6 month update

Wow, 6 months! Can't believe it's been half a year already! Some days I feel like a pro at this whole mom thing... some days it feels like I just brought Lucy home from the hospital.

This past month once again brought tons of changes - crawling, pulling up, solid foods. Lucy is so active! Fortunately she hasn't learned to go outside of the toy circle I provide for her in the family room yet, but I'm sure some day I'll turn around and she'll be sitting next to me in the kitchen.

Lucy is also talking a lot more now - we've heard lots of da-da-da's and every once in a while I think I hear a ma-ma-ma. But mostly she likes to scream/grunt. I'm just happy to hear her voice!

Her nursing schedule has stayed about the same - eating 5 times a day, every 3-4 hours, except now we do solid foods at "lunch" and "dinner". For solids we have conquered: rice, carrots, peas, avocado and banana. She doesn't love my homemade carrots, peas or avocado though, so I usually have to sneak those foods in with banana or rice. After her first week of solids Lucy slowed way down, to the point of not really even wanting to eat at some meals... I wonder if she was going through a growth spurt when I introduced the solids? Now she will sometimes eat a lot, but typically is too distracted by Ruthie or the trees outside.

Sleep has been great and horrible again this month! In the beginning of the month Lucy was sleeping great - 11 hours at night, no paci waking and took three 1.5-2.5 hour naps. Then, either vacation, crawling, sitting up (from laying down), solids or a growth spurt caused things to go a little haywire... The past two weeks we've sometimes been adding a feeding back at night around 4-5am, and have about 4-5 night wakings each night which either require a paci pop or rocking. Naps suddenly changed from being on schedule to happening whenever Lucy wanted and sometimes only last for 45 minutes... needless to say, I'm a little exhausted as I write this.

We've tried crying it out a couple times but that typically only gets Lucy more and more worked up, and makes me go a little crazy... She used to be able to cry for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and then fall asleep, but now it seems she could go all night! We usually gave up after 45min-1hr. Especially now that she can sit up, we go in to settle her down and she won't lay back down and refuses her pacifier... needless to say after a lot of lost sleep, broken hearts (I can't stand the crying!) and confusion, I finally decided to go with the flow a little more and just be on Lucy's schedule this week (not force my own) and that has seemed to help. Of course, I find it impossible to be on time to anything and have had to skip a couple things because a nap showed up when I wasn't expecting... but mom and baby seem to be much happier this way!

Figuring Lucy out is definitely one of the most challenging things I've ever done! I realized that I loved having a boss in my past jobs because at the end of the day if I had done everything I possibly could and could not solve a problem, I could always just turn to the boss to fix things. Now... I am the boss... ugh... Even when I feel like I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do with Lucy, some days she's just a nasty client. I sometimes wish I had a panel of 3 experienced moms that were also doctors who lived with me all the time and gave me constant recommendations... is that so much to ask? Instead I am constantly having to make decisions I don't feel confident about and spend hours on the internet researching why things are the way they are... why don't babies come with manuals?

Anyway, the only conclusions that I can make from the mess these past weeks have been is that I'm definitely having at least 2 kids - because whats the point of going through all this, gaining some experience if I can't try it out on another one!

I am thankful though... thankful for a few friends who have babies I can consult with... thankful to be starting a new Bible study with other moms so I can have more mommy consultants... thankful Lucy is 100% healthy and very happy... thankful Lucy is growing and developing perfectly... thankful I have Ben to share everything with.... thankful all of our family is so close to support us and help us when we need it... and thankful for my friends who remind me there's lots of other things going on in this world besides pacifier and sleep issues - like.... when's the next Twilight movie coming out?

Ok for stats:
Weight - 15.8 lbs (48%), Height - 27 in (90%), Head - 16.8in (60%)

Things people have said about Lucy this past month that I think do a great job describing her:
"Does she ever cry?" - the nursery at Grace after they watched her for 2.5hrs, she was an angel! of course I wanted to say... yes, typically at 2am, 3am, and 5am... want to come over and hear her? but the truth is, she really hardly crys at all during the day, and is such a flexible baby

"She's 6 months, I would have thought she was 2-3 months" - a lady a the park, along with many other people that say she is so tiny for her age... but she is perfect! my petite little princess

"awww... how old is HE" - the sales associate at sears... we're still lagging in the hair department... I think I need to go shopping for some more bows

After looking through all of the pictures I took, I realized it was hard for me to get a picture of Lucy NOT smiling... she really is so happy...


She is all over the place! Could hardly get her to sit still!


Took these pictures earlier in the day - but noticed that she had gotten a nice little shiner on her forehead... did I mention she's all over the place?