January 30, 2013
6 Months Old
Dear Mackenzie,
Happy ½ birthday Smiley Girl! How has it been half a year already since you arrived? Time just seems to fly faster and faster each day. This month was definitely a whirlwind of new experiences for you.
After a recommendation from your pediatrician, we elected to start solids shortly after you turned 5 months old. We initially started with rice cereal mixed with breast milk but you were just not having that. We tried that for a few days before we chose to switch it up a bit and go to oatmeal. That was definitely a good choice. You like oatmeal much better. We have tried rice cereal since and you still hated it, so we just won’t do that again. To be honest, rice cereal doesn’t have any nutritional value so I’m not that sad that you didn’t like it. Shortly after you started eating oatmeal, we added in applesauce. You LOVED that. Initially, you only ate in the mornings. Eventually we started adding in a second meal in the evenings when we eat dinner. Since we were adding in this meal we chose to go ahead and add in other veggies (and fruit since avocado is technically a fruit). We started you with sweet potatoes. You seemed okay initially with that and then after a day or two acted as if you didn’t like it. So, we switched to avocado which you seemed to like. We went back to sweet potato and you seemed to tolerate it more. I think part of the issue was that it was too thick for you to begin with. After I started mixing in milk, you did better. You have also since had butternut squash which you seem to like. It appears like that is your favorite so far (as far as veggies go) as it’s the only food you don’t make faces at. We are just starting bananas. I tried to mash them up on your tray to let you try to feed yourself. You played with them and then I ended up spoon feeding them to you anyway. You seemed okay with them. We will see as the days go on if you are actually going to like them. I’m hoping to mix them with avocado soon. Someone recommended that and I think it sounds pretty yummy for you. When you eat, you tend to make a lot of grunting noises. It is very cute but it always makes me wonder if you are not enjoying your food. You just keep eating so I guess it is all fine. So, other than rice cereal, you don’t seem to hate any particular food yet. I am making all of your food (except the oatmeal but we buy that organic). I’m loving making your food. It is fun and I enjoy knowing that I am still providing you with natural food options. I freeze what I make and we just take out enough each day for you. Daddy has loved that I am making applesauce too since we all eat that. We introduced a sippy cup this month too. We tried a regular one first and you just didn’t seem to like that so we went ahead and went to a straw sippy. You love it. You figured it out so quickly. You still need some help holding it in the right position but you quickly figured out what to do. You seem to really like water. We don’t give you very much but you became very interested in my cups of water each day and I would sometimes let you have a sip so it made sense to go ahead and introduce the sippy. Your main source of nutrition is still breast milk. Your solids meals are all about 30-60 minutes after your nurse to make sure that you are mainly getting breast milk. You are now breastfeeding about 5 times a day (more if you wake up during the night). You nurse after every nap and then right before bed.
Since it sort of relates to eating, I’ll mention it now… you got your first two teeth this month!! You now have two adorable little teeth on the bottom in front (these are apparently the most common teeth to get first). You started cutting one and then the next day started cutting the second. You were generally good natured about it. You had a bit of trouble going to sleep each night but with some orajel, you would drift off and they didn’t seem to bother you at night. You drooled like crazy though! Your drooling had really picked up but now has subsided for the most part again. I said last month that I thought one was coming and sure enough… now you have two. Nana said I always cut two at a time when I was a baby so I guess you do too. You actually cut that tooth right around the same time Daddy did when he was your age. That seemed really cool. I’m wondering if you are starting to teeth again. Maybe a top tooth. You have taken to chewing on your thumb a lot lately and the drool seems to be picking up a bit more, though nothing like right as your teeth came in. That was ridiculous! I guess we shall see soon enough.
This month you also started sitting up independently. You were working on that quite a bit last month but now you can sit up for about 30 to 60 seconds on your own. It doesn’t seem like much when I say it, but to watch you do it is amazing. It is so hard to believe that 6 short months ago, you couldn’t even roll over. Sometimes you can even sit longer if you are distracted by something that is perfectly within your line of sight. You are now working on playing with your toys while sitting and not falling over. I have also noticed that your grabbing of toys has gotten much better this month. Your coordination is really coming along. You will lean really far forward or to the side to get a toy you want. We also practiced rolling again from tummy to back because you do it so rarely and once we did that, you were off. I could put toys on one side of your room and you would roll all the way across it in order to get to those toys. When you know what you want, you really work for it. What is really funny though, is that you only often really roll one direction. So, if you want the toys you better hope they are on the right side of you. I’ve been watching you closely the last few days though and it seems like you are now able to go both ways, but you still prefer to roll to your left. You also make some movements like you want to crawl. I expect that to start coming along as well within the next couple of months. You still love to stand (with our help of course). Sometimes you will be standing and I want you to sit down but you just refuse to bend your little body in order to sit down and you end up laying on your back because you wouldn’t sit. You also figured out how to get out of your swing this month. We are going to be packing it up soon but right now, because you aren’t sitting for too long yet, we are still using it. You HAVE to be buckled in however or you will swing yourself right out of it.
You are also super giggly lately. It is the greatest sound I think I have ever heard. You just laugh at everything. Jack is especially hiliarious apparently. Sometimes when you are nursing, you will pop off, look up at me and start giggling. Cracks me up every time. I try constantly to catch your giggles on video. You seem to realize though when a camera is on you because you decide that you are not going to giggle at all at that point. Sometimes I can catch just a few, but it is rare.
You put yourself on your own little nap schedule this month. We stretched your awake time to around 2 hours and dropped the fourth nap. So now you get up at 7:30 for the day and nap at 9:30, 1 or 1:30 (depending on the length of your first nap) and around 4 or 4:30. Your first nap is generally about an hour and a half. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Your other two naps are usually 30-45 minutes. Every now and then one of them turns into an hour but I don’t usually count on that. I’m considering stretching your awake time just a bit. I have already started to stretch your time just a bit after your first and second naps. You usually stretch your first wake time last as this is the most established nap you have and you get tired sooner after initially waking up than any other time of the day. Sometimes you fight your last nap, which is what makes me think we should stretch it soon. I don’t think you are ready to drop the nap, but you are needing more awake time it seems to actually want to take that nap. You are going down really well at night (knock on wood) and are usually down by 7:30 at the latest. More days than not, you are sleeping through the night until I wake you up in the morning. Most nights you wake up a few times and make some noises but you are generally able to put yourself back to sleep. If you do get up, it is usually just once, maybe twice. Starting now, we are going to night wean you on those days you do get up. We have also been working on adding back in a book after you nurse at night before bed in order to disassociate bed from eating. So now the routine is: bath, nurse, book, prayers, song(s), bed. So far… so good.
We go for walks every day. Most days we take a short walk in the morning and then a longer walk in the afternoon. On days that it isn’t cold (cold days have been rare this year) or raining, we try to take one in the afternoon with Daddy and Jack. You used to cry through that entire walk. We think you were perhaps tired. You are tolerating it better every day though. A couple of months ago, you loved walks and would fall asleep on them every time. I have no idea what happened to that baby. Except that you got older and are just so very interested in everything that goes on around you.
Every day you are learning something new. I’m taking as many pictures and videos as possible. I just don’t want to forget all that you are learning. One day I’m sure we will look back and never believe that you were once so tiny and everything was such a new experience.
Happy ½ birthday Baby Girl! We love you so much. Here’s to another amazing 6 months!
Love,
Mommy
6 Months Old
Dear Mackenzie,
Happy ½ birthday Smiley Girl! How has it been half a year already since you arrived? Time just seems to fly faster and faster each day. This month was definitely a whirlwind of new experiences for you.
After a recommendation from your pediatrician, we elected to start solids shortly after you turned 5 months old. We initially started with rice cereal mixed with breast milk but you were just not having that. We tried that for a few days before we chose to switch it up a bit and go to oatmeal. That was definitely a good choice. You like oatmeal much better. We have tried rice cereal since and you still hated it, so we just won’t do that again. To be honest, rice cereal doesn’t have any nutritional value so I’m not that sad that you didn’t like it. Shortly after you started eating oatmeal, we added in applesauce. You LOVED that. Initially, you only ate in the mornings. Eventually we started adding in a second meal in the evenings when we eat dinner. Since we were adding in this meal we chose to go ahead and add in other veggies (and fruit since avocado is technically a fruit). We started you with sweet potatoes. You seemed okay initially with that and then after a day or two acted as if you didn’t like it. So, we switched to avocado which you seemed to like. We went back to sweet potato and you seemed to tolerate it more. I think part of the issue was that it was too thick for you to begin with. After I started mixing in milk, you did better. You have also since had butternut squash which you seem to like. It appears like that is your favorite so far (as far as veggies go) as it’s the only food you don’t make faces at. We are just starting bananas. I tried to mash them up on your tray to let you try to feed yourself. You played with them and then I ended up spoon feeding them to you anyway. You seemed okay with them. We will see as the days go on if you are actually going to like them. I’m hoping to mix them with avocado soon. Someone recommended that and I think it sounds pretty yummy for you. When you eat, you tend to make a lot of grunting noises. It is very cute but it always makes me wonder if you are not enjoying your food. You just keep eating so I guess it is all fine. So, other than rice cereal, you don’t seem to hate any particular food yet. I am making all of your food (except the oatmeal but we buy that organic). I’m loving making your food. It is fun and I enjoy knowing that I am still providing you with natural food options. I freeze what I make and we just take out enough each day for you. Daddy has loved that I am making applesauce too since we all eat that. We introduced a sippy cup this month too. We tried a regular one first and you just didn’t seem to like that so we went ahead and went to a straw sippy. You love it. You figured it out so quickly. You still need some help holding it in the right position but you quickly figured out what to do. You seem to really like water. We don’t give you very much but you became very interested in my cups of water each day and I would sometimes let you have a sip so it made sense to go ahead and introduce the sippy. Your main source of nutrition is still breast milk. Your solids meals are all about 30-60 minutes after your nurse to make sure that you are mainly getting breast milk. You are now breastfeeding about 5 times a day (more if you wake up during the night). You nurse after every nap and then right before bed.
Since it sort of relates to eating, I’ll mention it now… you got your first two teeth this month!! You now have two adorable little teeth on the bottom in front (these are apparently the most common teeth to get first). You started cutting one and then the next day started cutting the second. You were generally good natured about it. You had a bit of trouble going to sleep each night but with some orajel, you would drift off and they didn’t seem to bother you at night. You drooled like crazy though! Your drooling had really picked up but now has subsided for the most part again. I said last month that I thought one was coming and sure enough… now you have two. Nana said I always cut two at a time when I was a baby so I guess you do too. You actually cut that tooth right around the same time Daddy did when he was your age. That seemed really cool. I’m wondering if you are starting to teeth again. Maybe a top tooth. You have taken to chewing on your thumb a lot lately and the drool seems to be picking up a bit more, though nothing like right as your teeth came in. That was ridiculous! I guess we shall see soon enough.
This month you also started sitting up independently. You were working on that quite a bit last month but now you can sit up for about 30 to 60 seconds on your own. It doesn’t seem like much when I say it, but to watch you do it is amazing. It is so hard to believe that 6 short months ago, you couldn’t even roll over. Sometimes you can even sit longer if you are distracted by something that is perfectly within your line of sight. You are now working on playing with your toys while sitting and not falling over. I have also noticed that your grabbing of toys has gotten much better this month. Your coordination is really coming along. You will lean really far forward or to the side to get a toy you want. We also practiced rolling again from tummy to back because you do it so rarely and once we did that, you were off. I could put toys on one side of your room and you would roll all the way across it in order to get to those toys. When you know what you want, you really work for it. What is really funny though, is that you only often really roll one direction. So, if you want the toys you better hope they are on the right side of you. I’ve been watching you closely the last few days though and it seems like you are now able to go both ways, but you still prefer to roll to your left. You also make some movements like you want to crawl. I expect that to start coming along as well within the next couple of months. You still love to stand (with our help of course). Sometimes you will be standing and I want you to sit down but you just refuse to bend your little body in order to sit down and you end up laying on your back because you wouldn’t sit. You also figured out how to get out of your swing this month. We are going to be packing it up soon but right now, because you aren’t sitting for too long yet, we are still using it. You HAVE to be buckled in however or you will swing yourself right out of it.
 |
| Just a comparison to show how big you have gotten |
You are also super giggly lately. It is the greatest sound I think I have ever heard. You just laugh at everything. Jack is especially hiliarious apparently. Sometimes when you are nursing, you will pop off, look up at me and start giggling. Cracks me up every time. I try constantly to catch your giggles on video. You seem to realize though when a camera is on you because you decide that you are not going to giggle at all at that point. Sometimes I can catch just a few, but it is rare.
You put yourself on your own little nap schedule this month. We stretched your awake time to around 2 hours and dropped the fourth nap. So now you get up at 7:30 for the day and nap at 9:30, 1 or 1:30 (depending on the length of your first nap) and around 4 or 4:30. Your first nap is generally about an hour and a half. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Your other two naps are usually 30-45 minutes. Every now and then one of them turns into an hour but I don’t usually count on that. I’m considering stretching your awake time just a bit. I have already started to stretch your time just a bit after your first and second naps. You usually stretch your first wake time last as this is the most established nap you have and you get tired sooner after initially waking up than any other time of the day. Sometimes you fight your last nap, which is what makes me think we should stretch it soon. I don’t think you are ready to drop the nap, but you are needing more awake time it seems to actually want to take that nap. You are going down really well at night (knock on wood) and are usually down by 7:30 at the latest. More days than not, you are sleeping through the night until I wake you up in the morning. Most nights you wake up a few times and make some noises but you are generally able to put yourself back to sleep. If you do get up, it is usually just once, maybe twice. Starting now, we are going to night wean you on those days you do get up. We have also been working on adding back in a book after you nurse at night before bed in order to disassociate bed from eating. So now the routine is: bath, nurse, book, prayers, song(s), bed. So far… so good.
We go for walks every day. Most days we take a short walk in the morning and then a longer walk in the afternoon. On days that it isn’t cold (cold days have been rare this year) or raining, we try to take one in the afternoon with Daddy and Jack. You used to cry through that entire walk. We think you were perhaps tired. You are tolerating it better every day though. A couple of months ago, you loved walks and would fall asleep on them every time. I have no idea what happened to that baby. Except that you got older and are just so very interested in everything that goes on around you.
Every day you are learning something new. I’m taking as many pictures and videos as possible. I just don’t want to forget all that you are learning. One day I’m sure we will look back and never believe that you were once so tiny and everything was such a new experience.
Happy ½ birthday Baby Girl! We love you so much. Here’s to another amazing 6 months!
Love,
Mommy
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