Six Months

Baby Bae turned six months last week!

Six months seemed like such a milestone with Shae. "I am still alive," I remember thinking when Shae hit the half year mark. I felt like I deserved a party, a vacation, some sort of celebration because I had managed to live in a zombie state and keep my child alive for six months.

Things have felt so different this time around. So much easier. Not that I'm bursting with energy and joy when I wake up in the morning, I do still wake up at least one to two times to feed the girl and help her go back to sleep, but it all just feels much easier than that first time. These past six months really have flown by.  Belén has been just what I needed in a second child. Easy-going, happy, patient (Darin can wake up with her without her freaking out, immediately demanding milk like her unnamed brother still does). She doesn't cry when she wakes up in the morning, she just lays there cooing until we come get her. The only time she cries is when she is tired and needs to sleep. Sometimes she goes down without a problem and then there are days like today where I spend 40 minutes trying to get her to calm down to sleep. Maybe I put her down too soon? Maybe too late? Who knows, but she definitely shed some tears over it. But that is really the only time she cries (or the occasional time that Shae drops a toy on her...)

One of the biggest things that has happened this month was that she started eating real human food. We weren't in a rush to give her solid foods, but over the past two weeks she has really shown interest whenever we were eating and tried to grab at our food, so we went ahead and started. She now sits at the table with us for dinner and chomps away at whatever we give her. It's been nice to have our whole family at the table.

We are sort of doing a make-shift version of Baby-led Weaning. We have given her some pureed foods and will most likely continue to do so, but for the most part we try to give her chunks of things that she can chomp and suck on. She has had avocado, tomato, whole-wheat baguette, peppers, banana, lots of watermelon, and black beans. I've really enjoyed doing this so far. It is much easier than making and freezing purees like I did with Shae. It's also easier for us to enjoy our food while she eats her food next to us. Pretty much, it's just easier all around and I like that she gets to experience different textures/flavors from the start. I was a bit worried about gagging, and even though I still feel a bit nervous if she does get a bigger chunk of something and gag a bit, I've learned that the gag-reflux at this age is there to help them not choke and is teaching her to mash up her food a bit more before swallowing. 

She is scooting/rolling herself all over the place. I love to watch her fixate on a toy and not lose her focus until she has figured out how to get it. She no longer likes to be on the floor with no toys. She is content as long as there are toys around her (much to the chagrin of her big brother who really struggles with her touching "his" toys). 

Her two little teeth have finally broken through. We had a few rough nights of sleep and fever (poor girl!), but they are finally here! Only 18 more before she settles in with the toddler twenty for a few years. #teethingsucks

Her favorite position to sleep is with her head face-down into the mattress with her little hands under her face. She tends to wake up with red finger marks across her face. She's been doing this ever since she started rolling a few months ago. When she was younger it made me nervous that she wouldn't be able to breathe and I would try to turn her head, but she apparently really likes it, so I don't worry anymore. If she couldn't breathe I have no doubt that she would turn her head. And I kind of adore the red finger marks across her face when she wakes up.

She had a couple days this month where she slept from 8 to 4. I was really hopeful that it would continue but lately she has been back to waking up around 10:30 p.m. and again at 3 a.m. Her wake up time has also moved up. We usually start hearing her coo around 6:30 a.m.

She is so close to being able to sit up on her own. She'll sit for a second or two and then fall forward folding her little body in half, or kick out of excitement and fall backwards...she's getting there.

We are currently loving how she is starting to communicate more. If we sit at the table to eat without her, she starts squawking, making it known that she wants to be a part of meal time too. We love how she talks and talks while playing on the floor and how Shae can make her laugh so easily. 

Six months never looked so good!