Through the Eyes of Linz: 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: