Fiona is Six Months Old!

Yes, you heard me correctly! My little cutie pie is already six months old- well, 6.5 months if you want to get technical.

I can't believe how much she has changed in just one month. Six must be the magic number for us! She has the sweetest temperament and I often get comments about how calm she is. She is a little fussier for me than others, but it's probably because my presence is a constant reminder of food for her.

Speaking of food, she still won't take a bottle in any form and has been somewhat resistant to food in general. I have a freezer full of homemade baby food (well, just yams and green beans so far) And my little chickadee isn't impressed with my efforts and wouldn't give them the time of day.

I finally tried Gerber Puffs. They are those little cereal-like things that dissolve really quickly. She gobbles these things up! She can even grab them with her fingers and can get them into her mouth- sometimes.

I've realized that maybe Fiona just doesn't like the texture of pureed foods. To test my theory, I diced up some sweet potatoes really small and steamed them until they were very tender. She doesn't like them as much as the puffs, but she will usually tolerate a few of those.

Yesterday I pulled out the pureed yams again to see if she was interested. She actually took several bites, so maybe we are getting somewhere.

Here are her stats from her 6 month check up...

Height: 23" (1%) - No gain compared to 4 months
Weight: 12 libs 2 oz (1%) - 4 oz gain compared to 4 months
Head: 41 1/2 cm (22%) - 2 1/4 cm gain compared to 4 months

The doctor was just a little concerned about her weight gain and wants me to bring her in for a weight check in a couple more weeks. The doctor doesn't mind petite babies, as long as they are growing according to their own curve. Since there was a dip in her growth, she just wants to make sure she's OK. She encouraged me to supplement nursing with solids, hence my efforts to get her to eat something.

Fiona playing with her spoon instead of eating

Just because I think it's fun to compare, at this age, Gwen was 2 inches taller, 12 ounces heavier, and her head was 1/2 inches bigger. It will be interesting to see who ends up taller someday!

Developmentally, Fiona has been making lots of progress! She's starting to babble a little bit and puts vowels and consonants together. 2 weeks ago I distinctly heard her say "ma ma ma ma ma". I know it's just babble to her, but I'm glad to know she said mama before dada- Gwen did the opposite so it is my turn! I haven't heard her since, but I'm waiting.

Fiona's also starting roll from her back to belly and is sitting up pretty well...





Fiona also still loves her exersaucer! She is happiest when there are oodles of toys piled up on it...

But, eventually they all fall off...

One of the biggest improvements have to do with her sleep habits. After reading many books and trying every alternative, we decided that we just needed to let her cry herself to sleep. I hate it. It totally goes against my nature, but it is starting to work- which is far more I can say about anything else we have attempted.

At around 4 months, we gave crying it out a try once or twice out of sheer desperation. After a few minutes of crying, it was always obvious that it was going to work. It always left her in hysterics and it would take 20 minutes at least just to calm her down.

When she was almost 6 months, Rick gave "crying it out" a try once or twice again while I wasn't home. He reported success to me later and said that she actually hardly cried at all. It was then that I realized that developmentally she might be ready for it, so we gave it a try. Of course, it hasn't been perfect, but I seeing some definite improvements.

There is more to our methods that just letting her cry. Here is what our basic routine is like at bedtime (more for my future reference than your interest- I'm sure I lost most of my readers paragraphs ago)

1. Go into her room, lower the lights and turn on her sleepy time CD

2. Change her diaper, give her a little massage and put on jammies

3. Read a book

4. Say a prayer (and pray really hard that sleep will come easily for her)

5. Turn off lights, music, and turn on the fan for a little white noise

6. Hold her while singing "I Am a Child of God"

7. Put her in her bed while still awake and leave the room.

At first we would only let her cry for a few minutes before we would go in to pick her up and console her. Then we would extend the amount of time each time we left. It worked beautifully for the first few days, but then it seemed like she was crying more again.

I talked to my sister-in-law about it and she suggested not picking her up to console her. It took me a day or two to accept this idea. Then, Rick and I talked and decided that we had to be 100% consistent- otherwise we were just making it harder on Fiona and us. We've been doing this now for a few more days and it's definitely getting better again.

I can't help but feel guilty and worry that she is going to feel unloved and abandoned. But, she always wakes up looking like this...

My goodness, can she be any cuter? I love how her eyes twinkle when she smiles. It reminds me of my Grandpa Jensen- he had a definite twinkle.

Here's another just for good measure...

One thing that has always made me a little sad is that Fiona isn't a cuddler. I've spent many nights (and days) rocking her to sleep while she has twisted around and arched her back- all while screaming. The past few days a miracle has started to occur...when I do her bedtime routine and get to the part where I start singing to her, she rests her head on my shoulder. It is seriously the best thing in the world. It totally melts my heart.

And who wouldn't want to cuddle with this sweet thing?