Kaitlyn's Seventh Month: Finding Routine

This month was all about figuring out Kaitlyn's routine and body rhythms.  We'd never had consistent sleep before, so she'd never really had a pattern we could follow.  When her nights and naps improved, we started to notice a routine emerge.  Hallelujah.

We (she) wake up between 6-7 most mornings.  I bring her into my bed to nurse (where I'm warm and comfortable) and then we play there for a little bit.  We have breakfast and then she goes down for a nap after about 2 hours.  We read a couple of books, I put her in her sleep sack, turn on the sound generator, and she's usually asleep within a few minutes.  It's awesome.  Now the length of the nap is not consistent...30 minutes is not unusual.  But we hope for at least an hour.

I feed her before I leave for work and she either has solids again or a bottle before she next the afternoon nap.  Every once in a while she'll take a 3rd nap, but not very often.  I breastfeed her when I get home and then she has solids at dinner around 6.  Bath at 7, books and kisses at 7:30, then I breastfeed her one more time and lay her down.  She rarely cries anymore, usually just rolls over and goes to sleep.  It is so nice and we know how lucky we are!

Eating:
She breastfeeds 4 times a day, we only have to supplement formula once or twice a day, and she eats solids 3 times.  Her favorites so far are avocado, squash, and carrots.  She's a great eater, though, and really hasn't rejected anything completely.  She'll fuss if she doesn't like it much, but she still opens her mouth.  We tried doing some small chunks of food (avocado and banana), and she was not a fan.  She would grimace her face and cough.  Same was true of Cheerio halves, but Stephen claims it's because I bought an organic version of Cheerios because I was at Sprouts.  I read they dissolve faster, too.  I think she's just got to get used to texture that isn't pureed.

Milestones:
She is sitting like a champ these days.  She can lean in all directions and pull herself back to sitting.  So we've finally been able to put her in a high chair at restaurants!  She doesn't always stay there a long time, but it gives us a little bit of time to have everyone eating.

She has begun to communicate with more than just crying, which makes life much nicer!  She babbles when she's happy, grunts when she's frustrated, smiles and laughs a lot.  With people she loves, she grabs your cheeks with both hands and tries to pull your face towards her.  Usually with an open mouth waiting.  Perhaps the beginning of understanding kisses?

She loves looking in the mirror and singing the song Stephen made up about the baby in the mirror.  She thinks it's very funny.  We've also started Peek-a-boo, as long as you don't wait too long to pull the blanket down.  She'll even pull the blanket or wash cloth off her own head if you cover her up and ask "Where's Kaitlyn?"

She loves to be outside.  If we go for a walk when she's fussy, she'll quiet down and just look around. We got a baby swing and she loves it, she giggles whenever you push it or tickle her feet.

She also loves our animals.  We're learning to pet "gentle" with an open hand instead of grabbing handfuls of fur or whiskers.  The cat is strangely tolerant, although I don't trust him.  He's feisty.  Lily, the dog, is great with her.  Kaitlyn has gotten handfuls of fur or her lip on occasion and Lily just lets her.  I realize that no matter how tolerant, she's still a dog, so I am careful.  

Meanwhile, the animals really enjoy Kaitlyn's nap time.  You can see the cat considers the changing table his own personal kitty hammock.  And the spoiled dog naps on the bed.

Other events this month:

My cousin's daughter's first birthday party was this month.  Right now 5-6 months is a big age difference, but I can't wait until they're a little older and will be running around playing.

Stephen's softball season started up again.  It was a little chilly, so she's wearing a bunting that's a pig costume.  Curly tail and all.  I bought it while I was pregnant thinking she'd probably be close to 3-6 month clothes around Halloween (she'd be 2.5 months).  Since it was a bunting, it would've been ok a little big.  But she was still in newborn, barely entering into 0-3 month clothes at Halloween, so we had to get a different costume.  This works well to keep her warm now though.

I have had to deal with some anxiety attacks for the first time in my life this month.  I feel for those of you who deal with them a lot, they're awful!  I've only had 2 where my heart is racing, palms are sweaty, and I have this overwhelming dread...even though I can't pinpoint what I'm dreading.  Both times it was while Kaitlyn was taking her morning nap and I was trying to sleep.  And both times it was while I couldn't stop thinking about school.  I don't have bad classes, but my classroom management is not as good as it has been in the past.  I'm not putting as much time in at school, by choice, and I can tell the difference.  But it's the choice I'm making right now.

Logic doesn't seem to help when I'm feeling the anxiety.  While I've only had the two "attacks," I have felt anxious and like another attack is lurking just around the corner.  I've quit trying to nap myself while Kaitlyn is napping, because that seems to be the worst time.  If I stay busy, even just watching tv, it makes things easier.  And making sure I get out of the house a couple times a week (other than for work) helps keeps the anxiety at bay as well.

Last, but not least, here's the monthly photo shoot:

Kaitlyn's Sixth Month: Worst and Best Sleep

The biggest news this month was sleep.  We started out getting the worst nights of sleep since she'd been born.  She would sleep for maybe an hour (8-9ish), then would be up until around 1.  In that time, we would be able to get her back to sleep, but she would wake up within 5 to 30 minutes.  Nothing more frustrating than FINALLY putting her in bed asleep, walk back to our room, and hear her crying already.  If we were lucky, she would sleep a couple hours (1-3ish), and then I'd put her in bed with me.  She'd wake up every 1-2 hours and nurse (waking me up), then be awake for the day around 6 or 7.  It was brutal.  I posted about it in the 5 month post because that's when it started, but it continued through the first two weeks of the the 6th month.

We emailed with her doctor, who suggested taking away solids since they were making her gassy and we thought that's what was keeping her up.  But the solids were making the evenings much less fussy, so we didn't want to lose that (and our good progress on eating).  So we endured and took turns and I cried.  A lot.

Finally, we decided to do sleep training, essentially the "Ferber" method.  We figured we weren't sleeping anyway, and we just couldn't live without sleep anymore.  The first night she cried for about an hour, with Stephen going in on pre-timed intervals to pat her and tell her she was ok.  She never got to the screaming cries like she would when she was gassy and in pain.  So while it was not easy and I did cry (and text my mom), it wasn't as bad as I expected.  Or maybe I was just at my limit.  After she fell asleep, she woke up a half hour later, cried about 20 minutes, and went back to sleep.  And slept 8 hours.  8 HOURS!  When we were telling our friends at church the next day, everyone was cheering.

The next night she fell asleep when I was nursing her, and while I didn't wake her, I wasn't uber careful about keeping her asleep when I put her down.  She stirred a little, then went to sleep.  She woke up about an hour later, but never cried.  Just played with her feet (we have a camera in her room so we can see her), then fell back asleep.  For another 7 hours.  We thought we were in heaven.

She's had a few nights of crying.  It's been a week and last night she woke up around midnight (after 4 hours of sleep) and cried off and on for an hour.  She had a little fever (we think teething) the day before, so after an hour, we gave her Tylonel and I nursed her.  I put her back in bed awake, but almost asleep, and she fell asleep for another 5 hours.  She'd been waking up between 4:30 and 5:30, so 7:00 was nice.  The problem is, at 4:30 or 5:30 she's had 7-8 hours of sleep, which is more than she's been getting in a long time.  I'm not sure if I should nurse her and put her back down, or just let that be the morning.  I've been nursing her in bed; she doesn't fall back asleep, but I don't have to get "up" for a little bit of extra time.  Plus, Stephen and I have been trading off who gets up with her in the morning, so that's been nice.  Regardless, this is the best night's sleep we've ever gotten.

Food
We stopped giving her rice cereal because it seems to make her really gassy.  We do oatmeal instead, and that seems to be doing well.  We stuck with oatmeal and prunes during the first week of sleep training so that we didn't make any other changes.  The prunes seem to be helping her stay regular, even with the new solid foods.  We did try sweet potatoes the other night, and those were a big hit.  I tasted them, they're actually good.  Maybe I just love sweet potatoes...  Anyway, some green vegetables are next and hopefully they go well too.

We did start giving her food in the afternoon because she was still acting hungry.  The earlier wake up time in the morning has thrown off our breastfeeding routine during the day.  I used to be able to get a good feeding in right before I went to work, now it's about 2 hours before.  I can't pump at work because I have students the whole time, so that's another 3 hours she (and I) have to wait.  So we were giving her formula and she was eating a lot of it.  So we added a meal in that time.

Other Milestones
She can (kind of) sit on her own, but not for very long.  She will reach for something and tip to the side.  We tried a high chair at a restaurant and she couldn't quite handle it yet.  It may have been the high chair cover we were using, but it made her slide down in it.  Hopefully soon!  Once she can sit in a high chair restaurant or the front of a cart, it'll make those outings a little easier.

Teeth!  She got two teeth, the two bottom ones.  I couldn't get a picture because I can hardly get a look at them (when I put my finger in her mouth, the tongue comes out).

With Stephen's grandpa

Exersaucer/jumparoo: She loves to be in her exersaucer or jumparoo.  It's nice for me to have some time to eat or just sit without having to entertain her!

This month she has really become more aware of the world around her.  One (two) particularly interesting things are our animals.  When the dog or cat are nearby she is watching them and laughing.  Another handy distraction.  Our lab, Lily, is very gentle, but tends to like to lick.  We're working on it.  The cat pretty much ignores her.

She is also very interested in our phones.  Makes selfies a little more difficult.

Valentine's Day my in-laws brought her to my school so I could show her off a bit.  We still weren't getting any sleep at this point, but she was still cute!

We visited Great-Grandma EV (my grandma) in the convalescent hospital.  My mom and sister went, too, so we could walk Kaitlyn around the outside and come in the sliding door of my grandma's room.  There's too many nasty germs for me to feel comfortable walking her through the hallways.  Grandma always loves the visit and Kaitlyn kept staring at her.  This picture is 4 generations:

Her doctor appointment went really well (other than the shots).  She gained more weight than she ever has before and actually moved up into the 18th percentile.  Her height was 26 inches, weight was 14lbs 5 oz, and head circumference was 17 inches.  All great!  The shots were no fun and she was hurting for about 24 hours, but that's better than getting one of the illnesses we're protecting her from.

And lastly, here's the 6 month pictures:

We still love our feet

More aware of things around her...

The tongue is out a lot now!