Now there's a record scratch moment for this Mama. 6 months?
My baby's first year is half over, already? I feel like we just got through the holiday whirlwind with our newborn, I blinked or took a quick nap or something, and now she's crawling and eating solid food and and sitting in high chairs in restaurants! Soon enough she'll be standing on her own and scooting and maybe even speaking in a language other than babble raspberries, along with all the other first year milestones we have yet to experience. Summer is going to be one wild ride.
.jpg)
Onto the update!
At her 6 month well-visit, she weighed 16 lbs (with diaper on) and was 29.5 inches long. This child is wearing mostly 9-12 months in clothing now, depending on the brand, and continues to eat new foods with the voracity of a baby velociraptor. Watch those fingers! chomp chomp
She is a professional crawler, as of St. Patty's Day. She can stop, change direction, back up, go forward, side to side and even does this hurdler stance to achieve a seated position without assistance. One of her favorite activities is to lunge for Oscar when he comes prancing into the room. She squeals with glee and goes bear crawling after him while he deftly avoids her, sometimes seeking shelter on the furniture where he knows she can't reach him…yet. Your day is coming, pal. She will learn to stand and then nowhere will be safe! Tess also enjoys grabbing O's feet and trying to chew them. She likes his tail, as well, but he's having none of that. We always grab her hand and tell her, "gentle, Oscar" which means she's probably going to think her name is Oscar. ha!
We lowered the mattress in her crib one notch on the first day of spring (when it snowed 6 inches) because she can pull herself up and gnaw on the bars like a little beaver pup. She doesn't like not being able to see out with the snazzy new bumper installed so she's started pressing her entire body weight down on the bumper to flatten it, then she chews on the top, making grunting noises, until someone comes to pick her up. I have a feeling she's going to teach herself to stand up in there sooner rather than later for a better view. What a nebinsky!
Dining out has become much more enjoyable now that she can sit in a high chair and be mostly entertained by the new surroundings. I've learned that if I bring the Boon squeeze spoon and some puree, I don't have to order something that comes with a pickle, which, by the way, she absolutely loves. She does not appreciate having her pickle taken away before she's finished sucking every last seed out of the slimy shell. I guess there are worse things she could be eating but I try to limit her to half a pickle per outing. Nothing like a nice green salt lick for baby!
So far, she's eaten peas, carrots, sweet potato, banana, black beans, mango, cantaloupe, chia, quinoa, millet, oats, rice, apple, butternut squash, spinach, kale, blueberries, pear, avocado and enjoyed pretty much everything she's put in her mouth. Her absolute favorite is still banana pear oatmeal breakfast, homemade, steamed and blended with a bit of formula. She makes the sweetest baby bird faces and eats like its her last meal. I love it. We even do "beverage service" with a bottle to get her used to drinking while she eats. While she can't quite self-feed yet, she tries her best.
The motor skills are there but she still prefers drinking at the Breastaurant. Yeah…speaking of…that weaning thing? Not going so well. It's a slow crawl toward boob independence but I've set a new goal of having her totally off by the end of September. That way, she's not prematurely forced into something that's probably going to be fairly unpleasant for both of us and I can pace it so that more interesting, chewable foods can slowly replace mother's milk. Kid still won't take a damn bottle so I might as well wait for the good stuff like finger foods to help me out.
I won't go deep into sleep woes here. Pretty much nothing has improved from an earlier post about frequent wakings wah-wah-wah. In fact, things have gotten profoundly worse, thanks to phase 2 of teething. No pearly whites in sight but I can feel them cresting the bone. I just wish they'd hurry up and give her - and me - some relief. Maybe the Easter Bunny will offer magical teething carrots to help her cut those teeth.
In short, sleeping sucks. There. I said it. That's really all there is to say until we get this new bedtime bootcamp routine down. No more 9:30 or 10:00 PM bedtime, kiddo. You go to sleep like every other baby: when the sun is still in the sky and the clock says 7:00 PM. I'm all for taking cues from the baby but when that baby gives no cues, will not sleep ever without parental enforcement, it's time for a big change.
This is Night One. Talk to me in a week or two when the worst is behind us and I hope to be functioning at full brain capacity. Spring break! Wooohoo! That has such a different meaning now…
I uploaded all of the photos from my iPhone during this week off and took a leisurely stroll through the pictorial history of Tess. It is staggering to see the remarkable physical changes imprinted for posterity. Her face, her eyes, her hands, her smile: it's all changed but somehow unchanged. The more I get to know this little person we've created, the more I can trace behaviors back to birth or notice tendencies, now fully-realized, that make me smile. She is dramatic and wild and loving and musical. She is long and lean and agile. She is alert and inquisitive and sensitive. She is stormy, yes, but she experiences the world in a heightened sensory state, partly because she is an infant and partly because that's just Tempest. There is no doubt our daughter will be passionate and creative in whatever she sets her mind to doing in this life.
She is such a pleasant, welcome presence in my arms in the morning. I feel myself longing to hold her, even before she's awake, just so we can start our day together. The sight of her megawatt grin in the early morning light jolts my heart into beating faster like nothing else can. I melt when she lifts an arm to me, signaling, "pick me up, please!" I know these days of babyhood are short so even on the most difficult, challenging occasions, I remind myself to step back and cherish them because the next 6 months will be over before we know it.
No comments:
Post a Comment