6 Months

I'm a little late on this, but I did want to make sure I marked this milestone. Josie is 6 months old!!! How on earth did that happen? It is truly amazing how fast it has went...
She has such a personality now! She smiles so easily...you just have to make eye contact and there it is! She is also super ticklish under her chin and squeals with laughter even if she just thinks we are about to tickle her. It always makes me laugh when I hear her laugh. She is also a little chatterbox and it's fun to hear all the new sounds she can make each day. She really has turned into such a happy baby and the only times she gets upset is when she is hungry or wants so badly to get to a toy that's out of reach. This baby wants to move! She does roll all over the place, but it doesn't always get her where she's trying to go.

Here are the new things she is doing:


Eating Solids

We started rice about a month ago and have now progressed to many different fruits and veggies. She seems to be hungry ALL THE TIME and I spend a considerable amount of time making food and feeding her each day. She lost all interest in breastfeeding so I started pumping and giving it to her in a bottle. My supply quickly diminished doing this and so her bottles became more and more formula until now that's all she takes. It's a little disappointing, but I never did set out to do extended breastfeeding and I at least nursed her for the same amount of time as I did Ellie.


Sleeping in the Crib

Now I DID set out to co-sleep with Josie for as long as she fit in the co-sleeper. Some of my fondest memories with Ellie were waking up to her beautiful little sleeping face just inches from mine every morning and starting each day with baby cuddles before getting out of bed.
It was the same with Josie...but only for the first 5 months. Then it just started not working for us anymore. For one thing, she sleeps very fitfully. She tosses and turns and makes little baby noises pretty much the whole night. She doesn't actually wake up during these times and doesn't need me to do anything for her, it just never let me actually fall into a deep sleep. Then when she went through a phase of waking up several times a night again, after actually sleeping (rather fitfully) through the night for a few weeks, I knew it was time for a change. I was exhausted. So the logical choice was to move her to her crib in the nursery. The only problem with that, though, was that Ellie still held claim over it! So in sleep-deprived desperation, we borrowed a twin size mattress from a friend and set it up in Ellie's big girl room (next to her toddler bed). And I went from co-sleeping with my 5 month old back to co-sleeping with my 3 year old! It worked, though, and Josie took to the crib immediately. I think she is happy to have her own space and part of her problem was that I was keeping HER awake when she was in the co-sleeper in addition to her keeping me awake. She is now only up once a night at most and has even slept through the night on occasion again. And for the last 3 nights, we have been able to lay her in the crib while still awake and she falls asleep on her own! That did not happen with Ellie until at least a year old or maybe later.
The co-sleeping with Ellie only lasted 2 weeks and then I gave her the choice of sleeping with Mommy or by herself with a tent over her bed.
She chose the tent! She now loves her new big bed and I'm so happy the the transition went smoothly. I honestly did not see how we would ever get to this point and it just goes to show that things will just "work out" and I shouldn't ever worry or stress about how it will happen. I must say that it was a a lot of fun "camping out" with Ellie and I will have fond memories of her wildly imaginative bedtime stories and our more serious late night talks.


Sitting

This has been progressing over the last few weeks. I think the longest she has sat happily so far is about 15 minutes. It's nice because it opens up a whole new set of "sitting" toys for her to play with. Ellie loves it, too, since it is easier to play with her.



So yeah, our little baby is growing up. Way faster than I want her to. Each time I pack up a set of baby clothes (packed up the 3-6 months this weekend), I get so sentimental. Even though I think this is probably our last baby, it's amazing how strong the desire for another one is still there in times like those. I vow to enjoy every moment with Josie and cherish each milestone and to take tons of pictures and video to capture these precious times. She brings so much joy to her Mommy and Daddy and Big Sis!