Six Months Old!
Dear Kierra -
There's no way you're 6 months. Really? Really?? 6-month-old babies seemed so... OLD to me when I was sitting at home with a brand-spanking-new newborn. Like it was some mythical milestone that was so far into the future I could barely wrap my mind around it. But here you are! You're such an active girl, and an arms-wide-open, eager participant in every single thing around you. You are a serious go-getter and one determined person!
Weight / Length - 13lb 6.5oz; 26 inches long
Eating - Nursing every 3.5 to 4 hours now! She nurses soon after wake-ups, followed by some oat cereal with pureed pear and formula. She very obviously put on weight this past month once she started wolfing down the cereal meals.
So far, I'm making her foods, and plan to keep it up. I have an old blender to help puree stuff and ice cube trays with lids for once we start in on other foods besides cereals (which is THIS upcoming month, yow!). Right now, making her food means that I mill the oats or rice in the blender until I have a fine powder. Every two or three days, I make a pot of oatmeal from this, storing it in the fridge to be mixed with the pear and formula or milk. Twice a week, I steam and puree two pears to jazz up the flavor of the cereal. She prefers oats to rice, and pears to apples... plus, it's less constipating this way!
Nursing has taken quite a hit this month. Some of it is because she's even more distractable than she already was (that began around 3 months). Some of it is because this baby just hates to sit still. I seriously have no clue what's going on, here. It doesn't seem like what a nursing strike sounds like. And babies aren't supposed to self-wean until 18 months at the earliest, so it shouldn't be that. She just doesn't want to nurse all that much. It's so frustrating! Here I am trying to get as much food as possible into this baby, and she'll push the boob away even when it's still actively spraying. I wouldn't be so worried (I mean, if she's hungry, she'd eat, right?) except that the doctor has been stressing her intake for months now. And she's been doing this long enough that it's begun to affect my supply, which is also frustrating. I'd pump to keep it up, but she won't tolerate being put down for any length of time again (supposedly we're in the 4-week period of Wonder Week 26) so she would just end up shrieking the whole time. Also, she thinks bottles are a joke now and won't really eat from them either. At least they no longer make her angry, I guess. The only thing she does well right now is eat her cereal. -_-
Sleeping - Her naps are pretty smooth now! She naps three times per day, with 2 to 2.5 hours of wake-time between. Her naps are usually 1.5 hours long now, with an occasional 2-hour nap now and then. Once in a while, she wakes up crying after 30 minutes and I have to go in and rock her pack'n'play hammock to help her get back to sleep, but that only happens a few times. It's wonderful, where the nap training has gotten us! Our down-to-nap routine is: swaddle, hold and bounce for a minute or two, place in pack'n'play hammock and rock it while shooshing, and then leave after a minute or two while she's still awake. She often goes to sleep without a peep now! Although sometimes she'll whine or fuss, we no longer need to go back in and she will get herself to sleep within 5 minutes, tops. HUZZAH.
Nighttimes have been hairy. Up until this past week, she'd been waking up about 4 times per night... and two of those middle-of-the-night wake-ups usually lasted for 30 minutes to an hour before she'd get back to sleep. I finally put my foot down and had Tom stop rocking her so much in the middle of the night - it seemed like she was waking up just to visit with us, so I wanted to try limiting that. So now when she wakes up in the middle of the night, I feed her if it's been at least 3 hours since her last meal. If she woke up before then, we would leave her to babble happily to herself in the crib until she started crying. Once the crying got really upset, one of us would hold and bounce her for a minute or two, and then put her back down to encourage her to put herself to sleep like she does for naps. It seems to be working (fingers crossed I don't jinx myself now) because the past five nights, she's presented us with a SCHEDULE! She'll go to sleep around 7pm, then wake up between midnight and 1:30am to nurse, nurses right back to sleep, then wakes up between 3 and 4am to nurse again. THAT'S where it still gets hairy because about a third of the time, she'll decide that she wants to be awake for the day. When she's decided this, treating this like any other middle-of-the-night waking DOES NOT WORK at all. She'll just scream, wide-awake, for two hours until her first "nap" at 5-6am. Ugh. But if she goes back to sleep easily after this second wake-up, she'll usually sleep until 5:30 or 6am, at which time she's up for the day.
This two wake-ups per night thing is still leaving me exhausted! I go to bed at 8pm these days, which is mandatory with the two wakings, plus the possibility that I'll be up for good at 4am. Blech.
Clothes - We're using all 6-month clothes, now! We were so well-stocked with newborn to 3-month clothes from our wonderful friends and family, but we only had a few 6-month things on-hand. (And even less in older sizes!) So we got out to the thrift store and got three perfect onesies (2 Carters and 1 Gerber) for only $7 total! Bonus: I actually really like them and they're all just like new. Going to have to keep my eyes open for 9- and 12-month clothes now, yikes.
Diapers - We're officially Size 2 now! Using just one Pampers Swaddlers size 2 per day for overnight. During the day, we use my OsoCozy unbleached Birdseye flats with Bumkins flushable liners (cut in half, perfect!) and my Thirsties Duo Wrap covers. Cloth diapering is even easier and cleaner now that she's on solids! She definitely a smellier pooper now, and I'm extra careful to change poopy diapers ASAP.
Appearance - She's gradually getting a little bit of hair! Looks like it will be dirty blond. I can't even tell you how strange it is to imagine her with actual hair someday. She's always been so bald! Her eyes are still grey and look like maybe they'll stay that way? We'll see! In general, she also looks a bit chubbier in the thighs and belly after starting the cereal, but still quite long and thin. This past week or so, I think her legs went through a growth spurt - they suddenly look so long to me!
Personality / Behaviors - Crankypants extraordinaire! Apparently we're in Wonder Week 26 (this wonder "week" actually lasting up to 4 weeks or so, ew) and for the past week she's been a major crankpot. Not as bad as she USED to be, but still, there's a huge difference between this Kierra and the one we've been enjoying for the past month! Luckily, we should only have another week or so in this fussy period before she evens out again. This wonder week is supposed to be where she makes the cognitive leap to better understand spatial relationships. She's really been digging Peek-a-boo for the past two or three weeks and this past week she's even started playing it on her own, hiding her own face and popping back out with a smile.
When I hold her now, she actually snuggles into my shoulder! It's so adorable ad melts my heart. She's never ever been snuggly or cuddly, and so this is a real treat.
She desperately wants to get mobile. If I let her push her feet off of my hands, she will army-crawl across the entire room. Without that assistance, though, she just "swims" belligerently with all of her limbs flailing up in the air. I think, like rolling, she'll just get it one day (soon!) and will be off like a shot. No clue if that day will be in a week or in a month or more. But she's right there on the brink!
New Milestones - She chuckled for the first time this month! Only little chuckles, and never for the same thing twice. In all, she's probably done it about 5 times: twice for Gramma, once for me, and twice for Tom and me together. It's been over a week since we've been able to make her giggle, but I have a little bit of hope now. It was so cute! I desperately want MORE. SOON.
Mommy Stuff - I think this is the second most stressful, painful time in my life so far. The first was when my family went to shit and I had absolutely no support from anyone as I had just graduated college, my college friends were all across the country, and my old high school friends had different priorities. I judge that as a worse time because I was having serious suicidal plans and needed counseling just to be heard and helped. This time I haven't been having those thoughts so far. I can physically feel the stress and loneliness and hurt beating around inside me, and again I feel so alone with no one to lean on. I don't even know who to approach at this point. On top of already feeling like shit, I feel even worse because I feel this way. I don't know what to do, honestly. I'm trying so hard to bring myself around, rationally analyze my emotions, and not let myself get mangled by everything. I know I need an outlet, but haven't found anything that helps me feel relieved and cared for. I think that's part of it: go-go-go all day every day to take care of Kierra and Tom, my free time during her naps goes into artwork, and there is no one in this mix to take care of me. I got noting left.
Anyway, off the depressing train of thought. I'm running 4 miles at a time, easily now. A few days ago, I did a great 5-mile run at a 8-min/mile pace. That was my first 5-miler in a full year! Woo! By the end of August, I hope to be doing 5 miles regularly and starting in on some 6-milers again. Also, I hope to squeak in regular shorter runs with the jogging stroller by the end of the month. That way I can always count on at least a short run, even when Tom is teaching full-time again this Fall.
Art stuff is going well! I took several AP card commissions to help pay my student loans, and I made pretty good progress. I'll be buckling down on one of the card sets in August/September, and in October there's also a base card due that I'm pretty excited about.
