Height: 27 3/4 inches (98th percentile)
Head: 16.5 inches (25th to 50th percentile)
I can't believe that Caroline is already half a year old!! More than in previous months, this month it felt like Caroline started taking her first "steps" away from us and from being an infant. She is obviously of course still so little and full of pudgy, snuggly babiness but this month she started asserting her individuality and independence a bit more. All of these changes made this kind of a tough month on the Caroline front.
For starters the first part of this month Caroline learned to roll from her belly to her back. At first she only did this during play but then eventually started rolling over in her sleep and waking herself up and not remembering or having trouble figuring out how to get back on her belly. All babies go through this but for some reason this started the progression of troubled sleep for her and we are STILL trying to figure it all out. Shortly after learning to roll, she learned how to use her voice and very vocally made it known that she wanted and needed more consistent dedicated naps. I don't blame her, we have pushed her farther than any of our other kids without a consistent schedule and she decided to fight back. In the beginning of this month, we had almost a week with lots and lots of daytime crying due to naps. It was horrible! And based on a friend's recommendation, we hired a sleep consultant to come in and layout a schedule for us. It was immediately helpful in regulating her daytime sleep and now she is consistently taking 2 naps a day for 1-2ish hours each. Her nighttime sleep has been a whole other story though... at the beginning of this past month, she started sleeping 7pm to 7am without a dreamfeed! She did this consistently for about a week and then the whole rolling thing happened and messed everything up. She got overtired during the day and then was up a lot at night. And we are still kind of stuck there. I'll be honest, it has been pretty rough and at times I feel like we have a newborn again. I added back in the dreamfeed and the sleep consultant is helping us make progress again, I guess, but it has felt like a long month and I don't know that I see an end in sight yet.
Feeding this month has been in transition right along with her sleeping as they go hand-in-hand at this age. She is eating about two solid food "meals" a day and is slowly getting better at opening her mouth and letting me spoon stuff in. That said, I have been reminded of the patience it requires to feed a baby because it can feel so tedious and unproductive especially at this early age when as much if not more ends up on the tray, her bib, face, clothes, hair, etc, than in her mouth. That is why, with everything else going on, I sometimes can only make it happen once a day. But aside from avocado, she seems to like everything she has tried.
On other fronts, Caroline is at such an adorable stage! Sleeping aside, George has commented on how this is one of his favorite ages. Caroline's face lights up with delight when she sees George or the big kids or I walk into the room and she happily flaps her arms and squeals or giggles. When she's rested, she is so smiley and happy and just basks in the attention showered on her by Ainsley and Bailey. They both adore her and melts my heart to see, even when they go so far as to "fight" over who gets to play with her, bring her a toy, or make her laugh. They both often get their feelings hurt if she is smiling or laughing more at one than the other. This month, Ainsley has calling her "hood-dee" instead of Caroline for reasons I'm still not able to understand and Bailey always sweetly refers to her as "baby" and often "my baby".
Other things from this month I want to be sure to remember:
- The early part of this month, she found her tongue and has fun sticking it out and biting it
- She took her second flight and first trip to Missouri and got to meet her great grandma/pa Norma and Lee, her uncle Matthew and Aunt Meaghan, her great grandma Tina, and some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins.
- She had her first little fever that thankfully only last about 24 hours.
- She can roll back and forth and slide herself left to right to get toys. And at the end of this month, she has started being back to lift up slightly on her arms and toes and scoot herself backwards. If I leave her for a few minutes playing on the floor with her toys, I often come back to find her in another spot.
- She has started wearing some of the clothes that Ainsley was wearing when Ainsley was close to one and walking! But as much as we joke about her being chubby, she really isn't all the much. She just has a lot of cheeks and chins and is tall!
- Other people - even strangers - often comment on her gorgeous blue eye and the amount of hair she has and they always guess that she is much older than she is. I like to dress her in blue because it makes her eyes stand out even more! George and I comment to ourselves all the time about how beautiful we think she is. Clearly we are biased but I just love my pretty little lady!
- I love how her hair swirls on the back of her head. Ainsley didn't have this much hair until she was over a year old!
- Likes to play with the tags of all her toys and loves to chew on Bailey's super hero guys and the arms of Ainsley's dolls, and her toes.
- Started sleeping in a sleep sack and with her lovey although she hasn't attached to her lovey yet.
- We packed up the baby swing this month and got out the jumparoo. She doesn't love the stationary jumparoo that Ainsley and Bailey used and instead tends to prefer the doorway jumper that we borrowed from a friend. The doorway jumper gives her more freedom where she can twist and turn and I think she feels more "a part of the action" in that one. I'll post pics of those at some point.
- For several months now, when you are holding her, she never really holds back... meaning that she has both her arms flung out "diva style" to either side. But this month she has started holding onto our shoulders at times. It is so sweet and feels like a little hug. When she gets excited she will smile and squeal and then dive her face into our shoulders/neck to "hide." It is one of my favorite things!
- She loves it when George and I play chase with her. Usually George is holding her and he will run in slow motion away from me. I'll come up slowly and grab her arm and tug and pull on her. She loves this game! She gets so excited with the anticipation of being "caught" and then delights when I grab her. It is the sweetest!
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