Month 6-My Baby Girl into Everything

Happy 6 months to my baby girl! I can't believe that she is already 6 months old. It is going by just way too fast. She is really starting to act more like a toddler than a baby that sometimes I forget how young she really is. Her hair of course is just getting longer and longer. We can actually put pigtails in her hair. She is always grabbing for everything and putting anything in her mouth. We really have to be careful now. Anytime we are eating she tries to take what we have out of our hands and put it in her own mouth. She also tries to put a cup up to her mouth like she wants to take a drink. I decided to go ahead and give her a first taste of solid food. We gave her rice cereal and she loved it. She ate so well! It didn’t help her sleep any better though. The only challenge is that I have to mix it with breast milk which requires me to have extra supply. Right now she is drinking about three 5 ounce bottles during the day and I am getting exactly that much when I pump. So needless to say, extra milk is very hard to get right now. I did order myself a new blender (my Christmas present!) the other day so that I can start pureeing her food. I would really like to try and make most of her baby food. I also found these really great freezer trays by "mumi and bubi" and think they will make the process very easy. I'm excited to have her try all sorts of different foods! I just have to watch and see what sort of reactions she has in case of any food allergies, which I’m sure she won’t have any. Last month I pretty much gave up all dairy to try and help Bailey with her diarrhea issues she was having. It was difficult at first but it got easier as I went along. You just have to read lots of labels and deal with people criticizing you on why you’re doing what you’re doing. If you can get past that its fine. The most important thing to remember is that you’re doing it for your baby and that’s all that matters. There were a few items that I missed having but in general I enjoyed being dairy free. I felt better and felt like I had more energy. Although I’m eating dairy again I think I’m going to try and limit how much I have still. While going dairy free I also had to collect Bailey's stool samples. That was an adventure in itself! Her poo was so runny that there wasn’t ever anything that I could collect. It took me 3 weeks to finally get enough collected to turn in. When I went to turn them in, they told me they could only accept 1 out of the four samples! I was so upset. Apparently I needed to refrigerate the others. In case anyone else ever has to collect samples for their kids, just use a plastic spoon and push down as you scrape forward. That is the only way you will ever get anything. Anyways, I finally got all the samples I needed and the results came back that she had no organisms or parasites. Whew! As far as the dairy goes I have been adding it back into my diet to see how she reacts. So far she has had fuller diapers but I'm not sure that it’s really a reaction to the dairy. Enough poo talk. Bailey has been getting into everything. I had a bowl of popcorn out and she reached in and started pushing the popcorn all over the place like it was some sort of game. It was hilarious. She is also reaching for Coby all the time as well. She even pulled his fur a little too hard one day. Poor Coby whimpered in pain. She comes up with a new sound every day as well. Lots and lots of talking. She sits up and plays with her toys now but is still not rolling over! I talked to her pedi about it and she just laughed it off. As long as she sits up fine there is nothing to worry about. She said it sounds like she's just stubborn and I would have to agree. She has started to get somewhat clingy to me lately. She actually notices when I had her over to the sitter or leave the room. She doesn’t scream or anything she just has this look of "where are you going now?" Its sweet but it makes me sad all at the same time. Her current stats are: Weight 18.25 lbs (80%), Height 24 inch (6%!). Other highlights: Bailey picked out her first Christmas tree, met Santa for the first time, got her first pedi with mommy and the girls, ate food for the first time, and now sits up all on her own!