6 months old!

I honestly cannot believe I am the momma to a 6 month old.

K is growing by leaps and bounds. She has mastered sitting unassisted for long stretches, rolling both ways and babbles constantly. We have heard the occasional dada or baba, but they don't seem to be associated with anything yet. She likes to turn the pages of the books as we read before bed, explore people's mouths with her fingers, watch Sesame Street with daddy in the morning and still spends most of the day sticking her tongue out. She also likes to "walk" around by holding our hands - her steps seem pretty deliberate, moving towards people, items or cats so I don't think this is just reflex.

She still isn't too interested in crawling. As soon as she gets on her stomach, she immediately rolls to her back or starts crying.
She has also picked up the lovely habit of rolling onto her stomach in bed and getting stuck. She will wail until we come rescue her. FYI for those keeping score, this is not so adorable at 3am (and 4am and 5am...)

Her official monthly weight is 15lb 3oz, so she has slowed some in the past month. The dr. isn't concerned at all, so I won't be either.

And it turns out photoshoots with enticing paper objects are much more difficult then before. This is literally the best we got:

Keira is 6 months and 2 days old

This and That

K has broken her first teeth this week! After months of teething it came out of nowhere. She had stopped drooling as much and hasn't been fussing for no reason.

We are also trying our hand at sleep training, following the methods of the Baby Whisperer. This is essentially a daytime routine of Eat, Activity, then Sleep. The goal here is the baby gets used to a predictable pattern of activities and doesn't associate sucking with falling asleep. It also works to teach babies to fall asleep on their own, in their crib, so they are not reliant on mom or dad. I am hoping to avoid utilizing a CIO (cry it out) method. Turns out this method involves a lot of crying, but we are in the room with her the entire time, trying to help her learn to self soothe. Fingers crossed we get some more sleep in the near future!

Keira is 5 months, 2 weeks and 3 days old.

Evolution of Baby

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have an upright baby!
This is the beginning of the end in terms of a baby I can just place down and walk away isn't it?

Keira is 5 months 2 weeks and 2 days old.

Professional Photos

My dear friend Kyla of Kyla Hemmelgarn Photography has once again outdone herself. She stopped by in April to take some photos of Keira, and as usual, they have turned out tremendously.
Thank you Kyla!!!
Here are some of my faves:






Keira is 5 months, 1 week and 3 days old

My Obsession

..are Babylegs.

These little things rock. They are basically infant leg warmers and come in all sorts of delicious designs. Very handy for quick diaper changes and protecting little knees from crawling. They match nicely with my CDs, so they make any outfit pop. And they will grow with her into toddlerhood as they are very stretchy. They keep her legs warm in the winter, and offer lightweight cover in the summer.
Here is my current stash laid out for you:

K is usually sporting them in her monthly shots, but here is another shot of them:
Again all you aunties and uncles out there, consider this as a gift for the little ones in your life. They are not a necessity, but always get a great reaction. And they do come in boy designs too!

Keira is 5 months, 1 week and 2 days old.

belated 5 month update

With a 1 or 2 night reprieve (just enough for us to get somewhat caught up, but not ahead of the game), K has maintained the sleep strike, hence my lack of posting (or coherent sentence structure). But last week we did pass her 5 month birthday!
I weighed her just this past Wednesday and she came in at 15 lb 2oz, give or take a few ounces. So she is holding steady right around the 50th percentile.

Other milestones:

• she handily rolls front to back and back to front, though when she is tired she needs some help remembering where her hands need to go to make it happen
  
• she is *this* close to sitting up on her own for longer then a few seconds.
• she has complete control of her hands and now loves to grab onto anything we put in front of her, especially the remote control, the cell phone or my huge pint water glass.
  
• if we put pressure on her feet and dangle a "carrot" (ie her chew book) out of her reach she will wiggle worm her way to it. Hasn't figured out how to push her feet down and out yet on her own.
• she is stringing together consonant sounds quite handily (especially at 6am). We have illicited several baba's from her; Not sure what it means yet.
  
• And while saying mama gets me a sweet smile, she has yet to mimic me saying it.

Without further ado, her official 5 month photo:

Keira is 5 months, 1 week and 1 day old

Sleep Strike

I believe K is instituting a sleep strike in retaliation of some sort of as yet unknown grievous act performed by her father or I.

The last 3 nights she has been up, on average, every 2 hours. Sometimes its several times an hour, occasionally we get a break for 3+. She doesn't open her eyes, just moans and cries and won't stop until one of us holds her. She doesn't have a wet diaper, isn't hungry, nor any broken limbs. She isn't even showing signs of teething. So I have settled on a sleep strike.

The lack of vocal coherency makes it difficult to negotiate the terms of surrender and the return of 2 - 5+ hour sleep stretches per night. We are attempting talks through grunts, hand gestures and a primordial laugh/shriek that I am pretty sure can cut glass at its highest frequency. Management is thinking perhaps the lack of fair wages (ie an allowance) may be the issue. The union has been reminded that since the workforce has yet to control their limbs, they cannot perform the necessary duties that would result in said wages (doing dishes, taking out the trash, fixing daddy a drink). The union has also been reminded to review the rather large benefits package on the table (free room; all you can eat milk bar open 24 hours; unlimited access to jolly jumper and raspberry kisses from management) and reconsider a truce.

Fingers crossed for us union votes in favour one night very soon.

Keira is 4 months, 3 weeks and 5 days