Our Breastfeeding Journey Comes to a Close

I just recently dropped my evening pumping session, so now we're down to either breastfeeding in the early mornings (5 or 6am) or pumping after she wakes up.  I'm not sure when I'll drop the morning feed, but I'm realizing that giving my daughter breast milk may end sooner than I had planned.  My original goal was to breastfeed for a full year.  I didn't want to use formula at all, and I was open to breastfeeding for even longer, possibly up to 2 years.  But things didn't go at all to plan.

Somewhere around the time Callie woke up to the world, she became impatient breastfeeding.  She seemed frustrated waiting for my letdown, and then she seemed to get overwhelmed with the sudden flow of milk and would cough and choke.  She would pull off and look around and get fussy and want to sit up and visually explore her surroundings.  Breastfeeding just stopped being a pleasant experience for both of us, so we started bottle feeding more often.  Callie was calmer with the bottle and would eat for longer sessions.  I could sit her up more, and turn the bottle with her when she turned her head.  She is still absolutely insistent when she is done eating - she'll push the bottle away from her face and turn her head - but getting her to eat is less of a struggle, and when she tells me she's done eating, I am happy to drop the matter instead of pushing her to latch again and eat longer and having us both get more and more frustrated.

And it's probably a good thing we switched to bottle feeding rather than push breastfeeding longer.  She GAINED weight percentiles between her 6 month and her 9 month check up.  It makes me wonder if perhaps we'd switched to more bottle feedings earlier, she wouldn't have dropped weight percentiles so drastically.  But I kept hearing that breastfeeding is best, and that breast milk has so many more nutrients and benefits than formula, so I pushed it longer than maybe I should have (cue mommy guilt).  Ultimately we started just paying attention to our daughter's cues, and she told us what she needed.  And if there wasn't so much noise in the background about how breast is best, and mommy shaming for introducing formula, we may have paid attention to Callie's cues a little sooner.   (No one I actually know has been unsupportive.  The mommy shaming is my own self-inflicted issue from reading the forum sites whenever I googled anything baby feeding related.  Google just makes you feel worse!)

I noticed a drastic drop in my milk supply when I started my period again, when Callie was almost 6 months old, which also made it hard to keep on feeding breast milk exclusively.  Yes, I could have put more time/effort into pumping to keep bottle feeding her breast milk.  Yes, I could have started drinking mother's milk tea, and making lactation cookies, and taking fenugreek supplements to increase my milk supply.  So yes, part of it is me being lazy, but man-oh-man I hate pumping!  And we did our due diligence on the research, and I can't find anything really convincing that says the benefits of breast milk outweigh formula past around 6-7 months of age.  This article on the Timeline of a Breastfed Baby helps ease some of my mommy guilt for not pumping as often anymore.  We actually made it almost 8 months of using exclusively breast milk in her bottle, which is longer than 99% of mothers who start off breastfeeding.  My husband wasn't breastfed at all, and I was only breastfed for 6 months, and we both turned out just fine!  (Better than fine even, considering we're decently smart people with Masters degrees.  And when I consider what a friggin' genius my husband is, it kind of throws all arguments about formula out the window...)

So it is with extremely mixed emotions that I say adieu to our breastfeeding journey.  I know we're doing what's best for our daughter, and I see how she's growing and thriving with formula and the solid foods she's getting, but I can't help feel a twinge of regret that things didn't go according to plan.  Callie is not the type of baby that is content to hang out, relax, get some good mommy cuddles in, and breast feed for an hour at a time (if you've met her, and seen how active and curious she is, you probably could have surmised that yourself!)  She's got shit to do!  Stuff to see!  Things to chew on!  So I'm listening to her more, and accepting her for who she is, and realizing that it's OK for our journey to be a bit different.

First Weekend Away

This past weekend, Bryann and I celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary WITHOUT THE BABY!!!  We drove down to Klamath Falls and spent a day/night there to help transition Callie to Grandma Lainey's care, and then we drove to Ashland for the rest of the weekend.

In addition to this trip being her first weekend without mommy and daddy, it was our first long-distance car trip with Callie, her first full weekend away from her own crib.  I was really nervous she wouldn't sleep well with all the change in scenery, but coincidentally, she was also getting sick and may have been teething (we haven't seen any teeth pop down yet, so jury is still out on that one)... so yeah, she didn't sleep very well the first few nights.  I even bought an extra little mattress pad for her pack n' play crib, but the first two nights were really rough.  Bryann had been gone all week and I had been having a hard time with her before we even left for the trip, so we didn't exactly set ourselves up for success here.  But we had hotel reservations and play tickets, and PTO requests in, so we weren't about to cancel!

We left Portland at 8:30pm on Thursday (Bryann had driven down from Tacoma that afternoon, so we couldn't leave any sooner) and Callie slept pretty well in the car on the way down.  We stopped in Chemult and I nursed her, and then she slept until Klamath.  We thought we could just change her, feed her and put her back down... Boy, were we wrong!  Enter several hours of screaming and crying and several rounds of whose-turn-is-it-to-comfort-the-baby between Bryann, me, and Gma, and we got maybe 3 hours of sleep that night.  Who knows what was going on, whether she was stuffy and not feeling well, the altitude change, the crib change, the different smells, different room, but she also wouldn't nap without being in someone's arms the next day, and Friday night was equally painful to get her to sleep in her crib.  Thankfully I have the best mother in the world who stayed up with Callie until 1:30 in the morning and finally got her to sleep in her crib.  Bryann and I passed out around 10 thinking she'd be in her crib soon and slept blissfully unaware until 7am.  (Thank you, mom!!)

On Saturday morning, we headed over to Ashland via 66 (gorgeous views of the valley) and started the weekend off with AMAZING brunch at Morning Glory (complete with mimosas to celebrate our freedom!) and checked into our hotel early.  We stayed at the Columbia Hotel right in downtown Ashland.  It's the oldest and longest operating hotel, and we found it to be perfect for our needs.  Small, queen room, shared bathrooms, free coffee, friendly and accommodating staff (they let me use their fridge to store my pumped breast milk) and 2 blocks from the theater and park.

One of our reasons for wanting to visit Ashland was to check out all the areas wineries.  They have a warmer, dryer climate than the Willamette Valley, so I was really looking forward to all of the yummy darker reds!  We decided to follow the blue winery signs and started our wine-tasting itinerary at family-owned Weisinger's where we spent a good hour and a half sipping the wine samples on the sunny deck, listening to some music, and reconnecting.  We even got a private cellar tour from the owner and operator, Eric Weisinger!  And in true Kristi & Bryann fashion, we hadn't planned out any itinerary, so we asked the pourer and some of the locals tasting that day where else we should go, and which restaurants we should try.  We visited Dana Campbell (great views, good wines, delicious pulled-pork sliders), Grizzly Peak (Bryann really liked their Syrah),  and Eliana (we relaxed in the adirondak chairs, and really liked the 2010 Bordeaux Blend).

We got dinner recommendations for Cucina Biazzi, but we couldn't stay to enjoy the recommended full 4-course dining experience because we were cutting it close to the play time, so we didn't like the restaurant as much as we might have otherwise.  Needless to say we were exhausted by that point and not at all looking forward to a 3 hour play.  When we got to will-call to pick up tickets, the cashier handed them over and said "Ok, 2 tickets for tomorrow night.  Enjoy!" and we both exclaimed a sigh of relief.  We called it an early night and enjoyed NOT having to stay awake for a play.

On Sunday, we scheduled a nap for the middle of the day so we wouldn't be so exhausted.  We had breakfast at Greenleaf, took a stroll through Lithia park, and left for the wineries around 11:30.  We started at Trium (tasty Viogneir and Cuvees), then to Paschal (our favorite of the trip - we loved everything on the tasting menu, and enjoyed the tree swings after the tastings), and ended at Pebblestone (probably our least favorite place - all the wines were a bit bubbly which means they bottled them to soon).  We went back into town and had lunch at Standing Stone Brewing Co, and then took a nap and had some down time to relax a bit.  That evening, we had dinner at Loft (dungeness Crab Macaroni and cheese... HelloooooO!!!!) and then saw Cocoanuts that night.

We didn't have time to check out ALL of the wineries, or ALL of the restaurants we would have liked, but luckily, Ashland is an easy weekend trip for us and so close to Klamath that I'm sure we'll be back again.  I started to miss Callie by Monday morning and was glad to go back to see her again.  I wasn't sure how I'd feel all weekend without my sweet baby girl, but I surprised myself.  I called my mom to check in on them around breakfast and dinner, and I didn't worry about them at all.  I knew my mom had everything under control.  I think I felt so comfortable because Callie has already spent a lot of time with Gma Lainey, and she does great being away from me at daycare.  I think every mom/dad/parent has a teensy tiny voice in the back of their head saying "if something happens when I'm away, I'll never forgive myself", but whatareyagonnado?  We had a great weekend away together, and had some much MUCH needed time to reconnect.

9 Months

Stats: Callie gained percentiles this month for the first time since she was 2 months old! She now weighs in at 16 lbs (8th %), is 22.5" long (48th %) and her head circumference is 17.22" (43rd%)!

Health:  Callie got a cold right towards the end of this month, but her reflux hasn't been an issue.  I think she's grown out of it because I truly can't remember the last time she spit up more than just the tiniest little bit.

Sleep:  I've heard that babies never sleep consistently until they're well over a year.  Callie has given us some amazing sleep nights, and some really awful sleep nights.  This month has, in general, been better than last month.  She generally sleeps until 2 or 3, and then gets fed, and goes back to sleep until around 6 or 7.  Bryann and I  haven't been crazy sleep deprived this month, so I call it a win.

She did drop a nap this month.  She used to nap 3 times a day at 9 am, 1 pm, and 4 pm, but she's been working on dropping the 4 pm nap.  Sometimes she can do it if she naps for at least an hour at both the 9 am and 1 pm nap, but if not, she needs a 30 minute catnap at 4.

Clothes/Diaper Size:  She's filling out 6-month onesies and jamies nicely now, but the pants are a little on the small side, so we're going to have to move up to 9-month pants.  She graduated to size 2 diapers, and size 3 diapers at night.

Diet:  I still breastfeed her in the middle of the night, and sometimes before a nap, but for the most part during the day, I'm pumping and she's eating either breastmilk or formula from the bottle.  She gets a big bowl of cereal and baby food in the evenings, and a few extra bites of whatever I'm eating, cut into tiny pieces.

Baby Gear Love:  I still use her swing when she's fussy but not quite ready for a nap.  Or I have a meeting (since I'm still working from home 90% of the time) and I need to pacify her for awhile.

I also use the command center and her walker (one stays downstairs and one stays upstairs) when I need to keep her out of trouble for a few minutes - like when I take a shower, or cook dinner.

The Ergo still goes with us to all events and Callie still loves to hang out in it, strapped to our chests.  Sometimes she's just chill and looks around, sometimes she falls asleep.

And we go on long walks nearly every day, so the Bob stroller is getting some serious use, and is still a super smooth ride.

Nicknames:  Baby Girl, Callie Bug, Goo Goo, Boo Boo, Caleesi (GoT reference).

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:"Dancing Queen" sung every time I'm holding her up and she does her Lord of the Dance jig. 

Milestones/Firsts: 

We saw the entire progression of learning to crawl this month.  First, she started rolling from her back to her tummy and sitting up.  Then she was leaning forward and getting back on her stomach, bringing her knees up, but not quite getting on top of her knees.  She would mostly inchworm and propel herself with her hands backward and forward.  Then she got up on her hands and knees, but couldn't quite figure out how to coordinate her hands and her legs to move forward, so she would just kind of reach forward and fall on her face.  Then, on Mother's Day, she figured it out and crawled across the floor - a good 6 foot distance - in pursuit of my hard cider.

She's also learned to pull herself up into a standing position.  She can only do it with things at her level, like window sills, mommy's knees, coffee tables, and most recently using the bars of her crib, but she's sooooo proud of herself when she pulls herself up.  There's nothing else in the world that makes me so happy as the look on her face when she's discovered a new skill.  

Callie also started sleeping on her stomach during naps and at night.  Once she figured out how to sit up and crawl around, she wasn't interested in going straight to sleep anymore.  Sometimes she'll flip herself over, and crawl around her crib for awhile before passing out on her face.  But mostly, she sleeps on her stomach, sometimes with her butt straight up in the air!

This month, Callie also spent her first weekend away from home with Grandma Lainey!  Bryann and I drove down to Klamath and dropped Callie off at my parents house, and then spent the weekend (our 3-year anniversary weekend) in Ashland.  More on this adventure here.  

Likes:  Bath time, moving, crawling, getting into things, chewing on new things.  She also squeals with delight whenever I come to pick her up from Katee's, or when Bryann gets home from work.  She doesn't mind being dropped off with others (yet) and she LOVES it when she sees either of us after a bit of an absence. 

Dislikes:  Having something she's not supposed to have taken away from her, or being picked up and redirected away from the super interesting computer cords/shoes/floor vents/trash cans.  She'll cry for a few seconds, but she's usually redirected pretty quickly.

Things I Don't Want to Forget:

Nap times got WAY more interesting this month.  With her new found mobility and independence, baby girl decided it would be much more fun if she spent the first 20 minutes of her nap flipping herself over, crawling around her crib getting her leg stuck in the slats and crying, making mommy come back in her room and place her back on her back several times before finally falling asleep.  She figured it out eventually, and stopped getting stuck in the crib slats, but we spent a good 4 days doing this routine.

Not sleeping...

One time I had put her down for a nap and Bryann and I were watching the monitor, laughing at her moving around. She grabbed the crib slats and started to pull herself up. We looked at each other and said "Welp, guess that means we need to lower the crib now!" and ran upstairs, lowered the crib mattress all the way down, and moved the monitor off the crib edge. 

When I feed her at night, and she's done eating, she cuddles up to me and falls back to sleep, completely content in my arms.  It's soooo hard for me to put her back in her crib.  Sometimes I sit there rocking and kissing her forehead for a few extra minutes.

This month has been so much fun watching her develop and become mobile and interested in the world around her.  She's so expressive and seems to just LOVE life.  She must have gotten her mommy and daddy's good humor.  :-)  

Mother's Day

All the mothers with their daughters on Mother's Day

Callie flirting with her daddy

She's so adorable when she naps!

Having a ball in front of the mirror at her 9-month check up

Morning cuddle time with Daddy!

First time she pulled herself up in her crib

Dinner date with BFF Hannah!

8 Months

Stats: No Status updates this month.  We'll know more at her 9 month well-baby visit.

Health: Baby girl didn't get sick again this month!  Woo-hoo!!  Her reflux is under control, no allergies to speak of so far.  It appears all is well.

Sleep: Up until last weekend, I was looking forward to posting about what a dramatic improvement we saw to her sleeping and how much happier and more sane Bryann and I have been.  Since we'd been doing a little sleep training with her and finally got her sleeping (more importantly, falling asleep) without a swaddle, she'd been sleeping beautifully from her 10pm dream feed until anywhere between 5 and 7 am!!  But alas... just before Easter, she threw us a curve ball and has been sleeping horribly since then.  Awake and demanding to be fed at midnight, 3, 5, and up at 7.  I'm assuming she sucks at sleeping right now because either a) she's going through a growth spurt or b) she's going through a developmental spurt.  Hopefully it will get better again soon.

Clothes/Diaper Size:  Baby clothes are officially the weirdest things ever.  Callie can still wear some 0-3 month onesies, and I still use a lot of the 3-6 month clothes, but she also fits comfortably in 6 month clothes.  So... I don't know what to say here.  She is a chameleon in baby clothes.

Diet:  This month we made the decision to start supplementing regularly with formula.  Callie is incredibly fussy and distracted while breastfeeding, except when she's super tired, or it's the middle of the night.  My theory is that she's impatient for my let down and then my milk flow is too fast/forceful for her so she ends up getting overwhelmed and gagging and coughing.  So with the exception of evenings, I pump every 4 hours, and Callie gets a bottle of either breast milk, formula, or a mix of both whenever she gives me the hungry mouth.  She eats solids for dinner with us at the dining table, and if I have time for it in my work-day, she eats solids with me for lunch.

Baby Gear Love:  The "command center" has been our most used item this month.  Otherwise she's more entertained by yogurt cups, cooking utensils, measuring cups, spoons, coffee cup lids, etc than by any of her toys.  If it's new, and she hasn't chewed on it yet, she wants it.

Nicknames:  Callie Bug, Boo Boo, Goo Goo, Baby Girl, Babers.

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:  Added to the repertoire this month is "Poop Machine" ("I'm just a poop machine, and I won't poop for nobody but you" inspired by all of the days she poops 3 times before Bryann gets home, and then nothing for the rest of the evening.)

Milestones/Firsts: SO many firsts this month!!

Callie's first two bottom teeth came in at the beginning of April about a week apart from each other.  When they get a bit bigger, hopefully she'll smile and I'll be able to get a picture of them.

She also started the crawling progression.  First she started pushing herself up from her tummy with straight arms, then pushing backward a bit to lean back on her knees, then pulling her butt up to be positioned on her hands and knees.  Just three days ago she stared consistently getting herself into a sitting position from a tummy position.  She pushes backward to get up on her knees, then swings her legs around front.  She's SO proud of herself when she does it.  Now whenever I try to set her down on her tummy, she puts her hands and knees straight down so she's already in the pre-crawl position.  I still don't think she'll actually be crawling until well into 9 months, but Bryann is convinced it could be any day now.

Callie also started moving around the room while on her tummy by pushing herself backwards.  One day I put her on her tummy and left the living room to go back some coffee, and when I came back, she was near the dining table chewing on a chair leg.

We also hosted our first Easter Brunch at the new house, and had my family + a bunch of friends with no family in town (Gma and Gpa Zaiger, Uncle Adam, David, Reezy, GG (Great-Grandma), Conner, Jess, and Nora, Nate, Belinda, Paul, and Rachel.)

Likes:  Moving around the room either by backwards propelling herself on her tummy, or scootching around on her butt.

Chewing on new things.  The world is her oyster, and baby toy no longer hold much interest if she's already chewed on it, so whatever I see laying around that isn't a choke hazard is usually her new plaything for the afternoon.

Going on walks, or car rides.  She's always so calm in her car seat, and I think really loves the motion, and the changing scenery.

Dislikes:  Being spoon fed.  She'd been doing really great for the last 2 months or so, but this month Callie would much prefer to feed herself thank you very much.  Except we need to get some oatmeal or rice cereal in her system to calm her reflux so when we do spoon feed her, she gets real fussy and grabs the spoon out of our hands.

Having the sun in her eyes.  When we're on walks and we turn a corner and the sun gets in her eyes, she FREAKS out.

Things I Don't Want to Forget:  One night I was looking at the monitor, watching Callie sleep, and I handed it to Bryann and said "Look how cute she is!!  I love her soooooo much!!!" and he said "Remember when you were worried that you wouldn't love her like you'd heard all moms are supposed to?" Oh how deeply in love I've fallen with this child.

When Callie was being really fussy one day, I put a finger in her mouth to see if she was teething yet.  When I found the culprit, I squealed "BABY??!?!  You have a TOOTH!!!!!" and got really weirdly excited and texted Bryann, Cherie, Annie, Tamara, and Katee about it.  Who knew teeth could be so exciting?!

7 Months

Stats: Callie actually doesn't have another appointment until her 9 month well-baby visit, so no more stats until then.

Health: Sweet baby girl got sick again this month.  Luckily it was only another 24-hour bug, but Bryann and I still suffered a miserable night of crying baby and no sleep.  Unfortunately it coincided with the night we were trying to get her to sleep un-swaddled and doing some cry-it-out, so we didn't realize she was running a fever and was sick until well into the night, at which point I felt like a terrible neglectful parent for letting her cry so much!  Mostly she just wanted to be held and snuggled so we took turns going in every 45 minutes and picking her up and snuggling her back to sleep.  I even took her to bed with me at one point because we were so desperate for sleep, but she didn't sleep long even laying next to me.  After a healthy does of Tylenol late into the night, we all finally caught a few hours of rest, and she was pretty much back to normal 36 hours later.

Sleep:  As mentioned above, we began some serious sleep training this month.  She had started to wake up every 2 hours at night like a newborn and we'd have to go in to her room and put her pacifier back in to get her back to sleep.  Plus she's at the age where, since she can roll from back to tummy (though she rarely does) she shouldn't be swaddled at night so that, if she somehow manages to roll onto her tummy in the middle of the night she has her arms free and can get back over and doesn't suffocate.  So we've started the process of unswaddling at night.  Currently she has 1 arm free and 1 arm swaddled down.  It took maybe 2 nights of some pretty painful progressive crying to get her to self-soothe and put herself to sleep at night, but we are back to the point where we can lay her down awake and she'll babble to herself for awhile, fling her pacifier around a bit, put it in her mouth finally, and fall asleep.  She's even been sleeping in some pretty nice 6 hour stretches.  She's even given us 7 and 8 hour stretches before.  Hopefully this becomes a thing and she'll consistently sleep longer.  We ALL need the extra rest...

Clothes/Diaper Size:  Callie is still wee-bitty.  I can still squeeze her into Carter brand 0-3 month onesies, but for the most part she's wearing her 6 month clothes pretty well.  She's still in size 1-2 diapers during the day and size 2 diapers at night.

Diet:  We've been exploring some new and exciting baby foods this month!  Callie gets solid foods every night for dinner, and Katee feeds her solids on the days when she watches her.  We usually mix 2 tbs dry oatmeal with 1 oz formula and 1/3 of a jar of the baby food du jour.  That way we can test new foods for 3 days to see if she has any allergies.  We've gone through apples, bananas, apple/banana/strawberry (which I think she had a reaction to because her chest broke out in a little rash), sweet potatoes, squash, and we're currently making our way through a jar of peas.  She's gobbled down every new flavor we've tried so far!  She's also had a few finger foods like banana and graham cracker (which she just gums) and pear slices with the skins peeled off.  I may look into making our own baby food purees at home, but it just wasn't worth the energy or cost savings right now since we're just trying one new food at a time over the course of several days.  Eventually we'll take her off purees entirely and give her finger food versions of what we're having for dinner.

Baby Gear Love:  Bryann bought her one of those exer-saucer things she can stand in and she's been LOVING life while playing in it.  We call it her command center because she can do 360 turns in it playing with all the toys and looking around the room.  She loves to stand and jump and it's the only place we can set her for any length of time without her getting super fussy.

Nicknames: Goo-Goo has morphed into Boo-Boo lately, so mostly I call her Baby and Boo-Boo.

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:  Callie gets a song before nap time and I'll cycle through Rock-a-bye Baby, Moon River, Baby Mine, and Mockingbird.

Milestones/Firsts:  Callie has been sitting really well on her own this month.  I can sit her up in the living room with some toys in front of her while I go in the kitchen, get coffee going, let Sam out and feed him, and get breakfast ready.

We survived Bryann's first business trip away.  I guess Callie has already experienced having BOTH of us gone and a weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Z, but this time it was just us girls for four days, and we did pretty great on our own.  I got exhausted and was glad when Bryann came home though.  :-)

Callie is also experiencing her first remodeling project.  We started on the family room this month, tore out the carpet and the built-ins, and installed new pot lights, bar lights, framed out part of a wall for new built-ins, and have done some painting.  Callie LOVES being in the basement because it echoes and she screeches and squeals to hear the sound of her own voice.  She plays in her command center while we work, and then when she gets fussy, I strap her into the Ergo and continue working.  It's been a lot of fun.

Likes:  Sitting up, playing with non-baby toys like phones, and cords, and breakable items, playing in her pink walker and her Command Center.  Being in the basement and screaming to hear the echos.  Being outside (she starts crying when I bring her in).  Chewing on anything she can get her grabby little hands on.  Splashing around during bath time (she starts crying when I take her out of the tub).  Hanging out with all of her aunties and uncles (aka our friends) at all of our various parties and goings-on this month - Wine & Dine, Kimber's going away party, book club, general hanging out and only very mild shenanigans (we're parents now!)

Dislikes:  Being tired and getting put down for a nap.  I still haven't figured out the right timing for putting her down before she gets REAL fussy.  She always seems to get to the crying/screaming point before I've got her all changed and swaddled and ready to go down.  Being on her stomach for extended periods of time.

Things I Don't Want to Forget:  This has been my favorite month so far.  Callie's personality has really started to shine through.  When I look at her, I don't see a baby anymore, I see a real person with thoughts and emotions and opinions.  She's started to communicate in her own baby way.  She's developed all these different sounds that are absolutely identifiable to communicate what she wants.  Mostly it's that she wants to be picked up, or wants a new toy to play with, or wants to sleep or eat.  But it's so fun watching her interact with the world and with people.  She smiles and squeals with delight and even gives in to giggles every once in awhile.  She's a very discerning laugh-er.  Only the MOST hilarious things elicit a laugh from her.

One night in particular I don't want to forget - Bryann came home late and I had been having a long day at work, so he took over baby duty and got Callie in the bath, and while I'm sitting in the living room having quite "me" time, I hear her splashing away in the bath and Bryann giggling at her, and I couldn't help coming in and joining in the fun.  "Me" time didn't matter anymore.  I wanted to have these memories of playing together as a family.

Trying out her rocking chair - passed down from GG

6 Months

Stats:  
Callie had her 6 month check-up postponed a few times because I had to travel so much for work this month, so these are her 6 1/2 month stats.  Callie weighs 13 lbs 9 oz (5th percentile), is 25 1/2" long (30th percentile) and her head is 16.63" (36th percentile).  Our pediatrician says she's small but hearty and that her height/weight growth curve is moving along normally, so she isn't concerned about her growth.  WHEW!

Health:
Callie caught her first cold this month.  I also caught the same cold on the exact same day, so poor Bryann had to take care of a sick baby AND a sick wife.  Callie was really, uncharacteristically fussy on Saturday while Bryann was at school, and I was like "WTF is going on?".  Then that night, she REFUSED to go to sleep for more than 45 minutes, and I didn't notice she was running a little warm until I fed her at like 2 am.  So I took her temperature at 100.4, called the RN line to see what to do... Apparently nothing- stupid babies and colds - we were told to let her immune system do it's thing and not to give Tylenol for fevers below 102.

So I basically breastfed her every hour and sucked the snot out of her nose with the Nose Frida (amazing invention).  When she wasn't sleeping, she was crying, and both Bryann and I (at one point or another) got so annoyed and fed up with the crying that we needed to take a break or we might have gone insane.  I don't know how single parents do it.  I'm completely baffled that anyone is able to survive raising a kid on their own.  We actually gave in around 4pm on Sunday and gave her some Tylenol.  30 minutes later she was 90% back to herself.  By Monday she was fine, but I was still sick.  Stupid babies and their stupidly amazing immune systems...

I DID learn a few things though - apparently breast milk delivers antibodies specifically tailored to fight whatever illness she's dealing with, and adjusts it's temperature to suit her body temperature.  Breast milk also helps keep the mucous in the nose from proliferating and keeps babies from getting all stuffed up.

Poor baby girl is sick...  :-(  

Sleep:  
Callie has gotten into this terrible habit of waking up at 1:30 am now.  Usually Bryann puts the pacifier back in and she's asleep again.  Sometimes that doesn't do the trick and he bottle feeds her.  But she's always up again between 3 and 4 am.  Then again between 6 and 7 am.  We are exhausted...

Clothes/Diaper Size:  
We moved Callie into size 2 diapers at night and are going through the last of our size 1/2 diapers during the day.  She's fitting nicely in her 3-6 month clothing, though occasionally I can squeeze her into a 3 month outfit depending on the brand.  I even have Cherokee brand NEWBORN clothes that she still fits nicely into.

Diet:  
Callie is still breastfeeding, and eating nicely from the bottle.  I'm SO glad the bottle battle is over!  We introduced some solids to her diet towards the end of this month.  We started spoon feeding her bowls of oatmeal at night, and she's played around with some mushed carrots.  I think she even got a few carrot chunks in her mouth, rather than all over her face!

Baby Gear Love:  
We're still getting great use out of her Ergo carrier, her strollers (both the BOB and the stroller frame for her car seat), and since she's still a little (ok, a LOT) small for her highchair, I purchased a used Bumbo with tray on CL, and she's been much easier to feed in it.

There are lots of mixed opinions out there about whether Bumbos, or walkers, or any sort of seat that enables babies to sit before they're "ready", but we really only put her in them for short amounts of time (10 minutes here and there) and closely monitor her while she's in them.

Nicknames:  
Nothing new this month.  Lots of variations with the word "Goo" and "Monster" in it.  Googley Bear came back since we watched Monsters Inc. the other day.

Favorite Songs/Lullabies:  
Callie seems to enjoy any music at all.  I turn on my Pandora stations during shower time, or while I'm working and she's playing on her jungle mat.  I also sing all the usual silly songs while I'm feeding her, burping her, changing her, or playing with her.

Milestones/Firsts:
Sitting up.  Callie can balance herself pretty well leaning forward and doing a tri-pod thing with her arms.  She sits really well on my lap, leaned against a corner of the couch, or with the boppy pillow supporting her sides. 

Sitting up before she's even 6 months old!

Eating cereal from a spoon.  Lots of adventures in eating this month!  She likes to grab the part of the spoon with the food on it, but never manages to actually get any food in her mouth.  So I end up holding her hands while I feed her so she can slurp the oatmeal off the spoon.  She's SUPER smiley through the whole process and leans forward for the next bite.

Exploring some oatmeal and some spoon

Half-rolling back to tummy.  We have to help her roll over because she hasn't figured out the leg fling yet.  So we hold her leg down opposite side and she flips herself on over.  She's enjoyed playing on her stomach a lot more this month.

Doing the half-assed half-roll

Crying to get attention or to protest against having whatever she got hold of taken away.

First Snow.  We had Snowmagedon 2014 hit Portland this month and got a good 8 inches of snow at our house!  We couldn't help taking her out and snapping a few pictures.

SNOOOOOWWWW!!!

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I know this is all about Callie, but look how cute Sammy is!

First cold.

First baby play date.  I had Annie & Clara, Tamara & Hannah, and Katee & Isaac over for a good ol' baby play date and mommy gossip session.  Annie brought her camera and snapped some awesome photos, and it was really nice watching all the babies interact with each other.  Isaac brought his farm over because he wasn't sure whether we would have an appropriate amount of toys, but he ended up ignoring his farm and SUPER into Callie's Disney Princess walker and her Jungle play mat.

First time spending a few days alone with Grandma Lainey and Grandpa Jake.  Bryann and I both had work trips scheduled (me in LA and Bryann in Tacoma) over the same period and my parents were amazing and came to watch her for a few days while we were gone.  She fared just fine.  She ate from the bottle like a champ and even slept well.  I think I had a harder time being separated from her than she did.  I came back at like 10:30 at night, went in to feed her and she woke up for a few minutes, said "goo goo ga ga" (translation "Hey mommy!  How was your trip?  Nice to have you home. Welp, gotta get back to sleep.") and went straight back to sleep.  For my part, I enjoyed a few nights of un-interrupted sleep, and work and some LA friends kept me occupied while I was away, but I think 3 days away from my baby and my family is about my upper limit.  By the end of the trip I couldn't WAIT to get home.


Likes:
"Coffee Talk" (in the voice of Amy Pohler and Maya Rudolf on SNL).  This is where I drink coffee while Callie talks to me, and I ask her to expound on her thoughts.  She really does have some fascinating opinions already!

Putting things in her mouth.  Seriously.  Everything she gets her hands on goes in her mouth.  I even got her a little too close to my valentines roses when we were having mirror time in the kitchen, and she got hold of the rose buds and yanked the rose out of the vase and started chewing on it.  And she moves SO FAST, I couldn't stop her in time so she ended up yanking out a bunch of the petals.

Getting "kiss-monster"ed in the face.

Being thrown in the air.

Dislikes:  
Being tired.  Callie definitely has some great "put me down for a nap IMMEDIATELY" signals, including rubbing her eyes like crazy.  I once caught myself rubbing my eyes when I was really tired and cranky one night, and I was like "Hmmm... I now know where she gets that from!"  Perhaps it IS just a baby thing in general to rub ones eyes, but I prefer to think she's inherited all of my adorable quirks.  (Yes, my quirks are ADORABLE!!)

Things I Don't Want to Forget:
Spoon feeding her oatmeal cereal for the first time.  She would get a good bite down her gullet and then look up at me and smile oh-so-proudly!  UGH she's the cutest!!

One time we put her on her stomach in her nursery to try to entertain her longer before putting her to sleep, and she full-on planked like a seal, and lifted her legs super high up in the air behind her.  I swear they went above her head.  Bryann and I laughed and laughed and laughed.

Singing "Happy Half Birthday to You" in our family room with my parents and with Reezy on the phone.  Bryann was still in Tacoma on a work trip, and I had just gotten in from my work trip and was exhausted and hazy.  But it was still wonderful to reach that milestone with her and sing to celebrate.

Tummy time with Daddy

Enjoying her toes these days

She's quite the early reader

Just being adorable.  Don't judge the Reindeer jammies in February!

She LOOOOOOOVES playing with her toes

Pumping in the airport while I'm on my business trip

My milk stash when I got back from my 4-day trip

Polk-dot Queen of the World!!