It’s amazing that half a year has gone by since Grace arrived and oh how different life is now that we have a little one in tow. We always tell people that Grace is such a good baby because she is. She’s sweet, even tempered, loves her mom and dad, and really only cries when she’s sleepy.
NOM NOM NOM
In terms of food, I’m still exclusively breastfeeding Grace, but we’re planning on introducing her to solids later this week. We want to wait for the weekend so my husband can be there to see it. From what I’ve read, it’s best to introduce babies to new foods in the morning. That way you have the day to see if they react negatively.
Grace’s first food will be banana. I just finished reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book Disease-Proof Your Child and that’s what he recommends, followed by bananas + avocado. If you didn’t already know, I’m kind of obsessed with Dr. Fuhrman and quote him just about every other day. So if you’re a parent, I highly recommend reading the book.
Dr. Fuhrman advocates for a plant based diet and I wholeheartedly believe in its benefits to the body. My husband and I plan on encouraging Grace to eat as many fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds as possible (Don’t worry, we’re waiting on the nuts and seeds). She’ll probably even have a plant based cake for her first birthday.
Also, side note about breastfeeding – it has become a little more challenging keeping Grace’s attention now that the world is coming alive around her. She gets distracted by a light, or someone talking, or because she wants to try and pull herself up (the new skill she’s working on). So for now, I’ve found it’s best to nurse her in a quiet room with as little as possible to distract her.
P.S. “Nom, nom, nom” is from one of Grace’s favorite books: Cookie (You know, the lovable blue guy formerly known as Cookie Monster). 😉
LEARNING NEW SKILLS
Grace has been rolling over from back to belly for a while, but only towards her right side. She’s still working on rolling towards her left. Grace is also working on rolling from belly to back. She does it every so often.
She’s also started to spin in circles on her belly. I’ll turn around to do something quickly and when I look back, she’s rotated 180 degrees. I’m still trying to figure out how she does it!
Grace is also now sitting up with a little assistance. To practice, I’ve been having her grasp onto my hands while she’s lying on her back and I slowly pull her up. I’ll also place her between my legs on the floor and she uses me to balance. Or I’ll prop her up in the Boppy pillow and she can stay sitting for a few seconds.
Last week Grace finally learned how to blow a raspberry with her tongue. Before that I’d hear her practicing (when she should have been sleeping), which was the cutest thing. Now she blows raspberries at me while I’m changing her diaper and smiles like it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
Grace also loves exploring faces, grabbing my nose and mouth, and especially loves pulling my hair. At night, just before bed, I can’t keep her hands away from my face. It’s like I’ve become her security blanket to fall asleep.
I’m still not sure if she knows her name yet because I call her by so many things other than Grace, like girly girl, nugget, or baby girl.
SLEEPY TIME
Grace is sleeping fairly good, but for some reason her sleep seems to have regressed during the past month-and-a-half. We saw no sign of the dreaded three-to-four month sleep regression everyone talks about, so perhaps this is it.
Since she was about six weeks old, Grace has been sleeping in a Snoo bassinet. It rocks babies all night and plays white noise. It even responds automatically when Grace cries, upping the rocking and noise. It’s amazing.
There’s no doubt the Snoo has helped Grace sleep, because it improved dramatically when we first got it. She started sleeping through the night and only stirring a few times (However, I still wasn’t sleeping soundly since I’m an overprotective mama bear who checks on her baby girl when I hears even the slightest noise. Some may call me neurotic.)
I wonder if the recent change in Grace’s sleep is due to her development. Whenever she wakes up in the middle of the night, she starts to either talk really loudly or cry, to which I respond by nursing her (I know, I know). So for a good while I wasn’t nursing her at all during the night, but now I am.
I also just realized Grace’s sleep took a turn for the worse when I stopped nursing her to sleep for naps (which I sometimes still do). Hmmm.
TRANSITIONING TO THE CRIB
At the sixth month mark, it’s time to transition Grace from the Snoo to her crib. We actually tried to do this a couple of weeks ago and it was a major bust. In the Snoo, she sleeps right next to my bedside so I can keep a close eye on her. So naturally, when we moved her to the crib, I had the monitor sitting on my nightstand next to my face, set to the always on mode with the volume cranked up and brightness turned to the max. I don’t think I slept a wink.
At one point early in the night Grace woke up and I saw she had rolled onto her belly. I decided to go to the restroom before getting her and by the time I did, she had fallen back asleep. Amazing right? Wrong. Her face was planted into the mattress, nose down between her two hands.
I think I had a minor heart attack. Apparently when babies can roll onto their bellies, it’s okay to let them stay there at night (because when you have a baby nowadays, it’s ingrained into you that “back is best.”) But as mentioned above, Grace doesn’t quite know how to roll back onto her back.
Now, I should add that we thankfully have a breathable mattress specifically designed for tummy sleepers (a Newton) but this was still no reassurance to me. So I tried to gingerly turn Grace’s head to the side. It worked for a while, but the next time I went to check on her she was back face down. Yep, no sleep for me.
So we’ll try the crib again starting in a few days. Wish us luck.
SLEEP TRAINING
Another thing we’ll be trying is sleep training. I didn’t even know sleep training was a thing – or how opinionated people are about it – before having Grace. That’s how clueless I was to this whole parenting thing.
I recently took the Taking Cara Babies ABC’s of Sleep online course for five to 24 month olds. Now, I’m not a fan of letting babies “cry it out” but I understand it’s pretty much impossible to teach a baby to sleep through the night without some tears.
If you’re expecting a baby, just know Cara is a sleep training goddess worshipped by many bleary eyed parents. She has a huge following on Instagram where she offers free tips if you don’t want to pay for a course (but after my aforementioned crib attempt, I was desperate).
Also, I have been nursing Grace to sleep since she was born. I never mastered the whole “put baby down when they’re awake but drowsy” thing. So I’m hoping Taking Cara Babies will finally help me teach Grace to fall asleep on her own.
I will probably do a whole blog post on our experience with the class, and whether or not it was successful, so I won’t go into too much detail here. So stay tuned.
A FEW OF GRACE’S FAVORITE THINGS
It’s so fun to see Grace grow and change. Toys that she didn’t seem too interested in just a couple of short months ago she now loves. Some of her favorites are the Baby Einstein Discovering Music Activity Table (great for tummy time), Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube, Monkey teether by Sassy (a hand me down from my nephew), and Eric Carle numbers crinkle book. Grace loves anything that crinkles!
I’ve also got some water bottles drying and materials to make her some homemade sensory toys. Hoping she likes them!
Six months down and so many more amazing months (and years) to go with our little lady … We’re so excited to see what the future holds.
While some have told me it gets so much harder the more mobile babies get, I only see it getting better. I’ve also heard from so many that they loved when their babies were in the six month age range. What was your favorite age with your little one?
