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| Dimples and giggles… I love her. |
Our sweet baby girl turned 6 months old on July 23rd. She's growing much faster then I would like. She is an absolute joy and I love everything about her… the dimples, constant drool, little giggles, chubby thighs, pointy ears, her fingernails that grow faster then I can keep trimmed (and therefore always scratch me), her smell after a bath, the way her eyes follow big brother, the way she can make anyone smile, just EVERYTHING.
Her first 6 months have been so different for me then they were with Gavin. While Gavin's baby days were nothing but extraordinary, it has been so much easier this time around {minus the fact I have an almost 3 year old to keep up with}. I'm sure its the fact that Stella is our 2nd and we kinda know what we're doing this time around. She is just a perfect little baby. I know I'm going to jinx myself here, but in her 6 months of life she's never been sick. By this time with Gavin we'd already struggled through RSV, hand/foot/mouth disease, colds, and the never ending battles of asthma. It's been a blessing to never hear a wheeze from Stella, no chronic coughing, no constant runny nose, nothing. I know the time will come for her to be sick, but I've been so thankful that she hasn't had to suffer as a small infant the way Gavin did.
She still has no teeth (Gavin got his first two at 6 months) but there are signs that they are soon to come. Stella is constantly drooling, looking for anything to chew on, and she has two little white spots on her lower gums. I am still strictly nursing her (with a bottle here and there) so I say the later those teeth want to arrive the better!
I am making her food, just as I did with Gavin. She took a few weeks to figure out the whole eating from a spoon concept, but I think she's got it now. So far, she's had sweet potato, butternut squash, avocado, apples, banana, and we just introduced carrots. She's also had cereal. I'm looking to start a few new vegetables soon, but I'm having a hard time finding the motivation to make it since we'll be road tripping soon and I don't want any of it to go to waste. We've bought a few things of organic store bought foods to take along with us on the trip, I'm hoping she'll accept those as well as home made!
I imagine she will be crawling within another month or so. She rolls all over the place and when she's on her back she uses her feet to "back scoot" to where she wants to be. I knew it wouldn't take her long to figure out how to get mobile - she has a big brother and dog she loves too much and desires to keep up with at all times! In the last week or two she has mastered sitting. We used to keep the Boopy behind her for support, but now she no longer needs it. She's discovered there is a whole new world out there from her new upright view!
Her nicknames are "Stelly", "Stelly Belly", "Lil Mama", "Baby Girl", and "Stella Bella". Gavin never calls her by her name, he always uses a nickname for her and I LOVE IT.
Ok, I've made it sound like she is the perfect little baby and 95% of the time I truly feel that way. We did have a few weeks of sleep issues. She went from sleeping through the night to again waking every 2-3 hours wanting to eat and just be in my arms. I'd get her asleep and go to lay her down and she'd wake instantly screaming. We aren't sure if it was a growth spurt or just a "I want mommy" phase but we're nearing the end of that and she's back to sleeping through the night again. She's not much of a napper but as long as she's sleeping through the night, I can adapt during the day!
I don't have any of her measurements because the pediatric clinic on post is so backed up and she can't get an appointment until the 19th.
Alright, here are Stella's 6 (and a 1/2) month pictures! We took these out in the yard tonight. The bugs were bad so I had to work quickly! There were even a few gnats in the pictures I had to edit out. They are horrible down here right now!
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| Teething, maybe?? |
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| These toes work extra hard trying to figure out how to crawl forward! |
