Tag: L

Lana turned 6 months old this past Sunday. A full half year old!! Once her touchy newborn stage ended, the time has definitely started to speed up.

We had her next well-baby checkup yesterday, complete with another round of shots, so here are the official 6 month stats:

• Height:  27″ (90% – her height finally caught up!)
• Weight:  15 lbs. 1.5 oz. (25-50%)
• Head:  43 cm (50-75%)

Other than growth, not a whole lot has changed since her 5 month stats.

She still only sleeps through the night sometimes, which sucks, but what can ya do? I’ve actually contemplated moving her crib into Della’s room now before she even sleeps consistently until morning. Maybe it would help keep them both calmer through the night knowing the other is right there? Maybe not; we’ll see.

She no longer sleeps swaddled at all. I just wrap the swaddle sides around her middle to keep her a little warmer than using simply a blanket, since apparently winter is never going to end this year. We still have to use the stupid space heater in our room at night for her because it continues to get so cold.

Naps have become pretty scheduled, though. She generally takes a mid-morning nap for roughly an hour, then an afternoon nap starting somewhere between 1-2 that can last a good 2-3 hours, and then an evening nap for another 30-60 minutes. At least we can almost always count on those, even when we never know if we’ll be awakened at night or not.

She’s still exclusively breastfed, eating 6-7 times a day. I tried rice cereal again the other week, and she had no interest. So then I tried baby food bananas last weekend, which she seemed to enjoy more. She still doesn’t really get the hang of the spoon at all, though, so we haven’t implemented solids on a regular basis yet. Fine by me. And the doctor said that’s fine too, whenever she’s ready.

Rolled back to front 5 days after she turned 5 months old and hasn’t stopped since. I say she’s the most mobile non-crawling baby I’ve ever seen. She can roll, spin, and reach her way to nearly anything she wants. I had to put away her playmats and bring the baby jail playpen back down from the attic, because she literally ends up halfway across the room on the hardwood floor every time we put her down on the mat now. It’s not her favorite place, but maybe it’ll grow on her. If not, I guess we’ll just let her roll around on the floor, which she actually doesn’t seem to mind one bit.

As I typed that paragraph, she scooted on her back from the middle of the couch to ram her head into the arm by arching her back and planting her little feet. On the move, that’s for sure.

She absolutely loves the jumperoo. She can now spin the seat in different directions so she can see what else is on the tray. In particular, she loves looking at her reflection in the little whale shaped mirror with the bar and sliding rings above it. She will happily stay in there for long stretches of time, which is very helpful when I’m trying to get something done around the house or need to tend to Della. Unfortunately it usually bounces the poop right out of her, as it is not uncommon for her to be found sitting in a blowout by the end of her jump sessions.

Still very much makes her presence known. She likes to scream for no real reason other than to ensure you don’t forget she’s lying there. It’s not crying, it’s just screaming. I guess she wants to see just which octave she can hit. We’re also starting to hear some consonant sounds in all that chatter. The other day at work one of the girls came out of the kids room carrying Lana and said they were warming up her bottle because she was getting very vocal. Yep, that’s a nice way of saying she was screaming at them to eat, ha!

Some random fun facts from her sixth month of life – she wears size 2 diapers and is pretty much out of her size 3m clothes. There are still a couple shirts and pajama onesies that fit from the 3m era, but the vast majority of her clothes are now 6m or some 6-9m. She unfortunately has her first real illness, a case of croup. I had a feeling that’s what it was when she started having a harsh, hoarse cough Sunday morning, and the doctor confirmed it yesterday. I just hope her cough and congestion clear up soon, because the poor little thing sounds awful.

She’s gotten to be so much fun. She laughs out loud when I nuzzle in to tickle her cheeks and neck. She kicks her little legs to splash all over the place when I give her a bath. She smiles as big as her head and starts panting when she sees us in the morning or when I come into their room at work. I just love it, and I simply cannot get enough of her.

Now just for grins, here’s a comparison shot of Della at 6 months on the left and Lana at 6 months on the right. Similar or not?

Lana turned 5 months old today. That’s almost half a year!

We don’t have another well check until 6 months, so no official stats this time. But here is what I can tell you…

Sleeping. Well let’s see. I’d still call it hit or miss. She has now slept through as many as 5 nights in a row, but it’s not enough to call it a nightly occurrence. I have stopped changing her diaper if she wakes to eat, though, so that helps cut down the awake time in the middle of the night for both of us.

I think she did go through a bit of 4 month sleep regression, which was a nasty spell. For weeks she’d wake up crying within an hour of being put to bed not really needing anything but being lulled back to sleep, then wake again once or twice during the night to fuss and/or eat. The worst night of it all was the first night Ryan was out of town last week, and that was awful. Fortunately after that she started her 5 night sleep stretch, so hopefully she was getting the last of it out of her system. (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!)

I guess not sleeping consistently through the night at 5 months isn’t the end of the world, but I can’t help comparing it to Della, who slept through by 3 months and never looked back. Ah well. Lana is definitely her own person, that’s for sure.

Her napping is pretty good. She still usually gets 3 naps in a day, morning, afternoon, and evening. Sometimes if we’re at work she’s too busy to take a morning nap, so then she tends to take a longer one once we get home and I feed her, essentially combining her morning and afternoon ones. That works fine for me.

Eating. Still exclusively breastfed, eating every 2-3 awake hours during the day. I did try giving her her first taste of rice cereal a few weeks ago because she’s now so interested in watching us eat, but she didn’t really enjoy it. She was more enticed by the prospect of chewing on the spoon rather than actually trying to eat. No biggie. We didn’t start Della on solids regularly until around 6 months I think. It’s also just easier right now not having to worry about both nursing and actual feeding. I’m lazy, remember?

Physicality. This girl is constantly moving and wiggling! I call her my little squirm, because that’s what she always does. She can roll front to back no problem, and she is so close to rolling back to front as well. When on her back she’ll pull her legs up into a little bowling ball shape and tip all the way onto one side, but she can’t quite get her arms underneath her correctly to complete the roll.

I swear she’s ready to take off crawling, too. She can practically get onto her hands and knees when she’s on her stomach, and I’ve seen her do a pretty good downward dog imitation too. I looked over at her one day and she was in baby tripod mode with her feet planted on the blanket, pushing her tiny butt up into the air. Any time now, I tell ya. I keep forgetting I can’t leave her on the changing dresser anymore.

She’s pretty good at sitting with assistance, but when I try to have her sit by herself she still readily tips over. Last night I had her sitting in the boppy pillow on the couch, with the boppy around her stomach to kind of barricade her in. She liked it for a little while, but then she toppled over again so I just put her back on her play mat.

She also has the strongest abs ever. She can almost pull herself up to a sitting position from lying down as you start to pick her up. A budding athlete maybe?

Personality. Big. And loud. Lana chatters and shouts nonstop. And I mean shouts. She’ll be playing on her play mat, yanking at all the toys dangling from the arches above her, and I’ll hear all these high-pitched squeals and yells coming from her. Della and I always say she’s talking to her guys. I swear she’s commanding them, “Get down here and get in my mouth!!”

She makes the most adorable faces with the hugest smiles, too. Her tongue is her new favorite accessory, and watching her stick it out in all different directions is hysterical. She has learned to blow real raspberries too, which I love. Something must always be in her mouth, much more so than I ever remember with Della, and I mean always. She will literally lunge at whatever passes in front of her face to try and grab it with her gums.

And she’s a thumb sucker. I actually don’t mind this at all, because it’s much easier to deal with than having to replace the damn pacifier eighty billion times a day/night. I keep one arm out of her swaddle at night so she can get her thumb to calm her when she rustles around. Works like a charm. I sucked my thumb for years and my teeth are just fine.

I took the throw pillow out from under the jumperoo a few weeks ago, and she can now fully bounce herself with her little toes touching the floor. She was in there last night jumping and squealing with delight. So incredibly cute.

I think those are the main points for now. This one just keeps getting better and better, my little bugaboo. My sweet baby girl.

 i swear, all of these really are the same child…

 

Lana turned 4 months old about a week and a half ago, but the girls and I were on vacation so I haven’t gotten around to updating ye old blog until now.

Here are the stats from her 4 month checkup:

• Height:  25.5″ (50-75%)
• Weight:  13 lbs. 8.25 oz. (50-75%)
• Head:  50-75%

Her doctor was again surprised that her height wasn’t in a higher percentile, but I’m sure she’ll sprout soon enough. She did say, however, that Lana is a perfect child, so I’ll take that. She thinks the bright blue eyes will stay, too, about which I’m thrilled.

This past month was a big one. We’ve dropped the pacifier (except for emergency public situations), seen her roll over from front to back for the first time and many times since, heard her first real laugh, and went on her first airplane. She’s also starting to string together multiple nights of sleeping all the way through, which makes me very happy.

I said she was getting more vocal in her 3 month stats post, but now she really has a lot to say. She still wakes up with huge smiles and usually just starts from there. Coos, gurgles, squeaks, shouts, na-nas… I love it. I say she’s telling everyone her “stories”. The best is when she gets so animated with her toys trying to get them in her mouth; she honestly shouts at them. Della says she’s talking to her guys when she does it, since that’s what I call the toys that hang from the arches on her playmat.

Her hands are constantly in her mouth, as is anything she can get in her hands. Squeaky balls, rings, chew rattles, you name it. She especially enjoys sucking on your finger. So if you pick up my baby, just wash your hands first, because there’s about a 150% chance she will grab your hand and shove it in her mouth. It’s hilarious, because sometimes she actually lunges at it like a little piranha.

I swear those blue eyes just keep getting bigger, too. She is constantly looking around; loves watching faces and mouths; and makes the cutest “biggie eyes” face you’ve ever seen. These faces are often accompanied by a constant drool stream, which is her new favorite accessory. I can’t see any teeth poking through in there yet, but all this drool might be a sign that they’re getting close. We are now in bib territory.

Her first (and second) airplane ride last week went better than I could have ever expected. On the way out to Tucson she took a bottle before takeoff, sucked on her pacifier (yes, i caved and gave it to her to prevent a screaming fit) for a few minutes after that, then slept on Grandma’s lap for the entire rest of the 4 hour flight. Hallelujah! On our return trip she was equally as pleasant. She was asleep in the carrier on me for takeoff and the first part of the flight, then ate a bottle, played with Grandma again for awhile, took another bottle shortly before landing, and didn’t make a peep the whole time. Whew!

She still can’t reach the floor in the jumperoo, so the throw pillow remains under her feet. She is, however, already growing out of some of her 3 month clothing – a lot of pj’s have returned to the attic storage, and a couple cute little outfits won’t be far behind. She is in the process of switching up to size 2 diapers, too. Growing like a little flower, I tell ya.

She is the cutest thing ever, and I just love how she smells. I can still get her to nap on my shoulder sometimes, which I cherish. Since ditching the pacifier, naps are still a little hit or miss, but she generally takes one during the early-mid part of the day (sometimes morning and afternoon) and almost always an evening one.

Bedtime is still usually anytime between 8-9, then I cross my fingers that she sleeps through the night. On vacation she slept through 5 out of 7 nights, but since we’ve been home she hasn’t had a repeat performance. I think she has had a little bit of a cold though, with some congestion and hoarse cries, so that could be the culprit. But I have cut out the diaper change when she wakes during the night, so if I hear her starting to squeak or cry, I just feed her and get her back to sleep as quickly as possible.

We’re still doing all breastmilk, which I’ll probably continue for a little while. She is very interested in watching you eat now, so I did try a little rice cereal the other night. She was much more interested in chewing on the spoon than actually getting anything to stay in her mouth, so I’ll wait a little bit before trying again. No rush for me on that one.

Her cranky spells are much fewer and far between now, which is a nice change. I say she’s mellowing in her old age. She is very content playing on the floor now, either on her stomach or back, as long as she has plenty of toys on which to chew. She’ll start to fuss and let you know it’s time to pick her up when she’s had enough or when she gets tired still, but it’s fortunately nothing like it used to be.

I think those are the highlights for this month. Here are the monthly comparison pictures so far – I swear she looks like a completely different baby! Her hair looks like it’s getting red in the 4 month shot, but it’s not really. It’s still dark brown, there’s just so much less of it now. I do love this one so, my sweet baby girl.