ava mae: 6 months

our little diva is half a year old already! these past 6 months have FLOWN by....its hard to believe 6 months ago, i was pregnant and waiting for her arrival.

she has changed so much in the last month.  where to begin....

for starters, she is still eating breastmilk, both from nursing and from bottles.  i have tried to introduce formula a couple of times now, and it really seems to disagree with her little system. she pukes it all up whenever we try, so for now...strictly breastmilk it is.  i have made it 6 months already, so maybe i can make it the whole year.  fingers crossed!  we also have started her on cereal once a day.  we did this for the first time yesterday, and as you can see, the diva wasn't super impressed.  her doctor recommended starting with cereal then moving onto veggies.  i am excited to see her reactions to different foods!  we are taking our time with it though, and moving slowly to other foods.  breastmilk is still the best thing for her.

our little chunk had her 6 month apt the other day, and she weighs 17 lbs 10 oz (77%), is 27 inches long (89%) and her head circumference is 17 1/4 inches (89%).  it looks like she's going to be tall!  she is wearing size 3 diapers and size 6M, 6-9M, and i just got out her 9M clothes.  the 9M really fits her best for now, but she's kind of in that in between stage where the 6M is a little tight and the 9M is a little big.  she has a TON of cute 9M stuff though, so I am trying to get her in some of it now to stretch out how long she gets to wear it all.

her sleep at the beginning of this month took a nose dive.  she was up every hour and a half for what seemed like WEEKS.  then oliver and i took a week long trip to mexico and my parents kept her, and apparently while she was there, something just clicked.  now she's sleeping from 6:30PM-6:30AM with little or no wake ups.  when she does wake up, you just pop in her pacifier (called a "boppy" in our house) and she goes right back to sleep.  whatever you did mom and dad, it worked!!  naps are still iffy....i have really been trying to put her down in her crib for naps, but its slow going.  she's actually in there right now taking a nap, so i will count that as a small victory!  at night we go through a bedtime routine of bath, swaddle, and nurse, and lay her down awake but sleepy.  she has no problem putting herself to sleep at bedtime.

in physical development, she just recently started rolling more than one roll at a time.  she can be in the middle of the living room and roll roll roll to the other side in no time.  its actually really funny to see her do it, and sometimes she gets stuck in the side of the couch or in her crib slots.  then she gets pissed!  she also loves to bounce in her bouncer.  she is working on sitting up unassisted--we still have a little ways to go on that.  she can stand with help too.

i think we are entering a little of an attachment phase.  these past couple days she hasn't wanted me to put her down and she's screamed when i walk away from her.  the doctor said that around this age they start realizing mom is leaving the room--and she definitely does.  (she just woke up from her nap as i type this and i've had to move her bouncer to where she can see me....shes keeping me within eyesight!)

her hair is coming in, and it looks like its going to be a light blonde.  her eyes are still kind of hard to tell, but sometimes they look dark blue, green, and hazel.  it just depends on the light.  i did read that the eyes change the most drastically between 6-9 months, so it will be interesting to see what happens these next couple months.

she is a serious baby, always checking things out and studying the faces of people around her.  she LIGHTS UP when her daddy is around, and also loves for me to sing songs (itsy bitsy spider and the birdie song are the favorites), loves to look at herself in the mirror, and loves bath time.  she's not a fan of anyone messing with her nose or her neck rolls.  she pretty much only cries when she's hungry or tired.

we love our sweet girl! happy 6 months ava!

ava mae: 5 months

ava is officially 5 months today!  (well, technically tonight after 11PM...but you get the drift.)  i know i say this every month, but dang...time is flying. we seriously have a real BABY and not just a squishy newborn anymore. 

ava is almost 17 lbs, and wearing (some) 3-6M clothes and (most) 6M clothes.  i don't know how long she is but she is definitely getting longer each day--quickly outgrowing her favorite swing and swaddle wrap.  i don't know what we will do when she can't fit in both of those because both are necessary for sleep!  

she has had quite the eventful month this month, what with it being her first christmas and all.  we went to oliver's families in livingston, huntsville, and the woodlands, and then ended with christmas with my parents here at our house.  then we did a quiet new years because both ava and oliver got sick.  we wrapped up the holiday season with a big family get together with my parents, sister, her kids, uncle, cousin and family friends this past weekend.  

ava did get sick over the break, as i mentioned.  she woke up on christmas eve with a swollen, red eye that was leaking pus.  we watched it through the morning and in the afternoon it was bad enough that we decided to take her to the doctor.  luckily his mom was able to get us in with her family doctor in huntsville, who gave her eyedrops and antibiotics and sent us on our way. it got better quickly and we discontinued the antibiotics but kept going with the eyedrops.  then a few days before new years, she developed a cough that lasted all week. oliver was also sick at the time so it was quite the hectic week trying to take care of both of them.  (side note: men are worse babies when they are sick than actual babies.  just saying.) ava ended up with an ear infection, another eye infection, and a cough...but luckily she seems to be out of the woods with all of it.  and sleeping better too! 

ava is still breast fed, both with nursing and pumped milk.  i feel like my supply has drastically decreased, so we are having to dip into my freezer stash quite a bit.  we also have started supplementing here and there with formula specifically made for breastfed babies.  on the event that we can't do the whole year bf'ing, we wanted to make sure she would even take the formula.  it was a non-issue, as this kid pretty much will eat anything in a bottle.  

her sleep varies greatly by night and situation.  when she was sick, she was waking up between 3-5 times a night. she would cough and wake herself up and then either be hungry, upset she was awake, or i would be worried she would have trouble breathing and would get her up.  now that she's starting to feel better i think her sleep will get back to normal.  last night she went down at 7PM, woke up and ate at 12AM and 5:30AM, and i had to wake her up for the day at 7:30AM.  we are still delaying solids until at least 6 months, if not longer.  she's showing no interest in them yet and frankly, i don't want to deal with the mess any sooner than necessary.  :)  

she still HATES HATES tummy time. with a passion. and she's really bad at it too.  she is close to sitting without assistance though, and has great head and neck control.  she also is not a fan of the sweedish snot sucker, when i talk and she's nursing, and sneezes (they scare her). 

she loves baths with momma, smiling at her daddy, kisses from harley, her boppy (pacifier), laughing at cacey, blankets and being snuggled, and being outside or on the go.  

we are seriously so lucky to have this sweet little girl in our lives.  couldn't imagine anything different or life without her.