* Measurements- She now weighs 14 lbs. 9 oz. and is 25 3/4 in. long (seems like a huge increase in height, but not weight, although I can feel that weight increase when I carry her!). She wears 3-6 month sized clothing (and probably will for at least another month) and size 2 diapers.
* Sleeping- While she was sick she got into the habit of waking up at 2am, then for a few days it was 4 am, now it's more like 5 or 6. (I honestly prefer the 4 am over the 5 because at least then I can get a few more hours of sleep.) I try to let her "cry it out" but after 20 minutes, I figure, I'm awake anyway, I might as well get up. And it seems like she's genuinely hungry (esp. considering she gulps down her bottle), so I have a hard time with just letting her be. So my tactic now is to work on getting her to eat more during the day so she'll sleep longer and not get hungry at night.
- There's also a morning nap, which almost always lasts 45 min., but the time that nap starts is very unpredictable, as she tends to get fussy about 30 min. to an hour ahead of it, and fights sleep equally as long. I can, however, almost always count on her falling asleep on our way home from work, around 2, and staying asleep between 1-3 hours. (Even if she doesn't fall asleep in the car, she's still easy to go down for her afternoon nap, and also for bedtime.) If her afternoon nap is shorter, she may catnap again before bed (sometimes even long enough to where we have to wake her up to get in her last bottle).
* Eating- She is much better at taking her bottles. She likes to play and move so much that she doesn't want to take the time to eat until she's absolutely starving. So then she'll whine a little to let us know she's hungry and then she'll gulp down her entire bottle. She usually takes about 5 or 6 6-oz. bottles every day. And she can hold her bottle by herself now! She's still not quite gotten down holding it up high enough for the milk to come out, but she's so close.
- We started the solids again and she seems to be doing much better, even though she still doesn't really get excited about it, and loses interest after only a minute or two. She usually takes about 1 Tbls. of cereal, and then I'll try to mix in some sort of vegetable-- we've started carrots, sweet potatoes, and green beans, and most recently, bananas. She seems to like the sweet potatoes best so far. She did get the sniffles a little after the carrots, but I'm not sure if it was an allergy or if it was leftovers from the cold she had.
* Discoveries- She loves her feet. She knows how to pull her socks off with her hands. It definately makes for interesting diaper changes.
* Personality- Leah is very mischievous. We have already begun the chasing and she isn't even crawling yet! She is close to crawling-- she lifts her butt off the ground and inches around, but hasn't been able to coordinate it with the arms yet. She finds ways to get around & get what she wants. Here you see her under the coffee table. And then under the couch. She has perfected the look that says, "What? I'm not doing anything!"
Oh, man, is she getting big so quickly! Already the newborn days seem so far behind us as Leah grows in leaps & bounds every day. I remember feeling as if my life would never return to normal. Now, my definition of normal has just adjusted to include this beautiful crazy little girl who is always keeping me on my toes! Half a year old already....
