~ 6 Months ~

Lola turned 6 months old today.

I don't know what it is about hitting this 6 month mark, but it feels huge.

Its been such a great month, despite our struggles with breastfeeding. Lola is developing like crazy, sitting up on her own most of the time, jumping in her exersaucer,  putting evvverryyyything in her mouth, etc.

 It seems that the more alert and aware she is, the happier she is. It feels like shes smiling all day long. I mean, every so often she'll get a bit fed up of her present activity and start complaining (which mostly takes the form of her fake crying - shes a smart baby, sometimes she mimics the cry she makes when she's REALLY upset so that you come running only to find her perfectly fine, no tears in her eyes at all and smiling immediately upon being picked up), but for the most part she is smiling and giggling and just so pleased with life.

She's still a tiny little thing - some of her 3-6month clothes are still rather large on her and she has a ton of 0-3month clothes still. Though in this last week it seems she's been filling out more than ever. Maybe its because we've started feeding her a bit more at each feeding since she always seemed still hungry after downing a bottle.

Speaking of feeding, this month Lola started feeding herself. She holds the bottle and can finish it all on her own! We have to sometimes take the bottle from her and make her take a breath cuz she just chugs them down as if she's never been so hungry in all her life.

And as heartbroken and torn up as I was about Lola's nursing strikes...well, it all seems to have worked out for the best. Once I stopped pumping while feeding in the morning and forcing the early evening feed, everything improved. Now I nurse Lola only before bed and in the morning. No more pumping. No more forcing it. I feel absolutely relieved and so so happy and I think Lola does too :)

So now a day in the life of Lola looks like this: we wake up (i.e. I wake Lola up) at either 7:10 or 7:40, depending on my work schedule for that day. Then, diaper change, a glance out the window to check on the status of the melting snow (almost all gone!), and downstairs to feed while watching the Today show. Then Lola naps from about 9:30-11:00 then again from about 2:00-3:30. She has a bottle after each of these naps and then eats again about half an hour after I get home from work. Then, at 7:00, we get started on her bedtime routine (which I wrote about in a previous post) and miss Lo is down for the count by 7:30.

So far, Lola has still been sleeping through the night. I can't even tell you how incredibly grateful I am for this extraordinary luxury. I'm aware that it can change at any moment but I'm crossing everything that if it does, its fleeting! Every now and then she cries for a moment or two but usually she's drifted back to sleep before we can figure out what to do about it!

Besides it being awesome for us that she sleeps so much, Lola sleeping is also the most adorable thing in the word. At night, she sleeps on her side and sucks her left thumb while her right arm is flung over her eyes. During naps, she starts off on her belly, again with her left thumb in her mouth, but in the last two weeks Lola has been active while napping. Kayla, our nanny, said that a few times she found Lola on her side and then, this weekend, I managed to catch Lola in the act - she flung herself with such force so that she moved from one side of the crib where she was on her tummy to the other side and on to her back. This kid is getting stronger by the day!

Anyway, thats the 6 month round up. I'm sure theres so much more but alas, this is all my brain can manage tonight.

Its been a great. great month and I can't wait to see where we go from here.