Well, the day has
come, our little Abby is half a year old! That is nuts! Actually, today she is 7 months old. I have been meaning to write this blog for 4 weeks now,
but life has been busy!
So I thought I would
collect my thoughts on how the past 6 months have gone, record memories of what
Abby is like now and any lessons learned!
Abigail is at the 90th
percentile in her height, measuring at 27.5 inches! We don’t know quite how she
is so tall because I am short and her dad is average for a male height. Our
pediatrician said she will likely grow to be taller than I am. Better get her
signed up for basketball now! She is 17 lbs and 9 oz, which is about 70%
percentile for weight. Our arms are definitely getting stronger!
Her personality lights
up any room and it is so inspiring to see her do new things and new traits
every day. Seeing the biggest smile on her face when she sees me after a long
day is the BEST THING in the entire world. She loves to cuddle and one of my favorite
things in life right now is when she is tired, she falls asleep right on my
shoulder or chest. She tries to fight it at first but I start rubbing her back
and her eyes drift off and she plops her head right down and we snuggle. It is
the best thing in the world. She can do this the rest of her life if she wants
to, my shoulder will always be here.
Abby Is SO smart. It
impresses me daily. We have started doing some sign language with her. We
started out with signs for milk, eat, more, all gone, play, change diaper,
sleep, light, and now working in mommy and daddy. Within about a week she
picked up milk and is signing milk to us when she’s drinking the milk! At times
we have caught her signing milk when she’s not eating, but we aren’t quite sure
if she’s actually hungry for the milk or just doing it. I don’t know if she’s
quite made that connection yet. But just the fact that she signs milk while
she’s drinking means she connects milk with the sign! Woot!
She is just starting
to fully sit up by herself now after weeks and months of flopping over. This is
so cool as this now leads to some independent play which is cool to watch. She
mostly just loves to bang things together or touch new textures. We turned our
newly remodeled “dining room” (it was never really a dining room but that’s
what the floor model states) into her playroom, complete with lots of toys and
a puzzle play mat! So watching her sit up in the middle of it and play
independently with her toys is so cool to see those brain connections forming!
She has awesome dexterity (which kind of reminds me of a gorilla the way she
grabs things). Crawling is a different story, she literally has zero interest
in moving anywhere. We have tried enticing her with attractive things, demoing
crawling, helping her into the position, but nope. The doctor said it’s a
little early yet, so I am not too worried. I figure one day she will just
surprise us all and just do it or she may skip crawling and go right to
walking. She has great posture when she help her stand and does well standing
on her own with minimal support, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see those
feet moving before crawling. The doctor was impressed on how well she’s sitting
so I will take that!
Music is one of her
favorite things-albeit the new hit song “baby shark” seems to be her absolute
favorite, which is hard to hear over and over. But she seems to love all music,
from lullabies, to rock n’roll! It will most days, turn a frown into a laugh when
she hears music. When it doesn’t, we know it’s a sign she needs to take a nap
or eat.
Solids! Ah, solid
foods! I have no idea what I am doing, Sorry Abby! We are starting her on
puréed foods and so far she LOVES them. I have no idea how much to give or how
often but were kinda winging it and it seems to be going okay. I am trying to
stick to mostly veggies and some of the sweeter veggies at this point to try
and foster an early love for veggie taste before we allow straight up bananas.
(I’ve tasted banana baby food and it’s GOOD so I wouldn’t want veggies again
after eating that either!) But then there is all this talk of “baby led
weaning” but I have no idea how to do that so for now we are kinda just winging
it day by day. Just last night she showed an interest in taking the spoon by
herself so we shall see!
Six months is truly an
emotional conundrum! I see her turning into this beautiful, smart child and we
cannot wait to experience new things with her, show her places, take her to
interesting and new experiences, have conversations with her, but at the same time
I want to freeze in time the baby ages too! I will miss her falling asleep on
my shoulder. I will miss breastfeeding deeply. I will miss her tiny hands! This
is the first time I have wanted time to speed up but also stay still at the
same time! #parenting lol
Having a child brings
on so many more emotions than you ever thought possible. Before being a mom to
a human, I was a mommy to fur-babies. When I saw an animal being hurt or
getting lost in a TV show, movie or heard about it in real life, my heart literally
broke because I imagined those horrible things happening to my fur-babies. When
I saw or heard about horrible things happening to children, of course it was
terrible and heartbreaking but I couldn’t truly connect with those emotions yet
before being a mom to a human. Now, I hear these stories of kidnapping, or
children dying in tragedies or illnesses and it literally breaks my heart into
a million pieces, imagining those same things happening to Abigail. The best
thing I can do is hug her extra tight in those moments of anxiety, take the
best care of her that I can, teach her good values and morals her whole life,
teach her about danger and staying away, and always love her. I have to tell
myself that every day to keep the anxiety at bay. If other new moms reading this
can take anything away from this, I hope they know that post partum anxiety is
REAL and it’s SCARY! But it’s OKAY and none of us are alone in it. It’s normal
to imagine the worst possible scenarios happening to your child. It’s normal to
have anxiety worrying about the future. I told my post partum therapist that I
literally felt like I had the devil and the angel sitting on opposite sides of
my shoulders. The devil is feeding all of this anxiety while the angel is
grounding me and being realistic and telling me to focus on right now, focus on
the present, focus on what is real. Right now, she’s with you. Right now, she
is not sick. Right now, she is not hurt. Right now, she is happy. Right now,
she is okay. Focus on that. Focus on right now. Focus on today. Focus on
tomorrow, tomorrow. It’s a mantra!
As for mommy life, life is busy! I have started my masters program in predictive analytics. I won't bore you with the details because everyone's eyes start to drift off to sleep when I try and talk about it, but it truly makes me SO.HAPPY. The hardest part is one day each week I can't put Abby to bed, but I have to remind myself it's for our future as a family.
If anyone is curious about Abbys schedule for modeling it for their own use, here goes! But keep in mind, every baby is different, every mommy is different ! What works for me may not work for you and vice versa. And most of all, there are no wrong answers!
Weekday:
Baby:
Wake up- 6:40 AM
Breastfeeds-7AM
Bottle 9AM (5oz)
Nap 9-11:30 (this varies)
Plays
Solid foods ~ 12
Bottle 1:30 (5oz)
Nap 2-3:30
Bottle (or breastfeeds depending on mommy schedule) ~ 5pm (5oz)
Solids 6,6:30 ish
30 minute nap 6:30-7
Breastfeeds 8pm
Bed, sleeps 8:30-6:45 (usually)
Mommy:
Breastfeeds 7AM
Pumps 10:30 (4-5oz)
Pumps 2:30 (4-5oz)
Breastfeeds OR bottle at 5
Breastfeeds 8PM
pumps ~2-4 oz 10PM
Mommy:
Breastfeeds 7AM
Pumps 10:30 (4-5oz)
Pumps 2:30 (4-5oz)
Breastfeeds OR bottle at 5
Breastfeeds 8PM
pumps ~2-4 oz 10PM
I'd be happy to answer any questions or offer any advice!
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