Your Seventh Month - June 2014

Height: 24.5 inches (6th percentile)

Weight: 13 lbs., 15 oz. (12th percentile)

Head circumference: 16.5 inches (40th percentile)

(*measurements taken at 6 month checkup on 6/2/2014*)

        

Sleeping Pattern: 

We are finally getting into a routine, a real routine. By the end of this month, you were taking two regular naps each day, each one anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but usually closer to an hour or an hour and a half. Your sleeping schedule looks something like this:

       - 7:30 a.m. --- wake up

       - 9:00-10:30 a.m. --- morning nap

       - 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. ---afternoon nap

       - 8:30 p.m. --- bedtime

Eating Habits: 

You nurse four times a day and eat 3 meals a day. By the end of the month, this was our general routine.

       - 7:30 a.m. --- nurse

       - 8:15 a.m. --- eat 3 tablespoons of cereal mixed with formula and sometimes fruit

       - 11:00 a.m. --- nurse and then eat 4 ounces of homemade baby food, fruits and/or vegetables

       - 3:00 p.m. --- nurse

       - 5:00 p.m. --- eat 4 ounces of baby food followed by 2-3 tablespoons of cereal made with water or formula

        - 7:30 p.m. --- nurse

Personality, etc.: 

You are becoming more and more fun! You LOVE your big sister and smile at her all the time! And you really love your daddy. There are a lot of times that you are fussy with me and then as soon as your daddy takes you from me you calm down. When he is not at work he is usually the one to put you to bed for naps or bedtime because you go to sleep better for him than for me. You are enjoying playing with toys and you love looking out the window or being outside. Sometimes when you are fussy, going outside is the only thing that calms you down. We finally got your little swing hung on the swingset and you love to be pushed in it. Also, we have gone to the pool a few times and you love being in the water. . . as long as I'm holding you. :)

Accomplishments & Habits: 

This month you started putting your toes in your mouth (6/13) and then you finally rolled from your back to your tummy on 6/14 - yay! I watched you do it for the very first time in the morning (and instantly ran outside to where your daddy was working and told him about it) and then you just kept doing it for the rest of the day! A few days later (6/17) you sat up for longer than 30 seconds - it was your first time to really sit up on your own without falling over just a few seconds later. By the end of the month you were sitting up like a pro. This month you have also started shaking and banging your toys more deliberately and holding your toys for 5-10 minutes instead of dropping them within a minute or two. Of course, now that you’ve mastered holding onto them, you have decided it’s really fun to throw them too. :)  

 

Anything else: 

You are finally off the Propranalol - the medication you were taking twice daily for your nasal tip hemangioma. I’m a little nervous that it’s starting to become more noticeable, but we will wait a few more weeks and be sure before talking to the doctor about going back on the meds. It may just be that I’m paranoid.

Photos:

June 3 - You love food!

Matching sunnies!

June 7 - At Zuri's birthday party

June 12 - tickle tickle!

June 18 - Your first visit to the pool - you loved it!

June 19 - You make this silly face a lot and I LOVE it!

June 20 - You love your swing!

Your Sixth Month - May 2014

Height: 24 inches

Weight:

Head circumference:

(Since we didn't have a doctor's visit this month I don't have measurements for you. I did measure your length towards the beginning of the month. But you are still tiny!)

        

Sleeping Pattern: You are such a “micro-napper!” I really want you to get down to two long naps each day, but you prefer to take 4-5 super short naps each day. We will be working on changing that very soon. You still sleep great at night, but you do seem to wake up very early. Some mornings I can hear you making noises at 5:00 in the morning! You wake up happy and entertain yourself and usually fall back asleep. I never get you out of bed before 6:45.

Eating Habits: You didn’t like nursing so infrequently and you became very cranky about it. So I have thrown the schedule out the window. :) It was something that would have made life easier and more predictable, but that’s just not your style. So now you typically nurse every 3-4 hours, 5-6 times each day. I decided that keeping you happy was more advantageous than keeping you on schedule. We also started you on solids this month. It took you about a week or so to get good at eating from the spoon, but you love food and you get excited when it’s time to eat! So far you have had rice cereal, oatmeal, peas, carrots, green beans, butternut squash, sweet potato, pears, peaches, and blueberries. You prefer the veggies to the fruits for now. I have made all of your fruit and veggie purees at home with a baby food maker which has been fun. The fresh food looks so pretty! (I know that doesn’t really matter, but it’s fun!) By the end of May you were eating two good meals a day in addition to all that nursing you’ve been doing.

Personality, etc.: You still fuss plenty, but you are also becoming more and more enjoyable. Your smiles are so sweet and big! You like to be with us during our meals too. You sit in your Bumbo seat on the kitchen table while we are eating and you stare at our plates and watch the food going to our mouths and you stick your arms and legs straight out and squeal very excitedly. You think food is awesome! It’s so funny. Sometimes you get so loud about it that we can barely hear each other talk.

Accomplishments & Habits: You can now say “da da da” which is super fun and you also laugh, although infrequently. You are grabbing your feet a lot and I can tell that your core is getting stronger, but at the end of the month you still only roll one way (tummy to back) and you aren’t sitting up yet. So far, you haven’t been in much of a hurry to learn new skills. You do them when you’re ready, and not a moment sooner. I have tried to coax you to roll from your back to your tummy by pulling toys out of your reach, but you usually just decide that that toy isn’t that special and just find something else to do. :)

 

Anything else: Mother’s Day was this month, of course, and it was very special for me with you here! Last year on Mother’s Day we shared the wonderful news with our families that you were on your way. And as I carried you around church on that special Sunday this month, I was happy enough to burst. I hope that as you grow up I will be able to show you how very precious you are to me! You are and always will be an answer to my prayers and I still thank God every day for giving you to me.

Photos:

Monthly photo with your bear

First time with food!

Mother's Day

I love this funny face that you make!

You adore your daddy!

You love to be outside.

Your Fifth Month - April 2014

Your Fifth Month - April 2014

Height: 23 ½ inches

Weight: 12 lbs. 11 oz.

Head circumference: 16 inches

         (Measurements from April 4th doctor’s visit)

Sleeping Pattern: You are getting into a pretty good sleeping routine, although it’s still not perfect. You sleep 11-12 hours each night and take 2-3 naps each day. By the end of the month you were so easy to put down for a nap. When you would get fussy I would simply put you in bed, you would turn your head sideways and put your fist in your mouth and get quiet right away. Yay!

Eating Habits: You now nurse four times a day with at least four hours between each meal.

Personality, etc.: You are getting sweeter and sweeter. You’re still pretty particular - you know what you want. But you smile at home a lot! You still fuss in the car some, but it gets better every week. Penny can usually keep you entertained well enough.

Accomplishments & Habits: You have started picking up your toys and bringing them to your mouth. Everything goes to your mouth! You also love to feel different textures and scratch them with your little fingers. You have started babbling - your most common sounds are guee, wawa, and yaya. You also make little chewing motions with your mouth which I find adorable. You are razzing a lot now too (blowing through your lips and spitting).

 

Anything else: Just last month you learned to like the swing and this month you decided you didn’t like it anymore, so we just got rid of it. You are starting to spend more time in your bumbo seat and your exersaucer though, which is great!

I feel like you have changed so much during this month! You have gone from being a little infant who can’t do much to a baby who has more personality. You think your big sister is funny and interesting. You make more pleasant noises. You roll over and notice so much more. You are so fun!

Photos:

Easter Sunday

Your first taste of food - pineapple!

Your Fourth Month - March 2014

Height: Still 22 inches :)

Weight: 12 pounds, 2 ounces

    [height & weight from February 24th]

Sleeping Pattern: You are quite the little sleeper! During the month of March you gradually started sleeping even longer. By the end of the month you were sleeping 12 hours at night consistently. Yay! I usually feed you around 8:00 and put you to bed by 8:30 and you typically wake up around 8:30 or 9:00 the next morning.

You don’t take very long naps during the day anymore since you get so much sleep at night. You take 3-4 cat naps each day, always less than an hour each and sometimes as short as 20 minutes.

Eating Habits: You are a great nurser. You LOVE mealtimes and eat very well. You eat five times a day, typically around 3-4 hours between each feeding. Now that you are sleeping longer at night, it’s usually closer to 3 hours.

Personality, etc.: You are still what I would call a “medium maintenance” baby. I wouldn’t go as far as to call you “high maintenance,” but you aren’t super easy either. When you’re awake you want attention and you really like to be held. But you are so particular about how you want to be held. Your favorite thing is for me to hold you facing out on my hip so that you’re upright, your legs are hanging down, you have a little pressure on you tummy from my arm, and you can see everything.

This month you were pretty fussy in the nursery at church. They had to page me to come calm you down several times. I don’t mind coming for you though! I like being with you!

Accomplishments: You rolled over - tummy to back - for the “real” first time on March 1st, at exactly 3 months old. You have done it several times since then, but still don’t do it very frequently. You have yet to roll from your back to your tummy.

This month you started enjoying tummy time (finally)! You can usually spend about 10 minutes on your tummy playing with toys (but usually your burp cloth) before you get fussy and/or roll over. That’s progress considering last month you cried instantly every time I put you down on your tummy to play.

On March 15th, at 3 ½ months old, you laughed your first laugh! You haven’t done it again since then, that I know if, but you are pretty hard to impress. :)

Anything else: During the middle of this month I discovered that you do not tolerate caffeine well . . . at all. You had been extremely fussy for a couple of weeks and I realized that your extreme fussiness coincided with my return to regular coffee. (I had been having headaches and the coffee was really helping!) As soon as I switched back to decaf you were fine! I’m glad I figured it out as soon as I did. I felt so terrible when I realized why you were so unhappy!

Photos:

March 1 - 3 months old

March 3

March 7 - You usually have this "surprised" face when I point the camera at you!

March 10 - Your first trip to the zoo!

March 11

March13

March 20

March 20 - You have now outgrown my favorite nightgown - I miss it already!

Your Third Month - February 2014

Height: 22 inches (25th percentile)

Weight: 11.4 pounds (55th percentile)

       [height & weight from February 3rd]

Sleeping Pattern: You sleep 10-11 hours every night from around 9:00 in the evening until about 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning. Way to go!

Eating Habits: You eat five times a day, usually about three and a half hours apart. You are a great nurser!

Personality, etc.: You have become quite the smiley girl - at home anyway. You don’t smile for strangers very often. And Sundays are such an interruption to your routine that you’re not usually a super happy girl on Sunday at church. But at home, and especially when your tummy is full, you love to smile!

You are also happier in general. You’re much better in the car seat and you play on the floor and in your baby seat now.

You are looking more and more like your daddy every day. Lots of people comment about it. I love it!

Accomplishments: You are trying so hard to stick your hand in your mouth. Every once in a while you get it in there, but not for long. You have started batting at the toys that hang from your activity center and even grabbing them towards the end of the month. You like to smile at your toys too.

Anything else: You started taking Propranalol for your nasal tip hemangioma near the beginning of the month and by the end of the month when we went back to the doctor for a recheck, it had already improved! You also saw an ENT and he said the hemangioma does not appear to be causing any other problems with your nose, so that was good news.

Photos:

Here are some videos of you learning to do new things!