The Lovely Years: Jillian: {Six Months}

Jillian –

You are six months old today! I am in awe of the fact that you are half a year old. I know all moms say this, but where has the time gone?! According to our at-home measurements, you are 14 lbs, 10 oz and 25 inches long. Your 6 month appointment is in less than a week and I’ll update your stats then :) Update: At 6 months and 6 days old, you are 15 lbs even and 25-1/4 inches long!

Due to the fact that some of your clothes were too short, and all the new clothes you’ve accumulated, you are now wearing only a handful of 3 Month clothing, most of your 3-6 Month, and 6 Month clothes. You officially wear size 2 diapers full time.

We usually have you at 5 - 6 feedings a day and you have between 6 and 6 ½ ounces. You also tend to eat less if other people feed you or when we’re out and about. I don’t know if you’re just trying to look at everything around you or what, but it’s hard to feed you outside our home. You starting eating rice cereal as of May 22^nd, and you’ve tried carrots! After two full weeks, you really hated cereal. I mean, you would cry your eyes out at the sight of a spoon. Now with carrots mixed in, it’s not too bad. You were eating about a ½ ounce of cereal alone. Now with carrots, you’ll eat between 1 and 2 full ounces. You are a little apprehensive of solids, but you are improving every day!

You are still taking Zantac twice a day for your reflux. We may need to up your dosage, but we’ll ask your doctor about that soon.

New people don’t scare you, but you definitely like having mama and daddy around if they hold you. You had one episode with your Grandma Darla where you were just really upset about something and we were gone. However, when she showed you our engagement picture at their house, you seemed to calm down. You are getting more acclimated to the church nursery, but you do seem to sleep most of the time you’re in there ;)

You had your first real photo shoot today! We hired the professional photographers that took our engagement and wedding photos. We’re sure they are going to be amazing and can’t wait to see them.

Your daddy officially finished his graduate school degree this month! I know it doesn’t mean much to you now, but I know it will someday. Now that he started his job, you see him less during the week. However, you now really light up when he gets home and it is amazingly sweet :)

This month, we had an appointment with the special hearing clinic you go to. You are officially enrolled in a state-funded program that will help with your appointments. For the next 6 months, we will be going for speech therapy twice a month for 60 minutes sessions. Since you are already babbling/saying “mama”, I don’t feel like you’re behind right now. However, these sessions will ensure that you will stay on pace. Then in 6 months, we’ll have another meeting to determine how often we will need therapy. We are excited to work with the amazing people we have met and boy have you won them over with your smile :) You will also being visiting a special pediatric otologist as well as having a vision check just to make sure everything looks great. It seems like a lot of doctors, but they all work together with the hearing clinic, (and your pediatrician), to help you as problems arise. I’m so very thankful for this community of doctors. I personally feel like we are blessed to be well connected like this!

Teething wasn’t a horrible experience overall. Once your two bottom teeth broke through your gums, you were a much happier baby in general. We won’t get our hopes up just in case the next few are really painful for you. You do like teething rings, and frozen washcloths, but you’re not a fan of Orajel. We think your next tooth is starting to come, but no sign of it just yet. We started brushing your teeth shortly after your 5-month birthday. You did not like it at all in the beginning, but now you tolerate it much better!

You have yet to roll over, but you are so eager to crawl! You roll over to your side, and get stuck on your arm. If we try to move your arm for you, you just move it back. If we’ve learned anything about you thus far, it is that you do things when you feel like it! {You are definitely my child!} As long as you don’t get too frustrated about it, we don’t worry too much. You love your toes and you move your arms/kick around when you’re excited, (or watching Yo Gabba Gabba which is your favorite).

You consistently sleep between 9 ½ and 10 ½ hours at night and we are very thankful for that. This past Saturday, you slept a full 12 hours!! I’m almost certain it was a fluke, but it was nice of you to give your parents a few extra hours of sleep :) We think you might be ready for a growth spurt because you have one longer nap a day for the past week or so. Besides that, you are a big cat napper. You average between 20 and 30 minutes of sleep and nap about 3 to 4 times a day. As long as you’re rested, I’m not too worried about making you sleep more than that.

We are so happy to have you in our life baby girl! It’s exciting to watch your change and we love you so much :) Here’s to 6 more amazing months! {Plus many many many more!}

Outtakes: