Sweet Pea is 6 months old! Halfway to her 1st birthday!

This is a huge milestone for me as a mother because I always told myself the first 6 months would be the toughest and while I know there will be new challenges along the way, I have definitely fully transitioned from being the mother of one to being the mother of two!

Whereas there was a time I didn’t know how I was going to do this, I now cannot imagine life without my Sweet Pea in it and I am continuously thankful that God saw fit to give me this baby girl twenty-six months after giving me her big sister!

This month was the month of extending wake times and feeding times!!

Eating: About a week and a half after turning 5 months old, Sweet Pea extended her feeding times from every 3 hours to 3.5 - 4 hours apart! She dropped a feeding which means she started eating only five times in a day instead of 6. She ate at 8am, 11:30am, 3:30pm, 7:30pm and 11:30pm. She also started wanting 5 ounces per feed which was very encouraging to see that her stomach could handle that. By the end of this month, Sweet Pea was eating SIX ounce bottles! Even though the GI had suggested we not let her eat more than 4 oz. per feed until after she turned 6 months, Sweet Pea did this on her own (in other words, I didn’t force it on her), so we went with it and Sweet Pea has done fine eating 6 ounces every feed.

Dreamfeed: Sweet Pea still has the 11:30pm dreamfeed every night. No signs of this coming to an end any time soon, except two nights ago she only took about 4oz and ended up spitting up all over her Daddy. The next night we offered a full feed and she took it, so I am not so sure she is ready to drop this quite yet, which is fine. She will eventually drop it when she is ready.

Wake time: A couple days before she turned 5 months old, Sweet Pea started not going to sleep right away for naps or waking up early from naps. This told me she was ready to extended her waketime past one hour! Her new wake time during this month was 1 hour and 15 minutes, but then by 5.5 months old she was ready to extend even further to 1.5 hours! This was also encouraging to see because it means that Sweet Pea is slowly but surely coming to a point where she can handle the stimulation of her world – and since she is up for 1.5 hours now, there is time for a trip to the neighborhood park before the next nap!

Independent Playtime: Sweet Pea has been doing IP for several months now but I have just forgotten to write about it in her monthly updates. Right now, IP time for Sweet Pea consists of playing on her floor mat for about 20 minutes a day. When she starts sitting independently I will start letting her have IP in the pack n play in our bedroom for 30 minutes a day. Sweet Pea typically does IP after her 3:30pm bottle but when she moves to the pack n play she will probably start having IP before her morning nap.

Sweet Pea loves to play with the animals hanging from her floor mat.

Sleep: Extending her feeding times from 3 hours to 3.5 to 4 hours naturally made her drop her 4th nap! So this month, Sweet Pea took only three naps a day: morning, afternoon and evening. Nap length was about 2 to 2.5 hours. Bedtime was at 8:30pm. Nighttime sleep was good but there were some wake ups between the hours of 4-6am for the paci. I have noticed a pattern of her waking in the night for the paci about every other night. For now, I am not doing anything to “fix" it.

Sweet Pea still sleeps with all her “tummy trouble props”: reclined sleeper, swaddle, paci, white noise. My plan to break her of all these props is to do it when she tells me she is ready. When she shows signs of not wanting to be swaddled, I will unwrap one arm and then the other. My motto is always “Don’t fix something that isn’t broken.”

Diapers and Clothes: Even though I still had a lot of size 1 and size 1-2 diapers, I had to go ahead and move Sweet Pea up to Size 2’s because she started leaking. At night, she wears two size 2 diapers and that keeps her from leaking overnight. She now wears mostly size 6 month clothing (especially onesies). She can still fit into her 3-6 month outfits, but 3 month onesies are too tight.

Weaning from meds: This month we started weaning her from Gripe Water after her GI appointment on the 17th. We started by only putting half a dosage in each bottle to see how she would handle that. I had to do some figuring to determine if her interrupted naps were due to needing to extend wake time or because her stomach was upset from the lack of Gripe Water. Fortunately, I determined her naps were short because she needed to extend wake time and not because she had an upset tummy! I still give her mylecon before every nap.

GI Appointment: She had a very refreshing check up with the GI on January 17th! We don’t have to come back unless there is a problem and when she is 7 months old we can start the weaning process for the zantac! When I explained that Sweet Pea was eating over 4 ounces and she had increased her feeds on her own with no pushing or even a little encouragement from me, they said it was absolutely fine for her to eat over 4 ounces a feed.

Overstimulation: Sweet Pea still cannot handle being passed around in a group of people. She also will get overstimulated if you interact too much with her face-to-face, especially if the setting is with a group of people. If she gets overstimulated she will pucker her lip and if she doesn’t get back to a “safe place” (her mommy’s arms!) she will start to cry.

Favorite Toy: The jumper is by far Sweet Pea’s favorite toy. I could watch her play in there all day. She learned to make herself bounce up and down and it is just the cutest thing! She could probably sit in that for her entire wake time if I let her.

Another toy she has recently discovered and really enjoys is the excersaucer! She bounces up and down in there too and loves to look at all the toys surrounding her. I don’t leave her in this more than 10 minutes because of overstimulation. Look at that concentration!

Sweet Pea also enjoys spending her time gnawing on her fingers.

Teething: Sweet Pea has been gnawing on her fingers basically since she discovered her hands, so I have never really attributed all the gnawing to teething. However, Sweet Pea has started to get her first tooth! It is on the lower gum. I can feel it trying to poke through!

Personality: If Little Bug is the raging sea, Sweet Pea is the peaceful stream. It is interesting how you can already see glimpses into a baby’s personality before they are even 6 months old. Sweet Pea is so calm, laid back, quiet, mellow and just plain ‘ol sweet. There is something about her smile that just melts your heart every time she looks at you. She rarely cries. I could probably almost say she never cries, but when she gets overstimulated, she cries. But that is about it! I imagine when she gets a bit older and has more preferences she will use her voice more, but for now, you wouldn’t know she is in the room unless she is in a talkative mood!

Talking: Sweet Pea is quiet but when she has something to say, she says it! Her babbling is adorable and something she normally does around bedtime.

Sibling Interaction: Sweet Pea loves to watch her sister. Whatever sister is doing is fascinating!

Milestones: Sweet Pea rolled over from tummy to back on January 7th! She doesn’t consistently roll yet, but she has rolled several more times since that first time.

Schedule (5 months old): She basically had two schedules this month because her wake times changed so frequently. From 5 months to 5.5 months, this is what she did: 8am eat, 9:15-11:30am nap, 11:30am eat, 12:45-3:00pm nap, 3pm eat, 4:15-6:30pm nap, 7pm eat, 8pm bath, 8:30 bed.

From 5.5 months to 6 months, this was her schedule:

8am eat

9:30am-11:30am nap

11:30am eat

1:00pm-3:30pm nap

3:30pm eat

5:00pm-6:30pm nap

7:30pm eat

8:00pm bath

8:30pm bedtime

11:30pm eat

Summary: This was a good month for Sweet Pea. She really did make some excellent progress in overcoming these stomach issues and she also extended her schedule out some and dropped a feeding, which was nice for everyone! It is fun to have her awake more and she is such a joy to our entire family.

Happy 6 Months, Sweet Pea!!

- Elaine