:::Knock on wood::: Before you read this post, please find a piece of wood, & join me. Reese has been sleeping better. I can't believe it. As I posted a couple weeks ago, our pediatrician insisted that Reese did not need to be eating throughout the night. So, I have stopped feeding her (well, I have only fed her in the middle of the night twice in 2 weeks, as opposed to 3x/night). Matt has been helping to go in & comfort her when she wakes, & it has been going really well. The first night, she woke up at her initial wake up time of 10:30. I KNOW that there is no way that she is actually hungry at that time. It's just not possible. So, Matt went up & comforted her to get her back to sleep. It took about 45 minutes, & she finally gave in. She woke up again at 3:30 (a usual feeding time). We went in & gave her a pacifier, & she went right back to sleep without an argument. For the next week, she continued to sleep better & better. She stopped fighting when she woke up in the middle of the night, & she would go back to sleep as soon as we gave her a pacifier. There have even been a couple of nights that she has slept through the night, 7-7. It's like a whole new world, & we are SO hopeful that this will continue!

Unfortunately, Reese has been sick AGAIN this week. Her nose is really congested & runny. She has been EXTREMELY fussy. She doesn't want to be put down, & she whines & fusses all day long. We have had a little hiccup with the night sleeping since this started, but we're hoping that it's only because she isn't feeling well. Even with this bump in the road, her sleep is still better than it was before, so I'm not complaining (well, I am a little, but not as much). I finally took her to the pediatrician on Thursday to verify that she didn't have an ear infection, or something else that was causing her discomfort (I feel like we live there!). Luckily, everything checked out fine, but I really hope this fussiness stops soon! I keep checking to see if she is getting a tooth (because I'm extremely excited for her to get her first tooth), but I don't see anything. So, more than likely, she will get over this cold, & then she will start teething, & we will have a whole new reason for fussiness & interrupted sleep! Such is life, right?

Reese's appointment with the doctor to evaluate her head is on Thursday. I'll be sure to post with the details!

As usual, Reese is growing & changing like crazy. Her hair was super cute, & especially curly last weekend. She got all dolled up to go to Matt's grandma's birthday party, complete with shoes, which she rarely wears. We couldn't keep them out of her mouth.

A rare picture of baby & mama, since I'm usually the one behind the camera.

She has been doing really well eating more & more solids. She is eating 3 solid meals a day now. We were SO excited to introduce her to fruit, because we figured she would love the sweetness. As it turns out, she does not. Matt rushed home from work last Saturday to be here in time to see Reese eat bananas for the first time, & she didn't like them at all! She kept making faces & trying to spit them out. She did the same thing with apples, & they upset her tummy. :( I guess we have a vegetable lover! I know that this next picture looks like an adorable smile, and I don't want to ruin it for you, but this is actually one of her "poop faces". She is trying her hardest to get something moving. Poor girl. (Please don't ever tell her that I posted a picture of her pooping on the internet.)

We gave her an apple in her mesh feeder:

She wasn't thrilled, & decided she would rather chew on the handle.

Reese's reading skills are really improving.

Pure adorableness:
Yeah, this is another poop face. This one brought success.
Wearing the tutu that my cousin Jordan gave her for Christmas:

She found it rather tasty.


Deep in thought...

Reese is now doing a full army crawl. She has been dragging her entire body around with her arms & elbows. In the last couple of days, she has started adding in some leg motion. She spends a lot of time rocking on her hands & knees. I have a feeling this girl is going to take off very soon. When she does, I guarantee that it will be to get to the cat or the dog. They are the two main things that motivate her to move.




She is also.....STANDING!!!! Seriously, this is going WAY too fast. She wants to stand & play ALL THE TIME. It was as if she figured out that she could do it overnight, & now she isn't content unless she's showing off this new skill. We are always right there to catch her in case she falls, but I am amazed at how good her balance is already.




Seriously, one hand???? Who told her she was big enough to do this?????

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. ;)