6 Months Old

I can't believe my brand new baby girl is already 6 months old! Time has gone by so fast! This has been a big month for Lainey.


Development:

She is now sitting up independently very well
Rolls everywhere
Army crawls -- she can now push up with both arms and moves 4-5 feet across a room, slowly
Screeches loudly all day long!
Can almost go from laying down to sitting up -- we will need to lower the crib soon. She gets herself propped up but then falls back down.
Grabs everything -- transfers objects from one hand to the other
Everything in the mouth
Drools
Laughs and is ticklish

Eating:
Still exclusively breastfed
We started rice cereal a few weeks ago but it seemed like her reflux got worse at the same time so we stopped it -- I will start this again soon

Reflux:

This has been a challenge this month. Lainey had a double ear infection and pink eye about 4 weeks ago. This was treated with Augmentin which got rid of the ear infection but left me with a very fussy child. She went from sleeping eight hours in a row to not sleeping in her bed at all and crying off and on throughout the day. I thought at first it was because of her cold/ear infection but I took her back in and her doctor verified that her ears were clear. She suggested we give her another week and if not better increase her Prevacid (at my request). A week ago she was still not better so I stopped her solids, cut dairy out of my diet completely, and increased the Prevacid to 7.5 mg twice a day. After a few days she seemed happier during the day and spit up less but was still not sleeping well. Since her reflux symptoms seemed better controlled we started the Ferber method for sleeping two nights ago. I am happy to report that she cried for about 15 minutes each night when going to sleep and then slept for 8 hours. Yay!!! My happy, good sleeper seems to be back. I hope!

She is still stuffed up and has a cough. This doesn't seem to bother her. Her doctor suggested that it may be secondary to a dairy intolerance so I need to be extra careful to not eat any dairy. If it doesn't get better after two weeks of no dairy we are supposed to give her a call again.

Sleeping:

As mentioned in the above paragraph this has been a tough month for sleeping.
Lainey does usually take 2-3 catnaps a day. I try to put her in her crib for at least 2 of them but she will sleep longer in the carseat. Most of her naps are 45 minutes. Yuck!!
Since we started the sleep "training" we will also be taking the nuk away from her completely soon. (She doesn't get it at night anymore.)

Stats:
Weight: 16 pounds even (50%)
Length: 26.5 inches (80%)
Head: 17 inches

Immunizations:
Prevnar, HIB, and Rotavirus #3
Seasonal flu #1

Overall, Lainey is a sweet, joyful baby girl. We are so happy that she is here!