Happy 6 Months, Evelyn!

I can't believe that our Tiny Dancer is 6 months old today! We went to the pediatrician for her 6-month well-baby visit on Friday, and here are her stats:

Weight: 14lbs, 8 oz

Height: 26 inches (she grew an 1 & 1/4 inches last month!)

Head circumference: 16 inches

She is a very healthy little girl and even got her shot without blinking an eye! She has been exclusively breastfed up until today, when she had her first food (I will post another entry on that topic).

taking a break while nursing - see all the milk dripping from my chin?

I was distracted by the camera!

Evelyn rolls from front to back and back to front, can tripod sit for a few seconds at a time, and has all sorts of sounds that she makes. She finally started taking a bottle and enjoys playing with her sippy cup. At times she pushes herself up on her hands an knees, and she can scoot herself around to get to a toy that she wants to play with. I often find her bodysurfing on the wood floor because she has wiggled herself off her play mat. Her personality is exploding more and more every day, with giggles and squeals echoing throughout our house.

Here are a few photos from yesterday and today:

I am 6 months old today!

Chewing on a spoon this morning while at breakfast

Sleeping soundly in the cosleeper

(we moved her to her crib two nights ago,

and last night she slept for almost 10 hours before waking to be fed!)

Hanging out with Cole

Standing up!

Is there a baby hiding under all those blankets?

Spidey Senses

Last night we put Evelyn to bed in her crib. We have done this in the past, but haven't stuck with it due to a lack of planning. I don't know if we will stick with it this time, but that is the intention for now. I decided it was time to start her out in the crib again because our quality of sleep was quickly going downhill. In the past week, she would wake up every time I went to bed. Mike would go to bed and she would sleep soundly. The minute I walked into the room she would start to wiggle and grunt, working herself into a fully awake state.

On one hand, this wake-up was not a big deal. I was up, so I would feed her and she would re-settle. On the other hand, it baffled me. She was sleeping 5-7, even sometimes 8 hours before waking to be fed, so why would she start waking up now, after 3-4 hours of sleep? It could be a growth spurt, which is common at around six months. I don't know, and I could go on and on speculating the cause. My guess was either growth spurt or spidey senses. I think she smells me when I come into the room and after that, it's game over. So, going on the spidey sense theory, we opted to move her out of our room and see what would happen. Last night she slept for 7 hours before wanted to nurse. That was night one.

The spidey sense goes both ways, though. Before Evelyn awoke last night, I woke first. I listened intently, wondering if maybe a noise from the monitor woke me up. All was quiet in the house, so I settled back into bed, not quite able to go back to sleep. Five minutes later, she stirred. I waited, wondering if she would resettle. She did not. She called out in her own special way, letting me know it was time to eat. That has happened so many times in the course of our relationship. It still amazes me how true it is when "they" say how Mama and baby can be so in tune with each other.

I thought I'd end this post with a picture of Evie sleeping contentedly in her crib. Well, there is no way in hell I'd risk waking her up for the sake of the blog, so I settled with one from earlier this week. We had all just woken up and Mike & Evie were playing in bed. Enjoy!

Sleepyhead Rambles

So, I wrote this crazy long post the other day about sleep, and trying to be consistent with the parenting decisions that we make with Evelyn, and within a few hours of writing the post I completely changed my mind about what we were doing with sleep stuff I had written about and deleted it. I just felt like a hypocrite.

I am baffled by how stumped and challenged I am by sleep. I think that adjusting to the sleep patterns of an infant may be one of the more challenging aspects of parenthood. At least it is in this house. So far, teething has been okay, and thankfully colic was not an issue for us. Breastfeeding was challenging, and still is, but the foundation of my sanity is sleep - so if sleep is not to be had, I am a wreck.

The last few nights have been hard. Evie went from being up 1-2 times a night, to waking 3-4 times a night. I don't know if it is growth spurt, or maybe that we have tried making some changes with the swaddle, or if she is outgrowing the pacifier, or maybe the room was too cold? I am really not sure. I also wonder if she is reverse cycling, which is when she takes in more of her calories at night than during the day. She is so active and busy and has so many very important things to do during the day that she has a hard time slowing down to eat. She pops off my breast at any sound or even movement and has to see what is so fascinating right that instant. So, at night there is less stimuli, which means for better eating, right? Who knows.

Anyway, I find that I think about her sleep ALL THE TIME. I mean, I don't know how many times throughout the day I say to Mike, "you know, the other thing about her sleep . . . ". I am beginning to bore myself with how much I think about it. Is this just another exercise in letting go? Who knows.

Changing topics, now. As I mentioned breastfeeding above, it occurred to me that I've noticed that in the past few days that our breastfeeding relationship is changing. It is pretty cool to see how this little girl is starting to play a very active role when she eats. Before, it was all about me helping her latch on and getting the positioning right. Now, she pops off and smiles at me. She pulls off and looks around, sighs a little contented sigh, and then turns back to the breast, ready for more. She cups my breast with her little hands, drinking in the goodness of the milk. It just melts my heart over and over again.

Which brings me to another topic: Love. I mentioned to Mike that before Evie, I felt that I had experienced love. I fell deeply in love with my husband. I know the love of friendship. I cherish the love I feel towards my family, and Mike's family. And then Evie came along and my big heart, that I truly thought couldn't get any bigger, swelled to about 100x its previous size. I mean, I am blown away by this experience. It is truly amazing. This is a new adventure, this love for a child. Sigh . . .

Happy New Year!

As we prepared to ring in the New Year we had another celebration going on. Evelyn turned 5 months old yesterday! It is amazing to think that 5 months have already flown by. The days and nights run together sometimes, and before I know it, we've logged another week!

Evelyn loves hanging out on her play mat, where she rolls from back to tummy, babbling contentedly the whole time. She now knows her name, and seems to respond a bit more to Evie (Ehvie) than to Evelyn. She gets so excited when she sees Mike and me. She kicks her legs and flaps her arms like crazy! She is all about her feet and especially enjoys pulling her socks off and sucking on them.

She is building so much strength in her tummy, neck, and back and I often see her trying to pull herself up into a sitting position.

Practicing the tripod sit

Celebrating her first Christmas was so special and just added a bit of magic to the whole holiday season. She really enjoyed eating all of the wrapping paper as she tore into her gifts.

In her new dress from Aunt Debbie

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Mike's dad and the Kennedy side of the family. On Christmas day we had a great time visiting with Mike's mom. My parents came up a few days later and we had a belated Christmas celebration with them. Here is Evie working on opening a present from Mema and Tata:

Evelyn continues to be exclusively breastfed, which has been one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences that I have experienced. With the sprouting of her first two teeth came the adventure of biting while feeding. Most of the time she bites when she is full and trying to pull off. If I don't catch her quickly, it means a lot of pain for me. Yowza! She is also so easily distracted by the world around her - which means that any new sound results in Evelyn popping off the breast and look around. When she eats in the morning, it is as though it is the first time she has ever been in our bedroom. She sucks for a minute, pops off looks around, drinks a bit more, pops off again - over and over until the novelty of the room wears off and she gets down to business. We are so close to hitting our initial goal of 6 months of breastfeeding. After that, we will evaluate Evie's readiness to start foods as a complement to breast milk. I hope to make it to a year of breastfeeding, but plan to take it as it comes when I return to work.

Returning to work means that I will embark on the adventure of pumping and working. It also means the start of daycare for Evelyn. I have such mixed feelings about returning to work. I will save my thoughts on that for another day and another post.

Mike and I celebrated New Year's Eve at home. Once Evie went to bed, Mike went to work on a dinner of king crab legs, shrimp, and corn chowder. We followed that up with chocolate soufflé for dessert.

It was a mellow night - with some reminiscing of the 7 years that we have been together, a movie (Revolutionary Road - not the most uplifting choice), and of course watching the ball drop followed by a New Year's kiss. What better way to ring in the New Year than with my sweetie and my sweet girl, sound asleep in the next room! From our family to yours, wishing you the best in 2010!

(On a completely unrelated side note - I am watching Zoolander as I write this. One of the funniest movies EVER and by far one of Will Ferrel's best roles as Mugatu!)