Abby is 6 Months

 6 months - 6.3.11

Dear Abby,

You're 6 months (as of June 3rd) - that's half of a year!  I can't believe it and everyday I love you more than the day before even though I always think I can't possibly love you any more than I already do.  You bring more smiles to my face than I could ever count and I am so thankful every day that you made me a mommy.

We went to your 6 month appointment this morning and you weighed in at 15 lbs, 3 oz (50%) with a head circumference of 16 1/4 inches (13%) and you're 24 inches long (75%) = absolutely perfect!  The questionnaire we had to fill out said that you have unbelievable fine motor and problem-solving skills (you're passing in all of the categories, but you definitely excel in these two) - our little smarty-pants.  You got three shots this morning and you were quite possibly THE most pitiful thing I've ever seen.  At 4 months you screamed bloody murder afterwards for about 5 or so minutes, but you were pretty quickly calmed down.  Today was a completely different story.  Instead of screaming, you did the smallest set of cries that absolutely broke my heart.  It was truly awful!

So what's been going on this month?  You tried solid food for the first time.  You've had rice cereal mixed with breast milk, formula, and water, bananas and avocado.  You're not a fan yet so we're taking a little break and then we'll try again in about 2 weeks.  You are still nursing 3-4 times a day for about 15-20 minutes and you get 3-4 4oz bottles of breast milk during the day while mommy's at work  You can certainly hold your bottle on your own, but you prefer to let whomever is feeding you do it for you.

Sleeping is still a big issue in our house.  Bedtime is a battle.  You typically go to bed around 8 and are usually up again about 45 minutes later to comfort nurse.  Then you're up again around midnight, 3am and 5am to feed and are usually up for the day between 7:15 and 7:30.  Needless to say, mommy and daddy are pretty tired all of the time.  But get ready, baby girl, because sometime in the next month (when mommy can afford a few sleepless nights) we're having sleep boot camp at our house for both bed time and nap times (because, yes, you still refuse to nap in your crib).

While nighttime isn't fun at our house daytime is the exact opposite.  During the day you are the happiest baby in the world.  You just laugh and play all day long and are usually content with whatever's going on as long as you're not hungry.  You love your exersaucer, Ducky, Monkey, your piano, your music table and laying on the floor just talking away and kicking your legs.

Speaking of talking.  Your little vocabulary is taking off.  You make the B, D, G, H, and K sounds.  I just know you're going to be really talking before too long.  You're also really into blowing raspberries and bubbles - so cute!  You think it's hilarious when mommy pretends to sneeze or when mommy and daddy blow raspberries back at you.

You still haven't rolled over, but we've determined it's not because you can't do it.  It's because you're stubborn.  If we try to "help" you roll over you will kick out your leg to keep your body from actually turning over.  Your pedi says this is completely okay and that lots of babies skip stages in the 4 motor skills (rolling, sitting, crawling, and walking) and because you are very interested in trying to sit and walk that this is nothing to be concerned about.  This was a big relief to mommy!  She also said that because you're already so interested in standing up that we shouldn't be surprised at all if you skip crawling as well and are an early walker.  OMG - I'm definitely not ready for that!

You're wearing size 2 diapers (although Mommy's still squeezing you into the last of the size 1's that we have - diapers are expensive, kid) and mostly 6 month clothes.  3-6 month onesies still fit, but that's pretty much it.

Abby, you are an absolute joy and I can't wait to see what this next month brings.  Mommy and Daddy love you with all of our hearts!

Love,

Mommy