Nora at 6 months

Personality: Happy girl (almost all the time).  By far the most common thing people comment on is how smiley she is.  I just love her happy-go-lucky personality.  She loves to smile, laugh, and giggle.  I think it is hilarious how even if she is tired or getting crabby and you smile at her she usually just has to smile back.  I love how she seeks people out to smile at—if someone walks past her she is usually going to smile at them and they usually then feel the need to smile back and often come chat. 

People very often also comment, “that baby never cries!”  Well, she’s tricking of course: she does cry.  She wouldn’t be part of this family if she didn’t have some fire!  She is most apt to cry at night time—if she is tired and I am not around she can be very, very crabby.  And sometimes if she isn’t sleeping well she has to cry a bit in her crib ;-(  She also cries when I am getting ready to nurse because she isn’t getting what she wants fast enough.  Makes being discrete a bit hard!

Physical: She’s a happy chubby girl. She was 19.6 pounds at her 6 month appt. (around 80th percentile I believe), 26 1/2  inches long (60th percentile though I think that might be a little off—her legs definitely grow out of everything), and  17 3/8 inches  head circumference.  Lots of chub and folds.

I’m not going to even talk about her eyes.  They just look like a muddle of all different colors to me right now.  I love watching her hair fill in verrrrrrrryyyyy slowly.  Looks curly and light-ish reddish. 

Her skin is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  much better!!!!  We finally made it to the allergist. We started with the skin pricks.  It seems she is allergic to cats (which makes a lot of sense in retrospect) and possibly to milk and eggs.  Since it was ambiguous whether she was allergic to milk and eggs the allergist sent us to the hospital for blood testing.  This was a horrible flop.  They (2 different phlebotomists at Fletcher Allen) tried three times and could not get her blood.  It was so horrible.  Anyways… the allergist did give me lots of tips on how to treat her skin better and between her tips and keeping the cat away and milk and eggs out of my diet, it healed up almost all the way very quickly.  I am now introducing milk and eggs back into my diet to see what that does. But it is nice to see her without such horrible eczema.

She is a pretty stable sitter (though I don’t give her a ton of practice since our floor is cement).  She is not a huge mover though.  She doesn’t seem terribly close to crawling.  She is super at being on her tummy and turns herself well—she will play around on the floor or in her crib for good chunks of time.  She is just starting to stick her butt up in the air a little—almost in crawling position, so maybe some progress…I don’t think she is going to hit her moving milestones as early as Joseph—but I think she might talk more!

Eating habits: She is really eating now and it is so fun. I just give her little bits, but of lots of different things.  I am doing all different ways of giving her food—store bought purees, finger foods, and various foods in her silicon feeder thingy (thanks for all the inspiration Meredith!).  After we drop Joseph off at school every day we have a leisurely breakfast together.  I undress Nora completely so she can really go to town.  She usually has pieces of banana or avocado and a puree—sometimes with cereal mixed in.  I feed her some on a spoon, but mostly let her get it all over.  She actually is starting to really spoon feed herself!  Then I stick her in the sink and wash her off.

She sits in her highchair during all her meals now, which means I get to eat with both hands!  I am now giving her food for one other meal a day as well.  I am enjoying trying hard to give her a healthy variety and enjoy giving her tastes of what we are having.  Bean soup was a big hit (again inspired by Meredith)! 

She still nurses about every three hours—sometimes a little longer in between but not much.

Also, she has no problem taking bottles, which is awesome.  I’ve worked a couple days here and there and had some meetings and such, and it is wonderful to know she can eat.  She has no problem if I leave during the day, much harder if Brad has to put her to sleep for the night.

Sleep: Better!  Not great, but better.  She usually wakes 3 times, which is a bit much for this age, but she just nurses and goes back to sleep.  She goes to sleep pretty easily at about 7-7:30, nurses at around 11, 2, and 4 and then wakes for the day about 6:30. She is usually in her crib in her room all night, though sometimes in our bed or her rock n play.  I’m still debating sleep training, but haven’t really bit he bullet yet.  Sometimes nights are worse, but usually not too bad.  But I promised myself I would do everything I possibly could to instill self-soothing and good sleep habits in this child…so, undecided.

Days are usually pretty good: she naps about 9 for about an hour and a half, then around 1 for an hour.  Sometimes she still takes a third nap, sometimes not, though she still seems to need it.  I still am staying home a lot since she sleeps better and is so happy, but she does ok when we are off schedule too.

Nicknames: Babystein, Norastein, Noranator, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle, Noni (Brad’s the nickname guy clearly)

Mom stuff:  Not too much.  I just love 6 months!  It is a great age.  And she’s a pretty great babe.  Luckily everyone is healthy this month!  Oh, I am on a big healthy eating and exercising kick which has been awesome.  I love trying out new recipes and foods and have even finally lost a few pounds.