6 Months

I swear she is still brand new.  Its already been half a year?  Heavens, I need to start planning her first birthday party.  How is this possible?!  Since I can't seem to grasp how old she is, here's a detailed account of her life right now to prove it to you, and me.


Annabelle is taking 3 naps a day.  Generally it is 2 long ones, morning and mid day, followed by a shorter late afternoon/early evening nap.  Believe it or not, it took me a great deal of time to figure out how much/how often she needs to be napping.  We were just on the go too much with Sam!  Now that I have a handle on the info, I'm working on a balance between staying home for her naps and getting out to do things with Sam.  Its a continual work in progress.  In addition to her three naps, she nurses 5 times.  We finally dropped our dream feed, so now she is usually in her bed for 11 straight hours at night.  For the record, this is waaaaay longer than big brother.

All of that eating and sleeping doesn't leave us with a whole lot of time to play!  And its only going to get worse when we add solid feedings into the mix (stay tuned, that's coming this weekend!).  But we have fun with her.  The whole sitting thing adds a new dimension to our play, and she is getting better and better with that every day.  She is happy sitting so that she can see everything, and even happier sitting on high ground.  Sam's bed, which is a bit lofted, is her preferred perch.  She grabs onto everything within her reach and shoves it in her mouth, including my hair.  She and I played in front of the full length mirror yesterday for about 30 minutes.  It was blowing her mind, which was really fun.  She is starting to love books - she tries to grab at the pictures while you're reading.

Interesting note: she tolerates the exersaucer.  This was one of Sam's happy places, so its a bit of an adjustment to me that she isn't content there for longer than 5 minutes.  She does try to "sing" to the buttons that sing back, really funny.  Honestly, she desires greatly to just be where Sam is.  She really is happiest when she can watch him.

She is so mellow.  The only time she cries hard is when put into a car seat hungry, I believe out of fear that she won't be fed at all.  Yes, this means very little crying, but it is also work to get her to laugh.  Makes it super rewarding though.  

She is a tiny but healthy girl.  13 pounds even, which puts her in the "less than 5%" group that her brother is so familiar with.  After insisting that he was fine with this gain, the Dr. asked me if I was concerned.  I've been down this path before, so no, I'm good.  She grew 1/2 an inch to 25.5 (36%), but again, Chris and I put zero stock in length measurements until they measure them standing.  Her head is 16 1/4 inches (26%).  And her head is beautiful.  Literally, that is the word he still uses to describe her head shape every time we see him.  And he described her sitting abilities as "exceptional."  She was old enough to get her first dose of the flu shot, so she ended up with 4 shots and 1 oral vaccine.  I swear, she cried for about 25 seconds and was done.  

She's going to change a lot over the next six months, more than she has the first six.  By her birthday she'll be done nursing (to this day that's all she's ever had!), and could be walking and even talking!  But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

At 6 months, here are her lists...
Likes:
-Sam
-Being Held
-Chew Toys
-Pulling Mommy's Hair

Dislikes:
-Being Left Alone
-Hungry Car Rides
-Cold Milk