Thursday, May 2, 2013

Grace AnneMarie - 6 Months


Grace at 6 Months

There is a space on her baby calendar for dislikes and for the last two months there just hasn’t been anything.  Grace is the happiest and most contented baby, ever.  I have always had really happy babies (which I attribute both to their Daddy’s easy going personality and their being on a schedule) but Grace takes the cake on being happy.  Nothing fazes this kid!

Sleeping – We made the switch to a 4 hour schedule just before Grace turned 25 weeks.  She was waking up in the middle of the night to talk to herself and as I mentioned in her 5 month post, her naps had gone south.  The waking in the middle of the night signaled to me that she needed more wake time during the day and most probably, more wake time in the morning.  So, I started keeping her up longer  in the morning.  I also started allowing her to nap in her carseat for the entire nap rather than starting it in her bed and then having to move her to the swing after 45 minutes.  We started with a 3.5 hour schedule in the morning and that helped a little bit with the night waking but I still felt like she could go longer, especially because her nighttime bottle was becoming harder and harder to give her.  So, one day I just let her sleep for 2 ½ hours for her morning nap and then she took an equally long second nap and a 30 minute catnap around 5.  It took a few days for her to get used to that catnap and not being so unhappy after taking it but she did and now we are happily on a 4 hour schedule and she is doing great.  My next feat is to switch her to an 8am wake up time to match her older sisters.  That part is totally driven by my selfish motivation to have a longer naptime to myself because right now I have about 20 minutes of childlessness J

Eating – Nursing every 4 hours is going great.  She takes about 20 minutes to eat in the morning and then 10 minutes at each session after that.  She gets a 6-8oz bottle of expressed milk in the evening.  I haven’t felt the need to supplement with formula yet which is awesome!  I have been  drinking 3 glasses of Mama’s Milk Tea per day (since 3 months) and I don’t know if it is helping or not but it certainly isn’t hurting my milk supply so I will continue drinking it.  Spoon feeding is still an adventure J  She is getting about a TBSP of oatmeal at breakfast and then 2 oz of a veggie with lunch at 11am and 1oz of veggie at 3pm.  More veggies at that 3pm feeding and she doesn’t take her nighttime bottle as well.  So far she has tried peas, carrots, green beans, acorn squash, butternut squash, zucchini, summer squash, and sweet potatoes (those are her undisputed favorite!). 

Skills – Still doing awesome with tummy time and working on getting her butt up in the air.  She is learning to sit unsupported and doing very well.  When she does fall over, she is equally content on her tummy.   She is grasping objects and bringing them to her mouth.  She loves her teething rings and giraffe.  Those keep her well occupied while she sits with us during meals.   Smiles abound and she giggles a lot but has yet to do a really sustained and continuous laugh. 

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