6 Months

We made it...Happy Half Birthday to Megan! It's hard to believe she's been in our lives for that long already. It's even harder to believe we've been in our new house that long!

Megan continues to be a pretty good baby overall. She is pretty happy for the most part. She usually wears a smile on her face. She flirts with her Dad all the time and continues to think her Sister is pretty funny. She loves playing peek-a-boo and for some reason not only likes to play with her feet, but my feet as well. She has started to jump in her jumparoo and really enjoys playing in that which frees up my hands so I also love it! She "plays" with toys more than I remember Jade doing. She enjoys different toys and hasn't really picked a favorite. Her laugh makes my heart smile! I just love baby laughs!

Sleep:
Ugh...She's not Jade! She goes to bed around 8/830 and is either up a few times a night or sleeps until 4-6:00 to eat. Then she goes back to bed until 7:30/8:00. If she is up before 4:00, I try to get her to go back to sleep without eating to not change our routine up too much and I don't think she should be hungry then. Some nights I'm not sure why she wakes up so much or what she really needs. If we are home, she usually naps around 10 for 1-2 hours. If we are gone, she will wait until we are in the car or home to take her first nap. She really fights napping and I can't get her to fall asleep at a couple classes Jade and I are in. Sometimes she does fine without a nap where other days she gets crabby. If she has someone or something to watch, she's usually fine. She usually naps 2-3 hours after she gets up. She is usually fine after 2 naps and doesn't really nap much at night unless she's really tired. If she gets up around 3/4:00 in the afternoon, she won't nap until it's bedtime. It's nice having her nap shorter in the morning so she will take her long nap at 1 with Jade, on the flip side, it's nice when she naps long in the morning so I get Jade time without her and then Megan time while Jade is napping. She is hard to get to go down for bed and naps. I can do it, but everyone else has a hard time and I can only do it when we are home. She's not a self soother, although I think she's getting better at that. We might be trying the cry it out thing to go to bed starting this weekend. Wish us luck...we'll see how that goes!

Feed Me:
We are still breast feeding. She eats 4-5 times a day. I continue to try to give her a bottle most days. Some days she does ok with them and will eat 5oz (I haven't tried more than that) and some days she struggles to eat 1. We might have to try a sippy cup again. Last time I tried that, it ended up all over her. We started solids on 9-15. I hate rice cereal the way you're supposed to make it right away. It's so runny. Most of it falls off the spoon before I even get it to her mouth. I thickened it up on day 2 and that seemed to go better. I will probably try to thicken it even more on day 3. I am mixing with breast milk now, but will try water later so we don't go through so much breast milk. (not that that matters if she's not going to take a bottle) I forgot how to introduce solids from Jade and when to do all of it, but I will figure it out again I'm sure.

Milestones:
She now is doing a good job sitting alone.
She started "talking" on September 11.

Length: 26" Weight: 15lbs 6oz (about the size Jade was at 4 months)
Clothes: Just starting to make the transition into 6-9 month clothing

She obviously loves sucking on her bottom lip. Today she was more interested in that than smiling. This is where using blocks gets hard! I remember having the same problem with Jade.

5 Months Old

Once again, I am bad at this blogging thing but will continue to attempt to get better.

Megan is 5 months old. Time is flying, but I am so excited for what's ahead at the same time. I love that she has started to play and that personality of hers is starting to show through even more.

Likes:
Megan absolutely loves her big sister! She is definitely her favorite in the family with a close second being Duke I think. If Jade is in the room, all eyes are on her. She will often just giggle watching Jade do nothing. Jade thinks it's fun and cute sometimes, but other times could care less. Megan loves playing peek-a-boo, sucking on her toes, and grabbing anything and everything she can get her hands on.

Sleep:
Megan is hard to get to go to sleep for naps and bed. She just doesn't want to miss out on anything so tries to look around until she can't stand it any longer and then cries hard when she can't get to sleep. I had thought I found a way to get her to sleep, but that didn't work for long. It gets frustrating at times and my arms are burning from holding her, but I eventually get her to fall asleep. I try to have her take 3 naps, a day but it doesn't always work out that way. It's easier when we're home all day or when we can do things around her nap time, but it's hard to always do that when you have a 2 1/2 year old too. She seems to do ok on less sleep, just needs a little more entertainment. I try to put her down for her naps about 2 hours after she gets up from the previous one. We try to have her in bed by 8:30, but again that doesn't always work because Jade is a Mama's girl and there is only a limited amount of things Dad is able to do at bedtime. We are slowly getting Jade used to Daddy doing more, but some battles are just not worth fighting for us at bedtime. Megan had been sleeping all night until recently when she decided to wake up a few times a night. She usually only eats one of the times she is up. She officially wakes up anywhere from 7-9:30. We have also finally moved her from her bassinet to her crib. We started that a long time ago...until she got RSV and then moved her back to the bassinet because it was sloped for when she was sick. Then I guess we "babied" her too long and she got used to be tucked cozy in that thing. Everything is a phase right? She will like her crib sometime...hopefully soon!

Eating:
We are still exclusively breastfeeding. She eats 4-5x per day and I really have no idea how much. We tried bottles early on and she took them easily, so didn't worry about continuing them. Now that i want her to occasionally take a bottle, she won't. We are working on that. I am trying different nipple "flows," having different people feed her, different positions, heating the milk up...I feel like I've tried everything. I am really hoping she's not one of those babies that never takes a bottle because I have too much milk saved in the freezer. I think I would bawl if I had to dump it! We are going to try a different bottle soon. One more month until solids and I think she will love them! She reaches for our food all the time and really watches all of us eat.

Milestones:
July 21- rolled stomach to back
July 25- found her toes and loves them!
July 31- rolled back to stomach
Can sit with assistance. I have her sit between my legs or in her boppy pillow for when she tips over.
She has started to really "play" with toys. She puts everything in her mouth. Can hold toys and change them from hand to hand. Looks at things she's dropped.

Weight: I think around 14 pounds  Length: ?? Clothing: 3-6 month