Aelah Grace: 6 Months!!

Can you believe it!?!  Our little lady is already 6 months old!!  I cannot believe it has already been half of a year!!

Chunky little legs & cheeks!

I'll keep using this basket until I can't anymore....

Oh.  My.

How am I growing?

Obviously growing by leaps and bounds!!  She is 17 pounds and 6 ounces - 75th percentile.  And she is 27 inches long, the 90th percentile.  I do think she is a bit longer.  The nurses always have such a hard time getting her to lie still to measure.  haha.  But we have another appointment next Friday so we shall see!! 

How am I sleeping?

SO much better!!  It did get worse for a bit for awhile.  She wanted to be up every couple of hours to nurse.  I was beside myself.  But then I just refused to nurse.  We would rock or bounce until she settled.  And if it lasted more than an hour I would nurse for just a few minutes.  We also moved her bedtime back from 8 to 9.  In just a weeks time she went from waking every two hours to sleeping 9 hours straight!!  Occasionally she will wake once, but I only have to wake her fully, hold her for a minute, lay her back down, and give her a binky and she goes right back to sleep.  She never liked pacifiers but I tried one night on a whim.  All she does in the middle of the night is play with it or chew on it.  She never sucks on it.  But it helps!  I also don't let her nurse until after 6 in the morning.  Which never seems to be an issue.  We are just trying to form good habits.  She usually wakes between 6 and 630 and then sleeps until I wake her around 8.  I am overwhelmingly pleased with where we are now.  But, knowing how babies are, I'm sure it may change again soon.  ;)

How am I eating?

We did decide to do our own version of Baby Led Weaning (or Baby Led Solids, here on out referred to as blw).  Instead of relying on purees, her main source of food is still breast-milk.  At dinner, we give her chunks or 'sticks' of food to help her experience food.  It is more about learning.  Blw is supposed to lead to less allergies, help her determine when she is actually full (vs. finishing a whole jar of baby food), and help her be less picky later on in life.  There are other benefits, one of which is the ease.  We generally just give her a bit of what we're having, no carting around jars of baby food, no buying baby food, no making baby food.  

This was her first 'meal' outside of breast-milk:

She has done phenomenal with everything we've given her.  She hasn't really disliked anything except sweet potatoes but I think that was a texture thing.  We're going to try them again soon.  We have done a more modified version of blw and included a few purees.  She really likes bread and bananas which can lead to...well...issues...so I try to give her a bit of pureed prunes every once in awhile just to keep things moving.  So far we haven't had any problems!  Along with the purees we got her Num Num Dips so she can feed herself (they are amazing!).  But since she is still a bit uncoordinated in that department, this is how that usually ends up:

Haha.  So sober.

What else is new?

Oh my.  Again, what isn't new?  This girl is growing and changing every single day.  She rolls all over the living room.  Laughs at random things (like feet), sits up all on her own, chews on anything she can get her hands on, and SO much more.  She also recently the discovered that she can drop things....so that's fun.  ;)  Another big deal is that she has learned how to rotate her body while she is on her belly by pulling with her arms.  So I know it is only a matter of time before she figures out how to pull herself forward or push backward.  Yikes!!  Our whole world is about to change!!

Here are some of my favorite pics from the last month:

Our little ballerina.

<3

Playing with Daddy

Helping Grammy put away the dishes.  This was a *super* cute moment!

Her Easter gift from her Uncle Luke & Aunt Laisa

This is how she decided to "rest" while we were shopping at Walmart.  Sometimes she would lay her head on its side instead.  Too cute!

**You may have noticed my new watermark.  After reading a few articles like this one, I realized that while I usually tend to take precautions on most of my social media, I neglect thinking about the implications of posting pics of my precious little one on my blog.  So a small change was in order.  I don't mind it actually...now that it has a bit more of my own flair.  :)  I realize that this won't stop bad people from using pictures BUT, it will at least deter them a bit....one can hope right??