Our bee-bee is 6 months! I can't believe she's half way to being a one year old. (Jimmy and I are already trying to come up with ideas to do for her first birthday.) The time has really gone by really fast and she is growing into such a fun-loving, happy, little girl.
She just had her 6 month well baby visit today and she is 13 lbs, 6 oz. She is in the 6th percentile for her size. She's a small baby, but perfectly healthy and growing well. Her doctor says that exclusively breastfed babies tend to be smaller anyway. We started her on cereal a few weeks ago and she will also start eating veggies soon too... it's so exciting.
My goal was to breastfeed her for 6 months and I'm happy to say that I've made it! It was really tough at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I've made the decision to continue to nurse her, although I don't know when I'll stop now, maybe when she gets teeth (yikes!)... we'll see.
Cloth diapering was also a goal that Jimmy and I had and it's going very well! We use cloth diapers about 90% of the time. We actually prefer using the cloth diapers to the disposable ones. She only seems to have blowouts when she's in a disposable diaper! We put her in a disposable diaper before she goes to bed, since she sleeps for 10-12 hours. We do that so it keeps her dry. We also use disposables when we take her out. It just makes diaper changes easier and we don't like carrying around dirty cloth diapers with us, especially if we're out for a long period of time.
We got her on a schedule early on, so she's been really consistent with her naps and bed time. She naps in the morning at 9am and again in the afternoon at 1pm. She is in bed by about 8pm. She sleeps until about 7am...that's 11 hours a night! We have also gotten her sleep trained. All we have to do is lay her in her crib and she falls asleep on her own. She is such a good little baby ;0)
It's great that she's on a schedule, but it's also hard because we have to plan everything around it. If we have her out during her nap time, she gets really fussy. Sometimes she is able to fall asleep in her stroller/car seat, but most of the time she just has a meltdown. We've turned into the people that schedule their day around nap times!
She's still really into chewing her toes and still loves to be naked. Her new favorite things to do is throw things, slap things, pinch skin, and pull hair... it gets annoying sometimes, but I'm glad she's developing her motor skills ;0) She may be a little baby, but she loves to roughhouse with us. She enjoys, flying, flipping, rolling, spinning, pretty much anything that gets her moving. Peek-a-boo gets her to giggle and you can get her laughing and snorting when you tickle her neck.
She never really got into using a pacifier, thank goodness. She just spits it out and plays with it like a toy. In fact, we don't even offer them to her anymore. However, she does love to nurse/suck on her toys constantly. It's really funny. She also likes to suck on her bottom lip, which I don't like. She is drooling more than ever and we are starting to see "nubs" on her gums, so she will probably start cutting her teeth pretty soon.
Being a parent is the hardest thing I've ever done, but so worth it! People always say how tough it is, but until you actually become a parent, you don't know how your life totally changes. I was sooooooo naive. I do miss sleeping in and time to myself, but Amelia's giggles and smiles totally make up for it.
