Six Months Old

A week ago, Bailey turned SIX MONTHS OLD.

The week began with the dreaded vaccinations. She cried, of course, but it didn't take her long to calm down once I picked her up.

Bailey weighs about 17 pounds, 10 ounces (82nd%). We couldn't get her to stop moving around, so the scale never stopped, but the nurse thought it was close enough. She is 27.75 inches long (98th%).

BAILEY UPDATE:

1. She has two bottom teeth.

2. She loves it when you sing to her. Her favorite song is "Old McDonald had a Farm." Her second favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus." How do we know this? Through many, many car rides trying to keep her happy. When she gets bored with her toys, we resort to singing. When she's really upset, no song will make her stop crying except for these two. When we sing "The Wheels on the Bus," she stays happy for a while. When we sing "Old McDonald had a Farm," she stays happy for a very long time. It's so funny. She just LOVES that song. It even makes her laugh sometimes.

3. She still fakes being sick. She coughs when she wants your attention or wants to talk to you. She's been doing it a lot lately. She thinks it's funny when you cough back at her.

4. Mom is still her favorite person.

5. She loves being outside.

6. She loves being in the water.

7. Eating is her favorite thing to do.

8. She still prefers her low, growly voice.

9. She still sucks her thumb occasionally. It's funny because she sucks her thumb like you would a pipe. She chews on it with the side of her mouth.

10. She still sticks out her tongue for long periods of time.

11. She's doing better and better at sitting up on her own. But a lot of times, this is what ends up happening:

SLEEP UPDATE:

I know some of you have been wondering how Bailey's sleep is going. Her sleep is TONS better but still a work in progress. We started sleep training around 4 1/2 months. She now goes to sleep around 6:30-7:00 every night and wakes up around 7-7:30 in the morning. I can put her down in her crib, asleep or awake, and she doesn't cry (usually). We did a little nap training at the beginning, but it didn't seem to be helping at all, so we stopped. I read that many times, babies naturally start taking longer naps around six months, and she is! A typical nap is now 1.5-2 hours long! Her longest nap was 2.5 hours. Yes, I did go check on her to make sure she was okay. When she took shorter naps, she would take 3-4 naps a day. Now that they're longer, she usually only takes two. The longest time she has ever slept at night is 10 hours-- from 6:30 P.M.-4:30 A.M. That was the night after she had her vaccinations, so it may not really count. On a typical night, she sleeps for 3-4 hours before waking up. Lately, I've been feeding her once around one or two and then again around five. There are still nights when she wakes up a lot, but on a whole, she is sleeping much better, and life is much easier for all of us. The best part is that I don't feel like a zombie all day long. And having the evenings free to do whatever we want has been amazing.

Overall, Bailey is a very happy baby.