Hellobee

Olive recently turned 6 months old!

Weight

Olive has been in the the 25th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height since her 4 month checkup. From the numbers below, you can see how quickly she gained weight the first three months before it stabilized to an average of 1 pound/month.

6 months – 14 lbs 12 oz (+1 lb)
5.5 months – 13 lbs 14oz (+1lb 4oz)
4 months – 12 lbs 10 oz (+1 lb)
3 months – 11 lbs 10 oz (+1 lb 8oz)
2 month – 10 lbs 2 oz (+2 lbs 14oz)
1 month – 7 lbs 4 oz (+2 lbs 5 oz)
Birth – 4lbs 15oz

Sleep

There are many theories as to when one should sleep train. These are some that I’ve heard:

– 10 weeks+ (from pediatricians because you have to nip it in the bud before bad habits are established)
– 6 months+ (many babies just start sleeping better on their own after 6 months)
– after starting solids (some babies start sleeping better after starting solids)
– 14 lbs+ (from an experienced baby nurse)
– after a baby can sleep on their tummy (babies sleep better on their tummies)
– 5.5 – 7.5 months (the ideal time according to the book Bed Timing)

Olive is still waking up, on average, 4 times a night. On good nights she wakes up twice. On bad nights she wakes up more than 4 times. I’d been waiting to sleep train her until she was at least 6.5 months old (5.5 months adjusted), since that’s supposed to be the best time to sleep train. Now that she actually is 6.5 months old, I’ve been waiting for her to be able to roll from tummy to back really well. She rolls onto her tummy in her crib and then cries until I come get her, and I just don’t have the heart to leave her there. Sometimes I’ll leave her for a little while to see if she’ll put herself to sleep, but she just cries and cries until big, fat tears roll down her face!

Olive’s naps are also all over the place. Most of the time she takes short naps that are 30 minutes or less. But a couple times a week she’ll take a longer nap that last up to 2 hours. I know sleep training is going to be tough because I just have such a soft spot for Olive. Plus I know she’s not going to be anywhere near as easy to sleep train as Charlie was, with her sassy little attitude. There have been times that she rolls around in her crib for a whole hour before she starts crying, and she does not give up!

Schedule

Even though Olive wakes up a lot at night, she’s usually in her crib for a very long time (14 hours+), which is why the middle of the night wake-ups have been bearable (though of course they still do suck). I’m usually awake for her first two wake-ups.

This is a typical schedule:

8:20am – Wake up
9:45am – Nap 1 (30 min)
12:00pm – Nap 2 (1 1/2 hours)
3:15pm – Nap 3 (30 min)
5:45pm – Asleep (varies between 5:30-6:30 depending on when she woke up from her last nap)
9:00pm – Feeding
12:00am – Feeding
3:00am – Feeding
6:00am – Feeding

She takes 4 naps instead of 3 on the days that all her naps are short. She’s over 6 months old, but she still can’t even stay up 2 hours, which makes me think she’s developing closer to her adjusted age.

I know I have to night wean her because at her age she definitely does not need to be eating every 3 hours at night, and she’s mainly waking up out of habit. I’ve tried to get her down without nursing at night, but it’s so tough! She is wide awake until I give in and nurse her, and it’s the path of least resistance for now. I’m just too tired to put up a fight in the middle of the night.

Milestones

Until very recently, Olive still seemed very much like a newborn. She still had a strong moro reflex and would flap her arms uncontrollably often, especially when she was nursing. Charlie would always says,” Stop hitting me (or mommy) Olive!”

She also had really poor manual dexterity and couldn’t hold onto toys very well. I bought two toys to encourage her to use her hands — the Tiny Love Take-Along Toy Bar and the Sassy Developmental Wonder Wheel. I’m sure she would have eventually improved her manual dexterity on her own, but she absolutely loves these two toys and they really encourage her to use her hands. You can see her with the oball, winkel and skwish above — she was only able to hold onto them recently, whereas Charlie had a much better grasp on them when he was just 3 months old compared to Olive now at 6+ months old.

Solids

Olive’s biggest milestone for the month of course is that she started solids! When Charlie started solids, we followed all the “rules.”

– We waited until he was 6 months old.
– We gave him vegetables before fruit (mistakenly believing at the time that babies who are introduced to fruits first develop an affinity for sweet foods).
– We started off with rice cereal then moved onto traditional first foods like pureed butternut squash, peas, carrots, and avocado.
– We gave him the same food three days in a row to make sure he wasn’t allergic to anything.
– We introduced all new foods at the recommended times (meat and cheese between 8-10 months, fish and eggs between 10-12 months, berries after one year, etc.).

In fact the only solids “rule” we broke was offering citrus before the age of 1!

My game plan for Olive is completely different because we’re going to try baby led weaning, and we haven’t followed any of the rules above, other than waiting until she was 6 months old. Unfortunately Olive is a little underdeveloped physically. Her manual dexterity is lacking, and she slumps over when she sits in her bumbo. So we’re going to feed her purees for a little while to get her used to the taste and texture of solid foods, and hopefully when she’s better able to sit up and feed herself, we’re going to let her feed herself pretty much everything we eat.

Personality

Olive is a happy baby and always flashes a huge grin any time you look at her. Of course she reserves the biggest smiles and laughs for her big brother, who she absolutely adores. There was a period around the 4-5 month mark when she had really bad stranger anxiety, but now she lets anyone hold her. She does have a little stubborn streak though, especially when it comes to taking bottles. That means I’m never away from Olive for more than a couple hours, which makes it really hard to socialize. But I figure she’s only going to need me this much for such a short period in her life, so I’m definitely willing to make the sacrifice.

Up until very recently, Olive seemed like such a baby. She could barely stay awake an hour and a half between naps, and I felt like I was constantly nursing her or putting her down for a nap. But one day I blinked and she got so big! She’s so much more active, interactive, and rolling around everywhere. I do miss those first three months when she was oh so tiny, but I’m also looking forward to one of the best first milestones – sitting up! Taking care of a newborn is so much easier the second time around, it’s funny for me to think about how stressed out I was with Charlie. I didn’t feel like Charlie was growing up too fast, but I do feel it with Olive!

complete and utter milk coma, passed out in my lap

Happy 6 months Olive! I just want to eat you and your stinky toes up every day!