Month 6

OH BOY! Has it been a rough month!!!! I think month 6 is most definitely the hardest month in adjustment with Colette. Except maybe beside the initial first month of life. But good news is I’m writing this post on time, meaning that she has mostly settled back down. So why was month 6 so hard? Well, Colette popped out her first 2 teeth, she went through a growth spurt, and she caught a cold. And she probably went through another Leap as well. To be honest, I stopped trying to figure it out (first in defeat, and then with peace) and just rolled with it. We definitely had some hard times of disrupted sleep (yes, I am a spoiled Baby Wise mom sleeper), and unstructured days, which lead to a very cranky mommy. And hubby and I are still re-adjusting to a normal life and going through major life changes as well (we are moving…AGAIN)!

As a treat, I decided to start moving all our products (not just food) to be organic and natural. There is this website (EWG.ORG) that rates all products from food to cosmetics! I’ve been using that to start weaning out better products for Colette, and then with us. Maybe I’ll write a separate blog about that!

Feeding

OH MY this girl can eat! Sometimes I’m a bit worried about how much she eats, but I won’t complain as I hear how lucky I am with that. This month she’s tried yams, eggs, different types of cereals, apples, pears, blueberries, fish and probably more. She definitely loves her fruit. She definitely is not the “perfect” eater, in the sense she does still struggle and whine at times throughout her meal. She likes to pocket food in her mouth and not swallow – so she looks much like a chipmunk. We usually have to give her a touch of incentive of fruit to kickstart her to swallow and get her second wind to finish the meal.

We have also introduced feeding her water with a cup. I hold the cup and she drinks. It took her a few days to get it down, but she did it!!! But I must say she is still learning the art of swallowing enough so she doesn’t choke on it. The little lady also seems to like blowing bubbles with the water… I find it’s super important for her to get her water in as when she doesn’t she has a hard time with her…bowels. She usually poops during meals and it’s so sad to watch her when she’s a bit constipated. Nose sweat beads and all!

I’ve been reading about Baby Led Weaning. It seems like this philosophy allows kids to lead in how much and how to eat. Very different to what I’ve been doing, which is controlling how and what she eats by feeding her with a spoon. And we have taught her with a stern “no” whenever she tries to dig her little hands into her food. It sort of confuses me a bit as I’m planning on how to introduce table food for her. We’ve tried to put a few pieces of fruit on her tray at the end of her meal to see what she will do, and she just WON’T touch it. haha. I think we over-taught her with our no-hand policy :$ But I will continue to learn and experiment how to do this. Maybe she hasn’t developed enough in her motor skills as well to do this…?

Sleep

HELP ME JESUS was a prayer I kept saying this month with her sleep. It was horrendous. We had a baby who went from sleeping through the night and having 2-2.5 hour solid naps to one that kicked and screamed when being put to bed, and woke up very unpredictability for naps and during the night. Because we just did not know WHAT WAS CAUSING WHAT (i.e. teething, sick, etc), we just wanted to help her out and comfort her more – so we started soothing her more often, rocking her to sleep, nursing her to sleep (yea, I know) and just having unstructured days. It was brutal…for me. I like structure in my life, because it helps me plan out my days more. But with the constantly poor sleep for baby and us, it was just brutal. I stayed home a lot with her, feeling the need to “normalize” her as much as possible. But after awhile that burned me out because I had cabin fever and just needed to get out and take care of myself for a bit.

Some of the reasons we thought of what contributed to all this, and how we tackled each problem:

– teething (we used motrin for long-lasting effect)

– growth spurt (I added an additional meal, and more food throughout the day)

– sick (we used Hydrasense to get her snot out)

– needing less sleep during the day (trying to gradually drop the 3rd nap)

– too late of a bed time as we started pushing it to 8-8:30pm (getting her to bed earlier again around 7:30-7:45)

After all that detective work, and as Colette seemed like she was over her teething and cold, we decided to go back to the basics – sleep training. The disrupted routine due to all of the above probably formed bad habits for her. Though honestly I loved the feeling of her falling asleep in my arms (something I never allowed her to do before), I knew that was killing me and would not be good in the long run. We did the “wake to sleep” method for her middle of the night waking for 2-3 days and she started sleeping through the night again. We let her cry it out for her naps and soothed her in longer intervals, and she was fine after about a week again (by the way, sleep training in 500sqft of space SUCKS! Get ear plugs!). So now I am sitting here, after a full nights sleep and happily writing this entry while baby is asleep on her predictable structured routine again 🙂 YAY.

Milestones/Activities

Well, besides her FIRST TWO TEETH, Colette has had some major achievements this month!!

We were able to get her to do more standing activities – in the jolly jumper and in the exersaucer (she’s actually tall enough!)

She’s definitely rolling more to get to places (she has an eye on our electronics).

She’s sitting up independently for longer.

Can I say again her laugh and smile is just SO contagious.

She’s figuring some pretty ridiculous expressions with her face which…might be from mommy.

Summary

So that was month 6. It was crazy for me as it seemed we had to “restart” all over again, but at least it’s good to know that it can be done. We are still working out the little kinks here and there and figuring out what “normal” means again, but definitely in a more settled place. I had a moment the other day, where I just stared at her and couldn’t believe she was my daughter. You know, those parental moments. How blessed we are to have a child, and an eccentric, joyful one to boost!

Colette’s schedule continues to be feeding every 4-4.5 hours. Wake up times are now 6:30/10:30-11/2:30-3/6. She will nurse, then eat her solids, and have about 2.5 hours total wake time and sleep anywhere from 1.5-2 hours. Her bed time is now around 7:30-7:45.