six months

It absolutely blows my mind that our little baby is six months old.  Those first few months were so tough..it was so hard to believe that we would ever have a routine or that I would ever have time to take a bath, read a book, or paint my nails again.  Things are pretty fantastic around here.  This month Allie mastered sitting up and eating solids (purees).  She hugs me every day when I pick her up from daycare and just a couple of days ago she started reaching out to be picked up.  She's the happiest, best, sweetest, cutest, most perfect baby ever.

Allie weighs 17 pounds 11 ounces now (77th percentile).  She is 26.5 inches tall (75th percentile).  Her head is 16.5 inches around (40th percentile).  She looks like a little Chia Pet with all the fuzzy hair on her head.  I'm really looking forward to the day I can put bows in her hair (seems so much less painful than headbands).  Her eyes are now almost exactly like Carson's--brown on the inside and blue on the outside.  I'm not sure if they will change anymore.  She still doesn't have any teeth but she LOVES having everything in her mouth.  I recently gave her one of those soothies pacifiers and she think it's absolutely the best thing ever (besides her feet, of course).  She doesn't suck on it, so I'm hoping it won't bite us in the butt that we're introducing a pacifier now.  I don't see any sort of attachment between her and it, or anything, for that matter.  (Not even the lovey, which I often have to take away from her to wash because she chews on it so much.)

Speaking of her feet--if she is sitting up and happens to drop her toy, on her way to pick up the toy she often discovers her feet and makes this face like "These things are so cool!  How can I get them in my mouth?" but she's still too chunky to get them there.  She takes advantage of socks and footie tights or pjs to pull on her feet/legs but just can't quite bend enough.

On Christmas Day she slept SO much.  I think she only ate 4 times that day.  The day after, she literally looked completely different.  Her hair was longer.  She was thinner and taller.  I think that was the first time Carson and I both noticed such a drastic difference.  She just looks older and wiser.  What a difference a day makes.

That cold that Allie had last month never went away and we ended up having to take her to an after hours clinic one Friday to get her a prescription for Amoxicillin.  Within a few days, it was like we had a completely different baby.  She was happy again and it was so noticeable that it made me a little sad that I waited so long to take her to the doctor.  I'm so glad she has been feeling better the past couple of weeks.  She does have a runny nose again lately but she doesn't seem to feel bad.

At home, Allie sleeps like a champ.  A typical weekend schedule looks something like this:

5:00 eat
5:30-8:00 sleep
8:00 eat
9:15-11:15 sleep
11:15 eat
12:30-3:15 sleep
3:15 eat
4:30-6:00 sleep
6:00 eat, bath
7:30 sleep

We love it.  That little stint she had sleeping through the night last month didn't last long.  Most of this past month she woke up once each night--typically around 2-3 if she went to bed at 7:30.  She has been having some teething pain the past couple of weeks that has affected her weekend naps somewhat.

She is still eating 16 ounces of breastmilk at daycare every day.  We did introduce solids this past month and as of January 6th, she gets a 4 oz. bottle and oatmeal (made with milk) for breakfast, a 4 oz. bottle and sweet potatoes + oatmeal for lunch, and a 6 oz. bottle in the afternoon at daycare.  (It's also worth mentioning that she has slept through the night every night this week since starting solids at daycare.)  So far she has only had sweet potatoes.  I thought we would have a hard time trying to get her tongue to work the first few times but she had no issues.  She really seems to love food.  We just bought carrots today to start her on those.  I also bought her some sippy cups recently and we plan to introduce her to that in the next couple of days.

Clothing-wise, I'm afraid Allie's 6 month pjs won't last much longer.  The footie pjs especially seem snug in the length.  I think we'll be moving her up a size this month.  She is still in size 3 diapers and 3-6/6-12 onesies and pants.  Now that she's crawling I like to have her in some kind of pants always to protect her little knees from the carpet or hard floor.  I probably frustrate people with how little I get her all gussied up but I just want her to be comfortable.  Maybe when she's standing and walking I'll be more likely to put her in dresses and jeans.

She loves feeling textures.  She will scratch different fabrics with her little fingernails and she likes hearing the sounds that each material makes.  She's all about tags now too.  Forgot the toy, give her the tag.  She also loves watching and touching the dogs.

I am about 5 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight.  Everything has returned to normal with my body and now that Allie is six months old we can officially put her in the daycare at the gym.  Not entirely sure that will happen...ever.