Six Months

 

Six whole months with my firework. I can hardly believe it! Lark, you light up every single room you're in.

Likes: 
So far, she hasn't met a solid food puree she doesn't at least tolerate, but bottles are still her fave (6 ozers usually, but an occasional 8 oz)

Her new jumper! She's happy in that thing for hours.

Mondays at Susan's house. She sleeps all day in Great Grandma Frances's arms.

Curling her toes when she's eating

Sleeping on her tummy

Getting tickles on her thighs and her neck

All her toys. She loves to shake them like tambourines

Dislikes:

The car seat, of course!

Not being able to crawl

Getting to the point of being too tired to fall asleep quickly

I really never thought I'd have a baby that doesn't like a pacifier, but she does not

Schedule:

With the influx of visitors this month and our first round of RSV with both girls, our schedule has been wonky. Honestly, if the girls had slept well at the beginning of this month, not much would have changed, but there was a good two weeks in there where the girls were just so sick with coughs and congestion that sleeping for more than an hour or two at a time just wasn't happening.

We're all up around 6 (if we're lucky) and Dan takes the girls to the nanny/daycare during the week. I work until 4, and then I go pick them up. Bed time is at 7:30 for Lark and 8 for Frankie. On the weekends, we pretty much let Lark nap whenever and wherever. She is getting more solidly in the habit of three distinct naps, which means we will need to start keeping her home more often soon. Keeping Frankie entertained has been more of a priority until now. She's sometimes up once a night for a snack and a cuddle, but towards the end of the month she started sleeping all the way through until 6:30.

Features:

Just under 16lbs of sweetness! She's the middle of the road for every weight/height milestone so far. She's moved to 6-9 mo clothing and should probably be in size 3 diapers, but we are squeezing her in size 2 until we run out. She still has all that fluffy brown hair that just kills me after bath time. Her eyes are still somewhere between green and brown and I'm getting more confident they will stay hazel. Truly the best eyebrows on the block. The dimples get better and better all the time! Personality wise, she's a chill girl. She likes to talk to people, but rarely gets fussy in any way besides the car seat. I am so completely in love with her.

Milestones:

Solids (sweet potatoes, pears, carrots, apples, green beans, bananas)

Sleeping on belly

Holding bottle for longer periods of time

Blowing raspberries

Sleeping for 11-12 hours a night

Firsts:

Father's day

Mueller visit to the mountains

Reaching out for people/things. The first time I saw her reach for someone, it was her Susu.

Bath with her sister

Challenges:

Two sick kids with RSV meant no sleep for a huge chunk of the month. Trying to be human and keep up with a demanding work schedule on top of my mom duties and house chores is hard enough... throw in a bunch of nights with 3 or less hours of sleep and I was pretty much a gremlin for weeks at a time this month. Everyone appears to be back to their regularly scheduled sleeps now and I am slowly getting enough sleep to feel normal. Again, if only we could get our pets to commit to letting us sleep through the night, too...

Thoughts: 

How has a half a year gone by? At the same time, I feel like I've known Lark my whole life. I love that connection you get with your babies where it feels like you speak the same language after a few months. That feeling DOES seem to go away in the toddler years (at least, it did for me), so I'm soaking up every single huge smile and screech for my attention.

I do still regret not being able to dedicate nearly as much individual quiet time to Lark, but I keep reminding myself that that is MY experience and not hers. She will never know any difference and although it makes me sad that it feels like she's grown exponentially fast, I'll be okay.