Baby Kaylee {6 Months}

Half way to a year! 6 whole months old! I have a 6 month old! No matter how I say it, I still can’t believe it. She is the cutest thing ever and so much fun! She is so grown up now, playing, *nearly* on the move and eating big girl food. She has baby fat rolls on her legs and the cutest chubby cheeks. She definitely has her own little personality!

6 Month Favorites:: 

1) Frozen Teethers – Or unfrozen for that matter. She LOVES to chew on things. We keep waiting for some teeth to pop up but nothing yet!

 2) Baby food – She has been eating baby food and loves it!

3) Baby Bullet – I have made some baby food with my baby bullet but I hate so say, I think she likes the Gerber store bought better =(

4) Spoons – This is just as good as a teether for all I care. She will practice with her spoon and knows exactly how it works!

5) Toys – She is able to play with toys and loves her stacking rings and rattles. We can *almost* sit her down with a toy and she can play by herself.

6) Restaurant highchair – She just recently started to fit in the highchairs at restaurants. We have a cover for them that we attempted to use a couple times but we find that my purse or some burp cloths and a pack of wipes behind her works best to keep her propped up!

7) Bibs – we have one messy eater!

Stats:: 

25.5 in :: 45th %
15 lbs :: 25th %

Still a tiny little thing!

Milestones:: 

{Sitting up}
She can completely sit up on her own and play with her toys. If she tries to turn or reach for something too far out of her reach she still topples over but she is pretty steady!

{The famous pick it up and drop it on the floor game}
Oh. My. Gosh. She loves this game. Over. And over. And over. She can’t get enough!

{Butt in the air}
I’m not sure this qualifies as a milestone but it’s the first steps toward crawling. She has, a couple times, scooted herself forward (army crawl like). She gets those knees under her and I’m sure she will be crawling or at least almost there by next month!

Sleeping:: 

{Night time}
This has been a regression this month but I think this is mostly due to bad napping (see naps below) and a possible growth spurt/teething/allergies/anything else I can think of.

{Naps}
We attempted to get her to start napping in her crib this month. She used nap in her rock and play. This went terribly. After 2-3 awful weeks of no sleep, we gave up and went back to the rock and play. I don’t know what our future plans are… I guess we will try it again a little later.

Eating:: 

She is still breastfed and eating her cereal. We started baby food again about a week ago. She has had carrots, peas, squash and sweet potatoes. She pretty much will eat whatever we put in her mouth, she’s definitely not picky *yet*.

Misc:: 

{Fourth of July}
Her first Fourth of July and she LOVED the fireworks. She just sat there and watched them. They didn't scare her at all.

 Happy 6 months baby girl. You are taking the world by storm!

Baby Kaylee {5 Months Old}

FIVE. WHOLE. MONTHS. OLD. HOLY. CRAP! My tiny 5 pound baby is now five months old and rolling over and babbling and getting so big! Although it’s sad she is growing so quickly, we are looking forward to better days of more playing, sitting, climbing, talking and less fussing, not sleeping and did I mention fussing! I've officially decided that she is a high maintenance baby (just like her momma was) but I wouldn't trade her for the world. She takes 100% of our energy levels on the daily and we are pretty much exhausted but we are trying to enjoy her still, not wanting to wish away these precious days. 

5 Month Favorites:: 

1) Exersaucer – Thank God for the exersaucer! This gives us approximately 10 minutes of relaxation time where we don’t have to give 110% of our energy to entertain her! She loves to spin the monkey and chew on the teether. It’s amazing how she will see us do something and then turn around and do it herself. 

2) Rice Cereal- She started solids this month! We tried Avocado, which didn't sit well with her and Sweet Potatoes, which we are unsure about. The only thing we are for sure about is the rice cereal. And boy does she love to eat, just like her daddy! The noises she makes when she wants another bite are hilarious! 

3) Hand/Face wipes- These are a necessity after eating rice cereal. 

4) Umbrella Stroller- We recently just bought this so we don’t have to lug around our huge stroller. It is really nice and light weight. 

5) Car Seat Shoulder Straps – I love these because the shoulder straps on the car seat were digging into her neck! I think she likes them because they hold her head up when she falls asleep! 

6) Car Mirror – Recently Kaylee decided she hates the car. She screams her head off or falls asleep. One. Or. The. Other. There is no in-between. This helps for me to be able to see her while I’m driving. 

7) Daddy - Kaylee and her daddy have spent some quality time together this summer. They get to hang out everyday and play since daddy is home on summer break. She just loves to look at him and watch him wherever he is in the room. He sings funny songs to her that she loves and plays little games that make her smile. She has him wrapped around her little finger!

8) Screens - She will definitely be a baby of this generation! She loves to look at any kind of screen: TV, Ipad, Phone...etc. She tries to touch and play on the phone any time Chad or I have ours out! It will be no time before she is playing on it for real!

Stats:: 

24 in :: 10th %

14.2 lbs :: 30th %

I feel like she is so little and tiny and according to her percentile she is tiny but everyone that sees pictures of her says “I can’t believe she’s so big! What are you feeding her?” I guess it’s all in perspective! 

Milestones:: 

{Rolling over both ways} 

Rolling from her back to her belly is her new favorite thing to do! Which would be totally awesome if she liked to be on her belly, but she doesn't! She rolls and rolls and rolls over and each time gets mad and wants to be flipped back over. 

{Laughing} 

Oh.My.Gosh. This is literally the cutest thing I have ever seen. We can get her on a roll laughing and its so freaking adorable I can’t even handle it! 

Sleeping:: 

{Night time} 

This was another month of ups and downs with sleeping at night. She has good nights and bad. We are trying to get her to go 8 hours without eating, which she does 7-7.5 currently. Lately she’s been waking herself up and rolling over to her belly, then getting mad and crying! So we've been dealing with that. But overall, it hasn't been too bad. 

{Naps} 

Thank goodness she remembered what a nap is this month. We have her on a great daily schedule now. She takes a 30-60 minute nap in the morning, a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon and a 30 minute nap in the evening. It has really been working out great! 

Eating:: 

She is still breastfed but this month we added rice cereal to the mix. She LOVES the rice cereal and will continue to “ask” for more until it’s gone most of the time. We started to give her baby food (avocado and sweet potatoes) but she was having belly pains so we backed off. Her little tummy just isn’t ready for real food yet. We will try again sometime this month. 

Misc:: 

{Father’s Day} 

Chad celebrated his first Father’s Day. We spent the day at the pool and grilled out with my family. It was a really nice, relaxing day! Kaylee posed for some cute pictures for a collage frame for her daddy. 

{Grabbing toes} 

Another top 10 cutest things she started doing. She will lay on her back and just grab those toes! 

{Blowing bubbles} 

Two days ago, I laid her down to change her diaper and she starts blowing bubbles! I about lost my mind it was so adorable! She did it over and over again, Chad and I were cracking up!

I just want to kiss her little face! She's so freaking cute! 

Baby Kaylee {4 Months old}

 

Kaylee has had a roller coaster of days this past month. I think with me returning to work, going back and forth between the sitter and grandma watching her, her schedule has just been completely turned on its head. Just when she got into the groove of things we changed it up on her! There is a phenom called "4 month sleep regression" or "The wonder weeks" in which babies are just learning so much about their surroundings that they get overwhelmed and over stimulated. This makes for a very cranky baby! We've had some rough days but luckily we have more good, smiling days and the icing on the cake is all the new things she has learned to do!

Again, I can't believe how time flies and my tiny little newborn is a growing baby interacting with her environment and us! I'm enjoying each stage of her life and this one is so fun! She is able to play with us and "talk" to us! It's amazing to watch her grow!

4 Month Favorites::

This month she has been learning to interact with things (and people more) so her favorites are becoming more interactive!

1) Bouncer - She has finally warmed up to the bouncer. She will even take a short catnap in it occasionally.  

2) Television - Call us bad parents but her favorite thing to do in the morning (or anytime) is watch cartoons! She is mesmerized by all the lights and colors. 

3) Sun hat and glasses - She's not too fond of the bright sun we've been having. We have to make sure we have her hat on her if we are going to be outside. I also love to put her sunglasses on her but those don't tend to stay on long! 

4) Oball Rattle - She loves to grab on to this! It's perfect for her little baby fingers to grab onto and she loves the sound it makes when it rattles!

5) Swim suit - She went swimming for the first time last weekend at the indoor pool at our rec center. She is going to love the water and be a swimmer like her daddy (and unlike her mommy!)

6) Mommy - In her progress through the "wonder weeks" she has become very clingy to me. She usually cries when anyone else tries to hold her. She will usually let Chad hold her and my sister too, but she is definitely a mommy's girl (and I'm not complaining!) 

7) Open Mouthed Kisses - This may be a mommy favorite but she opens her mouth wide and gives us big slobbery kisses! I know that she is probably trying to eat our faces since everything goes in her mouth these days but I like to think she's kissing me =) 

8) Old Favorites: Pacifier, Activity Mat, FINGERS, Teethers, Bathtime. All of her old favorites from the past months have kind of rolled over and she loves them more and more the older she gets. We can't get her fingers or the pacifier out of her mouth, ever! She is constantly sucking on something! She loves to lay on the activity mat and play with the dangling toys and mirror (or even just lay on a blanket on the floor and play with mom and dad)! She can't quiet hold them herself yet but she loves to chew/suck on the teethers we put in her mouth. Bath time just may be her favorite time of day besides waking up in the morning. She has started to splash around and just loves it!

Stats::

12.4 lbs :: 15th %
23.5in :: 15th %

She has thinned out and lost some of those baby cheeks but she is just as cute as ever and still has her baby rolls!

Milestones::

I can definitely tell how much her BRAIN is growing this past month. She is interacting with things so much more and learning new things all the time! She is one smart cookie!

{Rolling over}

She rolled over for the first time a couple of weeks ago! I was so excited, I jumped up and down! Also, I was very happy that I was there when she did it for the first time! I was worried she would never roll over because she hates tummy time so much but oddly the past couple weeks she doesn't cry right away when we put her on her stomach. Sure enough one day I put her down on her belly and within a minute she rolled right over! I called Chad (who was on his way home from work) and was cheering and yelling! He got home a couple minutes later and she did it again so Daddy could see! 

{Grabbing}

A couple of weeks ago she started reaching for things we place in from of her. She has this Oball rattle that she loves! When we shake it in front of her she immediately reaches out and grabs onto it. She will put it straight in her mouth and hold onto it for a couple seconds before letting go. 

Sleeping::

{Night time}
This month has been pretty crazy, she has had good nights and bad (just like her days). On a good night, she will go 6 hours before waking to eat. She eats and goes right back to sleep. She gets up 2 times to eat and is up for the day around 7! We have had a couples nights where she gets up every 1.5-2 hours and doesn't want to go back to sleep and gets up for the day around 6... luckily we have more good nights than bad! Those nights are really rough! We moved her bedtime back to 7:30 because she wasn't able to stay up until 8 anymore and was getting really fussy before bedtime. That has seemed to do well except that she has started to want to get up for the day around 6 instead of 7. I'm really hoping once she gets these "wonder weeks" out of the way she starts to sleep a little longer each night and starts skipping a feeding (or two)!! 

{Naps}

What are naps? She was on a roll taking a good 2-3 hour nap in the morning and then several cap naps (45 minutes) after that. Now, we are lucky if she takes that long nap. She has been cap napping a lot lately and those are usually our bad days. I would love to get her on the schedule of 2-3 medium length (1-2 hours) naps a day but this girl is stubborn (like her momma) and decides what she wants to do each day no matter what mom's (or dad's) plan is. 

Eating::

She is still exclusively breastfed. She does very well with it. She eats about 6x a day and 2x at night. Her bottles the sitter gives her during the day are around 4oz each. I would like to start stretching her to every 4 hour feedings (she is currently nursing every 2-3 hours, except at night).

Misc::

{Baby Sitter}

Kaylee started going to the baby sitter this month since I went back to work. She loves looking around at all the kids playing. She comes home worn out from all the fun she has and I really think she likes to be there and "play" with the other kids and of course she loves Ms. Tracy! I think it is really important for her to get some social interaction with other kids (even this young). Also, I think it builds up those immunities early and hopefully she won't be a sick kid! 

{Mother's Day}

I celebrated my first Mother's Day with my sweet girl. Chad let me sleep in and took her to the grocery store. He brought me home Starbucks and we had a nice little afternoon together. Then we went to the park to meet up with some family. It was a great day and I got to spend it with my two favorite people!