Liv's 6 Month Update
First off I have to give a big Thank you to all of you reading this. When I started this blog I never knew it would create a wonderful community where I could go to for advice. I can spend hours upon hours researching things online and end up even more lost then when I started (I most recently did this the other night in regards to the flu shot, raw milk, and peanut butter, haha). But when I throw out a question on here or on social media I always get the most helpful responses and suggestions from you fellow moms. So thank you for taking the time to first off read my posts, and secondly for sharing all your experiences and advice with me. I honestly read every single post and comment and have taken a lot of your suggestions and put them in to practice and found it so, so helpful. So thank you, thank you, thank you!
Okay, now on to todays post. The last 6 months have been some of the best, most challenging and exhausting days of my life. I can't believe how much I took for granted before baby. Even just an hour to myself to read ( a non baby book) seems like such a luxury! I have to say though, we are getting in to a nice groove now that we are settled in and have a routine going.
SLEEPING:
We used the Ferber method to sleep train. If you missed it I did an entire post dedicated just to that, you can find it here. It went great and it had our baby sleeping through the night by day 4. Then we hit a bit of a hiccup. The cold season hit our house, and hit it hard. The hubby was off from work for over a week and it didn't take long for his sickness to reach Liv and I. Wanting to comfort the babe and not knowing any better I allowed all that sleep training to go out the window. I first thought it would only be a night or two and we would get back to sleep training. But of course that didn't happen. We went right from a cold to teething (thanks to you all your advice we got the teething under control quickly though). So, time to get back to sleep training right? Not so fast. Right when teething was under control Liv got gastro. We couldn't catch a break. But again after reaching out for advice to all of you we went ahead and got back to sleep training. There was going to be a lot of colds, teeth and sick days in the future so we couldn't let every little thing derail her sleeping. So we officially had to restart sleep training. We are kind of in the thick of it now, and it is going pretty well. It is not going as smoothly as it did the first time, it seems we have "bad nights" a bit more often than we did the first time around. But we are getting there and we are keeping on course this time!!
Naps-
I quick note about her naps. After my sleep training post when I mentioned naps were hit and miss a lot of you guys had great suggestions. A number of you spoke about the importance of routine and naps. So starting the very next day we made an official routine that we try to keep to most days. I must say that has worked wonders for naps! It took a few days but we are now having solid hour plus naps a couple times a day!!
ROUTINE:
With that said I will go ahead and give a quick run down of our routine. A few of you shared your routines with me and I found it so helpful. Liv's wake up time is different each day, I am hoping that once sleep training is done she has a consistent wake up time so that her schedule can be exactly the same each day...Day light savings did us no favors in regards to this! So annoying. But here is roughly our routine that we follow when we are home:
7:00 - 8:30am - wake up and nurse
9:00 - Breakfast (pureed pears)
10:00 - Nap time routine, nurse and down for a nap
11:30 - wake up and play
12:30 - Lunch ( pureed fruit or veggie)
1:30 - Nap time routine, nurse and down for a nap
3:00 - wake and play
5:30 - Cat nap
*Her 3rd nap of the day is still hit and miss and most of the time just a quick cat nap. Because of this if I have to run errands or take her out for longer than an hour or so I try to do it around this time.
6:30 - Dinner (pureed sweet potato)
8:15 pm - Night Time Routine, nurse (top off with a bottle) and down for the night.
Liv's bed time is a little later than what most recommend. We did this because it fits our lifestyle better. I can still take her to a hockey game, leave after the first period and get her in to bed on time. Also it may seem like she's is eating a lot, but breakfast, lunch and dinner are pretty much just snacks. She is still getting the majority of her nutrition from breast feeding.
MILE STONES:
Oh my gosh this girl has changed so much in just the last month. Her little personality has really started to develop, she is super silly like her daddy. She sits perfectly now. We want to crawl but have yet to master the movements. She gets up on her knees then pretty much just face dives towards the direction she wants to go, haha. Her favorite thing to do is pull her self up to a sitting position then to standing...she is super proud of herself when she does this, and expects an applause each time, haha. Most recently she has discovered her tongue which is now hanging out of her mouth at all times...this was especially fun during family photos the other day.
Sorry for the novel, there is always just so much to talk about when it comes to Liv.
Much Love,
