Dear Emersyn: 6 Months

Well, baby girl, I now understand why they say that each new month with a baby is the new favorite!  Each day brings out more of your personality, and when you're not a fussypants due to teething and sleeping issues, you are SUCH a happy girl!

Up first, sleeping- you wake for the day around 7am, and go down for your first nap at 9am.  This is where your predictability pretty much ends.  You nap off and on through the day, sometimes as short as 10 minutes, occasionally as long as 35 minutes and usually somewhere in between.  You go to bed between 6:45 and 7:15pm, and you often wake up several times before you get your last feed of the day at 10pm.  You were doing pretty well with sleeping from 10pm until between 4 and 6am for another feeding, but here lately you're waking several times during the night.  Mama is sleepy.  Just when I think I've made my peace with how your sleeping is going (even if its not how I would LIKE for it to be), it gets worse.  Not sure where to go from here.

Teething, however, is another story.  This has definitely improved ever since we got your amber teething necklace.  You wear it all the time, except for in the bath, and you are MUCH less fussy.  We very rarely have to give you Tylenol anymore, and while you still love to gnaw on anything you can get in your mouth, you don't seem to be in total meltdown mode anymore!

You have started some solids, though I'm not very consistent in a schedule for these.  So far you've had oatmeal, avocado, banana, squash, and peas.  Our dog, Gus, is suddenly taking quite the interest in you:)  You still nurse about every three hours, and you and I both love your 10pm dreamfeed.  You eat again during the night before you wake for the day.  I really wish you would drop this middle of the night feed, but sometimes its just easier to nurse you again so I can get some sleep.  At your six month appointment you weighed in at 17 lbs 9 oz.  This puts you in the 74th percentile for weight.  You are 25.5 inches long, which only puts you in the 30th percentile for height, but the dr said you could hit a growth spurt and be two inches longer, so it is nothing to worry about.

While you still show no real interest in rolling from your belly to your back, its hard to keep you from rolling onto your belly. This is proving to make diaper changing and dressing you quite the challenge.  In an effort to encourage you to crawl I started putting toys out of your reach, but you quickly figured out that you can just reach them by pulling the blanket they are on toward you.  You look so proud of yourself when you manage this!

Your sitting up skills continue to improve, and you love for me to pull you to your feet from sitting.  Your very favorite thing though, is playing airplane.  The smiles and laughs this produces are priceless. I think you're starting to recognize your name, and I think you also know that I'm "Mama" even though you don't seem interested in actually saying Mama, despite my best efforts.  You are a people person, doing great at the nursery at church, and with any visitors.  Your daddy's grandparents love to visit, and this month you were reunited with your long distance boyfriend, Knox (the son of mama's bff).  

Things you're loving right now: bathtime, your pacis, snuggling with mom and dad, seeing yourself in the mirror or on our cell phone cameras, and anything you can get into your mouth (bonus points if its our cell phones).  You also love music and dancing, your exersaucer in the mornings, and cups.

Obviously we'd still love for your sleeping to improve, but in general, this has been such a wonderful month.  I think teething was a bigger issue than we knew, because your necklace has made such an improvement.  We love you so very much, and can't believe how fast the last six months have gone.

Love,

Mama