Lilly – Six Month Update!
Our little Lilly girl is HALF A YEAR OLD. How did she get to be six months already? No, seriously. How? How is she halfway to ONE YEAR?! My golly. I feel like I have blinked and BAM I have a six month old.
This past month has been AMAZING as far as her development goes… and her personality is REALLY shining through. I absolutely LOVE this age!
We are so blessed by this little girl!
pink bow c/o Sweet Angel Kreations.
Lilly’s Six Month Update
Weight: 17lbs 5oz
Length: 26″
Head Circumference: 41cm
Nicknames: Monkey moo. Monkey doo. Beebeebeeoo. Babybadoo. Baby boo. Putian. Lilliputian. Lil.
Sleep: We have been doing “The Baby Sleep Solution” for a few months and have had “some” success with it. She will give me one AWESOME night of sleep (like 10-11 hours) and then then next night she’s up every hour it seems and refuses to go back to sleep. So, it’s kind of all over the place. I’m not giving up. I know she can do it and I know she can sleep well at night, it’s just taking WAY more work than I’d like.
She is still swaddled in her Woombie – having her sleep unswaddled was a huge miserable failure. I really think she may be swaddled until she is five.
She also in the past few weeks has become a no-napper or a barely-napper. She will often take a decent nap in the morning, but her afternoon naps are almost non-existent. It’s become quite challenging, but we are working through it.
Eating: I am so so so so so excited and proud to say we made it six months on breastmilk alone! That was my original goal of 6-7 months exclusively breastfed and we did it! It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but once we got into a groove, we really made it happen!
She is now a “scheduled” eater… she eats every four hours. Usually at 8am, noon, 4pm, and bedtime (even though bedtime is usually around 7pm).
We plan on introducing solids in the next few weeks and we are going to be trying the “Baby Led Weaning” (BLW) or “Baby Led Solids” method. Basically, BLW is skipping the whole “pureed” baby food and going straight to bite size, finger foods. So, baby eats what you eat, just in much smaller, more manageable quantities. And you don’t spoon feed them, you put the food down in front of them and then they learn to pick it up and put it in their mouth.
It’s really meant to introduce them to different food textures, flavors, and allow them to learn the skill of self-feeding. It’s just one way of introducing solid foods to baby – I certainly am no expert, but we are going to give this way a shot! I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. There’s really no right or wrong way to do it – I’m all on team feed-your-baby – however you choose to do so. 🙂
Clothing: She has pretty much grown out of all of her 3 month clothing and is almost exclusively in 6 month and 6-12 month clothing. She does have some 3-6 month stuff that still fits her. I would say that she is pretty on par for clothing for her age… she seems to be pretty average in that arena.
Mood: Happiest. Baby. Ever. No, seriously. This girl is always so giggly and so smiley. She has never met a stranger and just loves to play and laugh and giggle. She certainly has her fussy periods and times when she is “not having it,” but those are few and far between. We are VERY blessed with a good baby!
Loves:
- Daddy. This girl is a daddy’s girl.
- Mommy (yay!!)
- The dogs – she thinks our dogs are HILARIOUS. She giggles at them all the time.
- Silly faces.
- Sticking her tongue out.
- Pacis.
- Playing “blast off”
- Working out with daddy
- “Super Lilly”
- Riding “the horsey” on daddy’s knee
- Swinging
Doesn’t Love:
- Socks or shoes. This is still a struggle. Homegirl just pulls her socks right off. Oh, and she learned how to UNTIE HER SHOES. So yeah, there’s that.
- Riding in the car at night… something about being in the dark. Not a fan.
- Being hot.
What I Want to Remember / Milestones: I would say month 5-6 has been ABSOLUTELY the biggest month as far as development and milestones go! This girl did one thing and BAM, she did like 10 more things… It’s been AMAZING to watch!
- She got her first TWO teeth! TWO! YES! Two teeth! AHHH! They just popped up out of nowhere. And I have to BRUSH them. Buying your baby’s first toothbrush and toothpaste is a milestone that I had no idea would make me so sad.
- We got her a Baltic Amber teething necklace (you can probably see it in some of the pictures). It really seems to have helped A LOT with the teething pain and drooling. No, she isn’t going to choke on it. Don’t worry I researched this and asked 1,000 different people before we decided to try it out on her.
- She swung on a swing for the first time and LOVED it.
- We experienced our first BIG snow of the year and Lilly LOVED it. She kept sticking out her tongue and letting the snow fall on it… it was hilarious, adorable, and the best.
- First Valentine’s Day – her daddy brought me / her flowers and it was the cutest.
- She sat in a shopping cart and a high chair at a restaurant for the first time!
- She is sitting up on her own and really good at it. She started sitting up towards the end of January but would still topple over after a few seconds or a minute. The first week of February she got really good at it and can now sit up for long periods of time. She can’t QUITE get herself into a sitting position yet… she can when she is on an incline, but not from a laying down position. She is certainly trying and I know this will be happening any day now.
- She can take out and put her paci back in!!! AHHH this is my favorite skill. Now, if only she wasn’t swaddled at night she could do it at night… that would be handy. But alas, it is what it is. But in the meantime, she is really good at doing it during the day. So that’s nice!
- She is now beginning to show interest in and play with her toys. We don’t have a ton of toys, but the ones she uses she really likes.
- She can now sit in her exersaucer and REALLY play in it. I had put her in her exersaucer back in December, but she didn’t really know how to do anything with it. She now turns and twists and plays – she loves it.
- She is grabbing EVERYTHING. My hair. My jewelry. The dogs. Paper. Toys. Anything. If it’s in front of her, she grabs it.
- She started rolling over in early January at about 4.5months, but now she is a rolling queen. She just kinda rolls all around the room. It’s so hilarious.
- She definitely knows and recognizes her name now!
What I’m Looking Forward To: We are going on a CRUISE in a few weeks! I am SO SO SO excited. I’ve never been on a cruise and we haven’t been on a vacation since our HONEYMOON… so needless to say, this is MUCH needed. I can’t wait to take Lilly and see how she is in the ocean and the pool! It’s going to be a blast.
Love you, Lilly girl!
Wow, 6 months! Crazy! She is just the cutest. Can tell just from the pictures that she is full of personality! 🙂
I can’t believe she is 6 months already! How time flies! She is just the cutest and she always looks so happy in her pictures!
I cannot believe that she is already 6 months! Such a cutie! I love her little chubby legs, and that picture with her tongue out is just precious. Loving the Tarheels cheerleading outfit 🙂
We did BLW with my son and it worked like a charm. It wasn’t difficult or fancy, just simple. We started with avocado and watermelon that was cut up in thin pieces. I breast feed exclusively until 8 months, he just seemed happier that way. And food up until a year was really just an exploration, breast milk provided all his nutritional needs. I will say, he is 2.5 and has always loved vegetables so who knows? Maybe it was chance or maybe the technique worked? Keep it simple, feed the baby what you are eating within reason. Just thought I would offer my experience, I am by no means and an expert!
Julie
This is SUPER helpful!! Thank you so much, Julie!
Aw very sweet post- haha my twins are 9 mos and she weighs right at what they are- but they are little! I found a Lilly Pulitzer dress for my 5 year old today in a bag of clothes given to us and thought of you and your Lily!
LOVE it!!
These are so cute!!! What lens do you use? I love how clear her face is
This is a 35mm f/1.8 lens – I shoot with a Nikon D7000. 🙂
She’s so adorable! I love her expression on the left picture playing with the green toy. Too funny!
She’s SO adorable! Congrats on such a beautiful daughter 🙂 Also, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the pictures of her in the 1 month, 2 month, etc. so cute!
I just love her smile, especially when she sticks her tongue out! She really just seems so happy and I love that!
I’ve never heard of the BLW method before but I am looking forward to reading more about your experience with it and maybe it’s something we will try with Baby #2! I am planning on breastfeeding the first 6 months as well.
I’ll definitely keep you posted on how it goes!
I can’t believe she is already 6 months old! I’ve been following closely as my little guy is a few months behind her so I am taking notes! I have read about that baltic amber, so I think I might be trying it out when we get to that point. And I’m glad to hear you can still swaddle at 6 months, because our guy needs it bad and I so fear not doing it anymore!!
YES! I think she’s going to be swaddled foreverrrr
Wow where did the time go? She is so cute!
xo, Lee
Okay so a few questions and comments… Ainsley hates being hot too and hates wearing shoes and socks! It seems like a lot of babies hate shoes and socks… wonder why? Questions… How did you hear about BLW? What resources would you suggest on that? I am not familiar. Also, where did you get her teething necklace? She is a precious little munchkin! They grow up sooo fast!
Angela 🙂
http://www.acharlescoach.com
NO idea! she IMMEDIATELY takes them off when i put them on her. it’s SO hard to keep them on. and i heard about baby led weaning from some friends (i’m WAY more of a crunchy mom than i thought I’d ever be)… you can find good resources here: http://www.babyledweaning.com/ and http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/. I got her teething necklace at the birth center in Chapel Hill but you can get them from: http://www.sweetbottomsbaby.com/amber_teething_necklace.html
i can’t believe how fast time is going! she is SOOO happy! her and addi would be such good friends 🙂 I am excited to follow you guys with your baby led weaning. addi eats purees but always grabbing the spoon and I can’t get much in her mouth – I’m nervous about the real food thing. I need to read more about it! and I thought addi would never sleep unswaddled either. It took a few nights of her getting used to her stomach and dealing with some tears but she did it. (not that we sleep awesome all the time at all, but we’re not swaddled!)
yeah i really think lilly is going to be swaddled forever. i’ve been trying EVERYTHING but nothing is working… i’ll definitely keep you posted on how BLW goes!
I can’t believe she’s already 6 months old!
ME NEITHER ahhhh!
Goodness, she is just precious! Love those monthly photos!
thank you!!
She is just precious! I have heard so much about the baby led weaning but you are the first one that really explained what it was. I wish I would have heard that before we started my son… we started with rice cereal and we are going to use the “baby led weaning” concept when we start actual food. I love reading your updates!
Oh and how do you do the backgrounds on her monthly pictures on the floor? Do you use a different blanket every time?
yep! i just use different fabric (up until this point i’ve been using fabric i’ve had around the house) but i bought about a yard of scrap fabric from the fabric store for less than $5). 🙂
That is a great idea! I am going to have to go get some scrap fabric… I’m a little late on this considering my son is almost 5 months!
She is just precious! I love that sweet smile 🙂