6 months old!

My sweet Lucy M is 6 months old already! 

 In so many ways these have been the longest, hardest days of my life, and yet here it is 6 months later and I'm scratching my head wondering where my newborn went.  She's so strong and full of life and spunk.

Her stats:
Weight: 16lbs, 7.5 ounces (50-55%ile)
Height: 27 inches (75%ile)
Head: 17.5 inches (I think....definitely in the 90%ile)

The doctor was very impressed with her core strength. She said it's unusual for a baby to be able to sit up without "tripodding" -- using her hands to support herself -- already.  Lucy can sit up and play with a toy with both hands.  She's hitting all other developmental milestones -- transferring toys from one hand to another, putting things to her mouth, responding to sights and sounds, rolling over, babbling (bonus points for making the doctor laugh with her growling).

In the next 3 months she will transition up to three meals a day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and will likely outgrow her infant carseat (for length).  She'll also learn to drink from a sippy cup, and should be crawling and pulling herself up in the next month or two.



Lucy sits up by herself for long periods now and just needs someone nearby to ease her fall if she gets tired or off-balance and topples.  These times are already becoming more and more rare as each day passes.  She can fully manipulate her pacifier now and often falls asleep holding it in with two hands, or with one in each hand (and another in her mouth).  The biggest change we've experienced is that she's no longer swaddled at night.  She is sleeping much better and is down to two night feedings, working towards one.



She giggles, chuckles, and coos, but our favorite continues to be when she growls or outright laughs.  She even had the doctor laughing at her happy growls.  To say this girl is a "character" is putting it mildly.  More and more we're seeing her personality come out. She's spunky, opinionated, determined, and busy.  She loves her daddy and her cousins and lights up when she sees either.  When she's tired she prefers mama or daddy, and when she's really tired we get a treasured snuggle from our active girl.

 

Lucy's started cereal and is starting to get the hang of "chewing" and swallowing her oatmeal.  She also  continues to enjoy sucking on watermelon and watching us eat.

Lucy's curiosity has taken off in the last few weeks and she'll steal anything within arm's reach to further explore it.  With her newfound rolling skills this means we need to start baby-proofing as she's been found pulling on computer cords, mugs, etc. toward her.

Loving being sung to by cousin Tori

It won't be long before she's on to crawling and pulling herself up.  I admit I've got mixed emotions about my baby growing up. I want so badly to see her succeed and reach her goals, to grow and discover her world, but OH. MY. She's my BABY and a part of me wants to tuck her away just as she is today and keep her there forever!

Six month video: 

Lucy gets the giggles -- she'd been doing this for several minutes before we decided we had to get it on camera...she was already winding down, but still giving quite the good giggles to her cousins: