People ask me how I so clearly remember how old Forest was when he did XYZ and it's because I have this blog to look back on. I was an excellent documentarian! But my discipline in keeping track has definitely slipped a bit with baby #2.
So..to the best of my remembering ability, the big events that occurred somewhere in between months 5-6 were:
-Cutting 2 teeth (first one at 4.5 months). She's cutting number 3 as we speak. Forest cut 4 teeth in a week right about this age and had 6 teeth by his 7 month bday so we'll see if she keeps up the pace with her brother.
- Becoming mobile. Juliet is an expert army crawler. She is a champion roller. She's even a talented back scooter.
She isn't crawling in a classical sense but as far as a milestone, her doctor says any mobility that gets them where they want to go counts. And she is getting on hands and knees more often so I think that skill will develop soon. Though Forest was also an early crawler and preferred the army crawl until 8 months or so.
- Solidly eating solids.
Started incorporating some purees just before 5 months and started a smidge of Baby led weaning right around 6 months and she's doing great! Her favorites are kiwi, strawberries and bananas but she hasn't turned her nose up at anything we've fed her. She gets mostly fruits and veggies but also some meats/eggs/nuts in baby safe form. We are trying to slowly introduce all the major allergens and so far she's had no issues with eggs, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, or wheat. We still need to test soy, fish and shellfish. And weirdly in our family- cinnamon (me and F have a skin allergy to cinnamon).
- Mastered sitting up independently
- Standing well with minimal assistance
- Starting to pull up to her knees but not to standing
- repeating words/sounds. Has said 'hi' on multiple occasions. Will even imitate my 3- syllable diction trying to repeat 'elephant', 'banana' 'I love you'. Here she is saying 'I am' clear as a bell.
-Lifts her arms when she want to be picked up or reaches her arms to someone if she wants to be passed over. She does this back and forth with me and Jonathan. She's also waving. She does the open/close fist wave and a very cool hand lift wave.
-Has started a smidge of separation anxiety. Does not appreciate being left in the room by herself for a single second. She doesn't seem care who is in the room with her, as long as she's clearly the center of somebody's universe at any given moment.
- Is sleep trained! Woohoo!! We never had to "sleep train" Forest. He just took it easy on us. Juliet was following in his tracks but Jetlag messed her WAY up. Also while we were traveling she outgrew her bassinet and started crawling out of the dock-a-tot, so we had to cold turkey start her in the pack n play. And y'all, if she didn't start sleeping better immediately!
She was just ready for more room to roll/crawl around and has become a frequent belly and side sleeper. I put her down awake and she puts herself to sleep for all naps and bed and does this 99.99% of the time with no protesting. She's not the most consistent when it comes to wake up times or nap lengths but overall she's becoming a pretty good sleeper (as long as you don't put her through a 12 hour time difference!).
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| little thumb sucker |
Routine: We are currently in a nap transition where she's dropping from 3 to 2 naps a day. Usually her wake up time and the length of her first nap dictates whether she'll need a 3rd nap or not. She has many days where she takes at least one 2+ hour nap which is incredible. It was very rare for Forest to nap much longer than an hour so I feel pretty spoiled with Juliet!
A smooth 3-nap day goes like this:
Wake up 6:45/7 and she nurses and eats some solids
Naps 9-11- wakes and nurses/eats bottle and solids
Naps 1:30-2:30 wake and nurses
Eats bottle at 4
Naps 4:30-5
Eats solids at 6
Nurses and bottle at 6:30
7 pm bedtime
If the second nap ends closer to 3 pm then we skip the 3rd nap and go to bed at 6:30. I'm hopeful that by the time she hits 7 months she's solidly on 2 naps a day.
Nap transitions are hard. One of the things I struggle with the most in the first few months of babyhood is the unpredictability. They develop at such a rapid rate that as soon as you think you know how the day is going to go, they switch it up on you. Once they are down to 2 naps it tends to stay that way for at least 6 months before they flip the script again. But most importantly, she's sleeping 11-12 hours most nights and with baby #2 I've made the vow: If baby sleeps well at night, I will not complain about naps! And like I said, Juliet on the whole is a good napper so I can definitely live with a little inconsistency while she transitions from 3 to 2 naps per day.
Likes:
People. The girl is such a ham and loves attention. Her brother is her absolute favorite even though he still isn't sold on her.
Food. Her appetite is insatiable. We always have to cut her off while she's still whining for more.
Her bunny lovey.We lost bunny one day after picking Forest up from school and the whole community was searching for it. Happily, they were reunited the next day!
Dislikes:
The stroller. She'll tolerate it for about 40 minutes but after that starts to fuss and whine. Our nanny takes her for a walk most evenings (air quality dependent) and brings along the carrier in case Juliet throws a fit. I'd say 2/5 times Juliet is in the carrier by the time they make it home.
Being left alone in a room. She will start protesting the second you are out of her line of vision, even if you're only sprinting to the next room to pee or fetch her bottle. I'm not sure if this is her natural personality or just a product of her environment since she has a stay at home mom AND a full time nanny to shower her with attention all day.
She definitely needs some time to work on independent play! This is something that Forest NEVER struggled with though he had his fair share of separation anxiety (and still does to some extent). He needed me in the room but would happily explore without any input from me. We can already tell that Juliet is much more social! And don't try putting on the TV to distract her from the fact that you need to use the bathroom. Unlike her broski, she has little interest in screens at this point. A blessing and a curse.
Biggest challenges:
Y'all. I have a bit of PTSD from Forest's baby/toddlerhood. To say he was a handful is an understatement. I've yet to meet another child who compares to him in terms of intensity or energy. From the time he was mobile until the time he was 2.5 he was basically on 24/7 suicide watch. He had a tendency to run after anything that caught his eye and had zero inclination for self preservation.
I tried everything and was criticized or received well meaning unsolicited advice from people who I knew just had NO CLUE what keeping up with a child like Forest was like. I was low-key terrified that baby #2 would be the same.
Juliet was hands down an easier itty baby. She didn't have reflux or colic, tended to enjoy sleeping, and never seemed to get overstimulated or be overly sensitive to loud noises, lots of activity, pushing her nap back by 15 minutes, etc. She handled Disneyworld like a champ whereas Forest would generally have a meltdown after a trip to the grocery store.
But then she started crawling...
And y'all, I have friends who legit do not baby proof their houses because their babies 'just don't show any interest in climbing the stairs' or 'just listen when I tell them no the first time' or whatever.
That is just not destined to be either of my children. She is curious and seems to automatically hone in on the most dangerous thing in any given room and crawls there at the speed of light the moment you put her down.
Like, is this just a normal baby thing? Or is it just my babies? Is it something about my eggs or my parenting that makes my kids have ZERO chill?I don't know but I do know I've been hit with a feeling of immense dread as she becomes more and more mobile everyday. She will no longer contentedly be carried around in my arms. She will wiggle and squirm and throw herself backwards trying to obtain her freedom. I'm hoping it's just the excitement of developing new skills and at least, unlike Forest, the energy exertion does seem to correlate to better sleep (knock on wood).
A note on breastfeeding: I'm slowly transitioning Juliet to formula. My supply just doesn't seem to make the jump after the 4 month growth spurt, but she's continued to nurse happily so I've just been trucking along and supplementing with pumped milk. My freezer stash has just run out so we're turning more and more to formula.
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| Last bottle of breast milk. Waaah. |
Right now she's about 50/50. I nurse 3 or 4 times a day, offering a bottle if she still seems hungry afterward (which she usually drains 3-4 oz of formula after so I'd say yes). She also gets a bottle of formula for one of her feedings, with no nursing. I plan on slowly stopping nursing over the next month with just maybe keeping morning and bedtime nursing session if my supply will allow that.
Happy 1/2 birthday baby girl! You sure are a lovable little drool monster.
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