made her face bunch all up.  But she kept going back for more.  She grabs the spoon and pulls it into her mouth and sucks the food off.  Hoping for another good eater like Elsie!  But with less digestive issues...

In other eating news nursing is still going just fine as far as I can tell.  She nurses often, but is pretty efficient and can be done in ten minutes if she needs to be.  She started pinching the back of my arms while she eats, that is oh so much fun.  We still haven't tried to give her a bottle.  Kind of hating myself a bit for that.  It would be nice to be able to leave her for an extended period of time.  But we'll get there.  Eventually.  Maybe.

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Thea is without a doubt very much a mama's girl.  She is my velcro baby.  She'll tolerate Christopher or my mom holding her, but she isn't always pleased about it.  And if she is the least bit tired she wants nothing to do with anyone else.  She'll whine and fuss and pout out her lip.  And as soon as I take her back she'll look at the offending party like 'thank God what were you thinking?'.  It's pretty ridiculous.  I'd say she spends 50% or more of her awake time on my hip.  I need to figure out where I stashed my Becco carrier and do a refresher on a hip carry.  Thea still won't tolerate a wrap, but my arms could absolutely use a break! You'd think I'd be ripped the amount that I carry her around.

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No definite ma or da sounds yet, but Thea definitely makes an mmmm sound a lot.  Usually when she's pissed.  So maybe she is working on saying mama?  Haha, yeah right.  When she is really tired or mad, but not crying, she'll scrunch her face all up, purse her lips, and blow very aggressive and angry raspberries.  It is hilarious.  And quite messy.  Between boogers and drool she is always a wet gooey mess.  I certainly won't be sad to see that phase pass.  All the drool + her constantly shoving her hands in her mouth makes everyone ask me if she is teething.  I can't see any yet, so I don't have a clue.  I'll hang on to her gummy smile as long as possible, gummy baby smiles are the best!

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Her favorite things include chewing her toys to death, slapping me in the face while nursing, showers, trying to pull her sisters' hair, watching her sisters do pretty much anything, being in the jumperoo, and nursing.  But for real, Ryann and Elsie are pretty much the most amazing things in the world to her.  If either of them sit and talk to her or play with her I can generally buy myself another 10 minutes of happiness.

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Happy half birthday baby girl.  I love you so much!

1 comment:

Kristen said...

Her facial expressions are cracking me up, too cute! My little babe was born the 19th(although I think they had the same due date? We were very late) so just behind Thea and they seem to be so much alike. I also wanted to say I feel your pain in the sleep department. We were doing SO well early on then it went downhill very quickly around 4 months and I think it's been a solid two months now that I have not slept more than 4 hours at a time. I call it a win with only two wake ups a night. *sigh* Anyways, hugs. Wine is your friend.