Emily at not-quite-six months

Emily's babyhood seems to be flying by. A friend here recently had a new baby and he is SO tiny that Emily suddenly looks like a toddler at 13+ lbs. What happened to my baaaaaybeee, etc. 

At two weeks shy of six months, Emily: 

• Loves to be naked. She grins and coos like a loon when I change her diaper, because without clothes and diapers in the way it means she can get her feet in her mouth. Girlfriend has recently discovered her feet and she thinks they are fantastic. I usually let her hang out on the changing table with no diaper on for a few minutes so she can happily chew her feet or hang out in happy baby pose (who knew how aptly named that was? I find it so endearing and hilarious, as Hannah never did it. Then again, Hannah was not a very happy baby. What's cranky baby pose?). But I can't leave her up there unattended because...

• Rolls over, both front-to-back (she's done this for a few weeks now) and back-to-front. Yesterday was her first time doing a double roll, which resulted in her being in the same position I left her, just a few feet over. Disconcerting.

• Got to meet her grandpa and uncle for the first time this week, as Joel's dad and brother came out for a visit. Joel's aunt and uncle came too and it was great having so many extra hands around to help with kid-wrangling.
• Still sleeps with us at night. She was a stellar co-sleeper for several months, just drifting off to sleep next to me and sleeping quietly all night (well, she woke up to eat one or two times, not THAT kind of "all night"). But then she hit the four month sleep regression and got a bit thrash-y, so now I've had to swaddle her to avoid getting punched all night. However...
• Can escape her velcro swaddlers. Time to break out the Miracle Blanket (aka baby straitjacket), I guess. 
• Refuses to sleep alone. She used to be really great at taking naps in the Rock N Play when she was a sleepy newborn, but again, that four month sleep regression ruined everything and we have not been able to get back on track. She will basically not nap unless someone is holding her, which is less than ideal. Thankfully she is still pretty happy even with shitty naps (if I do put her down, she never sleeps for more than another 15-20 minutes), so it's not life-ruining.  But it's getting there. I am planning to sleep train her SOON, but wanted to wait until our company had visited (since I needed her room to serve as a guest room while we hosted four extra adults). Next weekend we're going on a trip and it would also be extremely convenient to have her sleep with us so we don't have to bring a second Pack N Play (and therefore procure an extra Pack N Play), but after that it is ON. (I'm scared. I know it needs to be done, but please tell me it will be OK.)
• Is still nursing, much to my delight. The last time I sat down to write a post (uh, two months ago) I was just about to say that nursing had been almost unbelievably drama-free this time around. But immediately after that post didn't get written, I got thrush. Again. Yeah, ugh, etc. HOWEVER, this time I recognized it right away and our doctor out here was FAR more accomodating and knowledgeable than the experience we had back in Baltimore. I got on meds right away and it helped, but it came back, as thrush is prone to do. So I've been dealing with it on and off for two months now. That sounds awful, but it has not been that bad, I promise. When I realized that the first round of diflucan had failed I immediately started the weaning process because the thing I most want to avoid is sudden weaning and the accompanying hormone crash that I experienced with Hannah. So I started giving her one bottle a day, and then bumped it up to two bottles a day a week later. And though this was not my intention, that gave my boobs enough of a break to heal up using only OTC topical creams, and when I realized I was feeling pretty much 100% better I slowly cut back to one bottle a day, and then none. And then I starte feeling sore again so we went back to one bottle a day. Then better again, so no bottles. Then REALLY bad again (where really bad is about a 4 on a scale of 1-10, whereas with Hannah really bad was a 10), so I called the doctor but my doctor was out because it was Saturday and the other doc would only give me Nystatin, which is generally regarded to be useless in the thrush community. I tried the Nystatin anyway and it gave Emily horrible diharrhea so now we are back on diflucan, for three weeks this time. I am cautiously optimistic that this might be just the thing to finally kick this stupid yeast for good. If not, I'll start weaning again and see how far we get before I feel better. I'm extremely pleased that we made it this far, and that it has not been a constant struggle. The thrush has been annoying, but almost never painful. If we had to quit next week I'll still count this as a very positive breastfeeding experience that I've been very grateful to have. 
• Has dabbled a few times in solid foods and seems eager to eat them, but not so eager to digest them. So far I've tried yogurt (NO good, digestive-wise) and one of those veggie pouches that Hannah rejected (sweet potatoe, pumpkin, and squash.

• Still turbo-barfs like crazy, but seems to be maybe winding down in the spit up department? A little? PLEASE GOD I AM TIRED OF SMELLING LIKE MILKBARF.
• Adores her big sister. She's a pretty happy baby in general, but no one can make her laugh like Hannah can. She lights up whenever she sees Hannah.

• Still uses the green Soothie pacifiers. I think by this point we'd switched over to the Nuks because they were a little easier for her to hold in her mouth by herself, but keeping Emily on the round Soothies helps avoid confusion/jealously over whose paci is whose. Because Hannah is still 100% addicted to pacifiers at 2.5 years old. 
• Wears six or nine-month clothes already. Since Hannah was so small until I quit breastfeeding this kind of blows my mind. Good work, boobs! And good work, Emily! Despite the Thrush 2.0, so far the only other problem I've had is one (1) single clogged duct when Emily had a super stuffy nose and was having a hard time nursing. It lasted half a day. With Hannah I had at least one clogged duct at all times, often multiple ones. 

• Is, so far, happy to hike with us in the Ergo. She either sleeps or just hangs out on the way up, comes out for a break at the top (and nurses) and then rides down awake, checking out the scenery.

•  Feels like she has been part of our family forever. I can't believe that less than six months ago she was just a blob in my belly. I asked Hannah a few weeks ago if she remembered what life was like before Emily came to live with us and she said "Just Hannah. Oh no, my yittle Emmawee GONE! Den Mommy go someplace, bring Emmawee back home."

Comments

[Janet]

I'm so happy you wrote this post! And EVEN HAPPIER to hear all the bfing news. Yay for keeping the thrush mostly in check. She is just so cute and perfect and delightful!

I'm also impressed with all your hiking. We need to do that more often.

Also, I think my paci-addict will still be an addict in another year. Blergh.

[Beth]

Loved reading the Emily updates. The Emily/Hannah love kills me. And so glad thrush II is manageable and not soul crushing like your first bout. As for sleep training- yes, it will be FINE! She will be fine and you will be fine, and then you will all start to sleep more. I think at 6 months we bought a sleep sack and ditched the miracle blanket cause our pediatrician said that their hands could help them to soothe if/when they lost their pacifier.

[Feisty Harriet]

Awwww, I love this post!

xox