It seems like Reese has grown up so much in the last couple weeks! She is becoming so much more independent, & it is awesome to watch her grow. She is sitting like a champ, but she has discovered that she can dive from a seated position to a hands and knees position. That scares the heck out of this mama. I discourage anything that resembles an interest in crawling. I am not ready for full mobility. (I'm sort of kidding.) She has learned that she has other ways to get across a room, including rolling (over and over and over again until she reaches her desired object), or scooting. It's amazing how much mobility she has without being able to crawl. She doesn't stay in one place for long. Baby proofing is becoming a top priority.

We have started doing sign language with her. We have about 10 words that we are working on signing each time we say them (mama, dada, milk, sleep, dog, cat, etc.). They say that babies usually start signing back around 9 months, so we're going to try to stay consistent & see what happens. I would really like her to learn "more", & "all done", if nothing else. She's at such a distracted stage that it's always hard to know if she's really done eating, or if she has just discovered something that is more interesting than eating for a moment.

This is her newest favorite face. She loves chewing on her bottom lip. She has learned, "mmmmmmm," & she sucks in her lower lip & says, "mmmmmm," when she sees something she wants. She does this a lot when she sees us eating, or when she sees Bailey or Moxie (I'm pretty sure she just wants to pet them, not eat them).








We started giving her real food (besides rice cereal) last Sunday. Her first meal was sweet potatoes, & she loved them. She kept making a face like they were sour, but if I took too long to give her another bite, I was quickly scolded with, "mmmmmm."





Her next food was peas, & she liked those as well. Today, we gave her avocado, & she really liked that. I smashed some up & gave it to her on the spoon, & then I put a slice in her mesh feeder, & she REALLY loved that. It was so cute to watch her nom on it, & (sort of) feed herself.





We gave her a sippy cup for the first time on Friday, & she LOVED it. I'm not really sure if she has gotten a real drink, or if she has just figured out how to get a bunch of water on her face, but either way, it's super cute.






We had her 6 month appointment with the pediatrician yesterday. She is healthy as a horse, & doing great developmentally. Unfortunately, we are still dealing with a flat head (it's generally flat, with a really flat spot on the right side). The pediatrician gave the final word that it's time for treatment. He actually referred us straight to a company that makes helmets, but after discussing it, I am going to call tomorrow & ask for another referral.

Matt & I feel like the opinion of the doctors at the place that makes (and profits from) the helmets will be biased. We actually brought that up to the pediatrician, and he agreed, but he said that he feels that she needs one (so even if it is a biased opinion, it's the one he agrees with), & it's the easiest place to go to save time. However, from the reading we have done online, there are a lot of pros AND cons to helmet therapy, so we want to make a very informed decision on whether or not this is the best thing to do.

Our pediatrician mentioned that there is a cranial specialist that he refers some patients to if they do not wish to go straight to the helmet company. I am going to call tomorrow & ask for that referral. The doctor is at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, which is a fantastic hospital, & Matt & I feel strongly that this is the best place to go for an honest evaluation. If the cranial specialist looks at her & says that she needs a helmet, then so be it. But, at least we will have someone to talk to & ask questions of that will give us an honest & unbiased opinion. So, that's where we're headed.

I was pretty upset when we left the pediatrician office. But, after a few tears, Matt put everything in perspective. There are a lot of MUCH worse things that we could be going to Children's Memorial Hospital for. I am immensely grateful that we are going for the reason we are (and grateful that we have such an awesome children's hospital so close to our home). Our baby girl is beautiful (I dare you to argue), happy, and incredibly healthy. What more could we ask for?

Our pediatrician also told us that we need to start letting her cry at night. It was kind of a rough visit!!!!!! Reese is a pretty bad sleeper. She is still getting up & eating 2-3 times each night, which is a little ridiculous for a 6 month old. She really shouldn't need to nurse through the night, & I'm sure that she does it more for comfort than for hunger. Our pediatrician told us that we need to just let her cry it out. He suggested that we go in & soothe her once it goes past an hour. Yeah. Right. That's not going to happen. Matt & I talked about this as well, & we just aren't ready to do that. It's something I swore that I would never do, and, as much as we are completely sleep deprived, we want to try every other option before resorting to that.

So, we are going to try a couple of things. First, we are going to try to implement a stricter daytime schedule. Right now, we really just follow Reese's cues. We feed her when she's hungry, & put her to bed when she is sleepy. Makes sense, right? Unfortunately, she is still eating every 2.5 hours (which is a pretty short stretch at her age), & she is only sleeping for 30 minutes each nap (most babies have a long morning & afternoon nap at this age). So......we're going to try to encourage a schedule, rather than just going with the flow (See???? I try to be relaxed & go with the flow, & look what happens!).

Today was day #1 of implementing a schedule, & it was a little rough, but not a disaster. We are going to try to ween her off of her nighttime feedings starting tonight. If (if, HA!) she wakes up, we are going to try to soothe her back to sleep without feeding her. I am confident that she is getting plenty of calories during the day, & that she should not need these night feedings for adequate nutrition. I am willing to continue feeding her once in the night for awhile longer, but 2-3 times is too much. This may require some middle of the night assistance from Matt, because I'm not sure she will be able to be settled by me (since I have the milk). It's probably going to be a rough, & even more sleep deprived, couple of weeks. She's lucky she's cute. ;)