Hello, hello. Another 2 weeks gone by. I can’t believe my girl is going to be half a year old next week. Crazy talk! We are celebrating by giving Adriana her first solid food sometime in the next couple weeks. Par-tee time. From what I’ve heard from many of you, I’m not expecting much to happen in the actual eating department – it’s more about exploration right now – but I’m excited anyway! We’re going to set up the video camera and tape her first bites. I might pee my pants.
Once we start solids my plan is to always nurse her before feeding solids, so she still gets most of her calories/nutrients from breast milk. I read this will also prevent my milk supply from taking a nose dive. It’s funny though, Adriana has really taken notice of our food in the past week. Some days she downright gawks at us with her mouth agape, watching the fork go to our mouth. Do you think she’s trying to tell us something?! Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes!
The big topic in the last update was that Adriana figured out how to roll in the crib in her Merlin sleep suit. We always said that when she started to roll in the Merlin we would stop using it because we were worried about her getting stuck on her belly (the suit is quite stiff). So we purchased a sleep sack to keep her warm, but with more peace of mind that her hands are completely free and her legs have lots of room to move too. At first I thought that she hated the sleep sack, but in retrospect I don’t think it was the Halo at all; I think it was simply her frustration with rolling in the crib – a totally new experience for her. She wasn’t used to waking up on her tummy and wasn’t sure what to do. I always read that when babies learn a new skill they can be quite fussy while they are mastering it. Everytime she’d wake up she would scream until one of us came in to flip her. That got old fast, haha. There was one week where we were waking up 8 times a night…exhausting! I knew that if we stuck with it and gently helped her along she would pick it up and become comfortable with it in no time. And that’s exactly what happened. Now it’s no big deal! And she seems to enjoy the Halo too. But man oh man, this girl loves her tummy sleep. As soon as I put her down in the crib the legs go up and she rolls to her tummy. I’m much more comfortable with it now and I’m not staring at the monitor all night long, so my sleep has improved too! We’ll chalk that one up to a “mommy leap”.
One unexpected bonus of tummy sleep has been her skin. She had scaly patches on her cheeks for the longest time (nothing helped much) and sleeping on her tummy made it go away completely. I think it’s due to the moisture from her drool and the damp sheet under her face! Weird, right? Eric says we’ve unlocked the cure for winter dry skin – just drool a bit more!
One new thing that she’s been doing for a week or two now is that when she wakes up in the middle of the night she’s often super hyper and ready to play. I like to call it her “middle of the night squeak-a-thon” – it tends to only happen if she’s had a long 4-5 hour stretch of sleep. We try our best to calm her down, but it’s the nursing that really does it.
Wake-ups: Lately, she goes down for bed by 7pm (depending on her last nap wake up), and wakes for a feed around 12:30-1am and then another at 5-5:30am. She wakes up at other points in the night, but will soothe herself back to sleep. Everyone says solids will help with her overnight sleep, so I’m sure we will see gradual improvements with time…
Recent milestones: Adriana is still rolling lots and rotating her body while on the floor, push-ups (fully extending arms underneath her), sucking her thumb (we saw her suck her thumb for the first time ever this weekend…late bloomer!), flailing arms and legs trying to crawl but getting nowhere (thank goodness). Still lots of squeaking, laughing, and babbling going on. She also responds to her name and will turn her head to look at the person. (We actually had to stop calling her “Monkey” for a while because we realized she’d never learn her actual name! haha). We have also been practicing sitting, but she isn’t sitting on her own unassisted yet. Her new nickname is “Bam, Bam” – Eric gave her this name after she started hitting the crib mattress with her right fist (it’s her new thing). It’s random, but super cute!
Naps: I’m happy to say that her naps have increased in duration lately! Where she was once napping just 30 minutes at a time for most naps, now she is regularly cranking out 75 minute naps, sometimes less sometimes a bit more. This has resulted in much more productive parents and a much happier baby. We tried a few things to help with her naps: 1) We have quiet time before a nap and try not to overstimulate her within 20-30 minutes of napping, 2) We follow her sleep signs and put her down after we see a few yawns, tired eyes. Previously we tried to keep her awake for 2 hours before the first morning nap, but I found that was a bit too long for her most mornings. She goes down easier if she isn’t super tired and seems to sleep longer. So we’re just following her lead basically. 3) Instead of rushing into her room when she first wakes up, I leave her for a bit to play on her own. Often she is content to just talk to herself and stare at the mobile. Sometimes she will fall back to sleep, sometimes not. I think in the past we might have rushed in to get her too soon. It’s all trial and error! Other times, I can tell that there’s no way she’s going to go back to sleep. One issue we’ve had is that since her teething is ramping up, she has been SOAKING her crib sheet in drool. Poor girl! So we sometimes have to change her position in the crib if it’s taking her a while to fall asleep or if it’s really bad swap the sheet out for a new one.
Nursing: Possible growth spurt last week – one day she napped 4 hours which is a record lately. She seemed to be extra rough one day and I was super sore for over a week on one side. It brought me back to the early days of breastfeeding! Luckily, it has healed up now and I’m no longer cringing my entire body when she latches. Her favourite thing to do while nursing lately is touch my face. She will look up at me and touch my face or she will just randomly touch my face as she feeds. It melts my heart. We still have best success nursing in a dark room which is free from a lot of distractions. If we’re in a brightly lit room I can usually guarantee she won’t nurse more than 5 minutes.
Hair: I haven’t updated our hair falling out in a while. I’m happy to say that her hair is growing like a weed lately and my own hair loss has almost returned to normal. My bald patches near my temples are filling in with wispy hairs so it doesn’t look as noticeable as it did a couple months ago. Progress! I still have quite a few awkward small hairs popping out, but oh well what can ya do.
Recently, I cut a few inches off my hair and got extra layers, but I’ve been thinking about chopping my hair off at my collarbone (or just below) for summer (which would be another 4-5 or so inches off). It’s something I’ve been thinking of doing for a long time and I’ve found some gorgeous cuts on Pinterest for inspiration. I’ve had short hair in the past a couple times and didn’t love it, so that’s what is holding me back. I just think it might have been the wrong cut though…
Exercise: Feel like I’m getting into a great routine with exercise again .We had a few days of nice weather (5-8C) so I got out on a few stroller walks. It was soooo nice! I’ve been getting back into weights (still loving/hating Madonna arms and Pilates butt workout videos), and introduced side planks again too. I always find my motivation ramps up in the spring! Buh bye winter blahs.
Baby proofing: Currently looking into baby proofing the house. Eek! We want to be ready before she starts crawling, so I want to look into it sooner rather than later. I think I might have a baby proofing company come to the house for a consultation since I’m pretty clueless. Any tips parents?
Ok, this was another huge update. I always have more to say than I think! Let me know how you are doing this month! Any stories about introducing your baby to solids you’d like to share? How did it go? By the way, thanks for all your stories in my last post…so much fun to read!
Stay tuned for a post on designing a playroom. I will show you guys a blank slate and ask for opinions! Can’t wait. :)