6 months!

We have officially made it to 6 months. Looking back I didnt know if I could survive this far! Baby sure does change everything. Praise God!

Char had her 6 month appointment today. She got some shots (which she did NOT like, I mean, who does like getting shots?) and the doc saw her. She still isn't rolling but the doc said that is fine as long as she is rolling by 9 months. If not, we'll look into some PT. Come on, baby, roll!!!!

Stats.....

16 lb 8 oz
25 1/4 in long
17 in long head

She's a growin'!

splish splash!

Today Charlotte had her first experience in a pool! She actually did a lot better than I thought she did. She just splashed a little bit and looked around. She didnt cry or anything. I was very proud of her! It seemed that she liked the water, which is very normal for her, she loves bathtime and has never been afraid of water.

First day of solids!

Today was Charlotte's first taste of solids! Well, ok, more like mush, but she loved it! Instead of rice cereal we did oatmeal cereal. She ate it right up, which really surprised me, I thought she wouldn't like it. But I had a taste and it was actually pretty sweet. I tried to wait until 6 months, but I figured 5.5 months was long enough. :)


I made a huge batch of baby food yesterday, it was so much fun! So far I have made sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, peaches, pears, and pumpkin. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and sooo much cheaper than buying the jarred stuff. However, it was pretty messy, you know, making purees and all that. I can't wait to feed everything to her!! (one at a time, of course....)

5 months old!

Charlotte recently turned 5 months old. Woohoo! I can't believe we've made it this far. I realize I haven't updated this in almost 2 months! Eek! Here are a few updates... She is NOT rolling over yet, neither back to front or front to back. Sometimes it worries me, but I know that she is a completely normal baby otherwise and the doc says she has until 6 months to roll.. So we're on the count down! lol She seems content to just stay on her back or tummy forever! Hopefully she'll be mobile by the time she's 2 years old! :)



As of this moment, little Charlotte has a cold. This makes her 3rd one in her short life. We are also on 100% formula now. I was pretty depressed about it at first, but my milk dried up pretty fast after I had a cold a couple months ago because I took ONE antihistamine pill. Oh, and guess what I realized (after the fact, mind you)? You know Unisom, the sleeping pill? I have to take one sometimes because I am a shift worker. You know what the main ingedient is? Diphenhydramine! An antihistamine!!! The same stuff in Benadryl. AHH! Like I said, NOW I realize this! No wonder I dried up so fast. Oh well, atleast I was able to feed her mommies milk for 4.5 months of her life, the most critical months. But she has been fine on formula, has had no problems whatsoever. She still is quite the little spitter, though! She'll spit up sometimes 3.5 hours after she's last eaten (she eats every 4 hours). Hopefully she'll outgrow that soon. I'm tired of her smelling like spoiled milk!

We are waiting until 6 months to start any kind of solid (because that's what the AAP recommends, plus I'm just too darn lazy to start now!!!! LOL), but I have been surfing around the 'net about making my own homemade babyfood. It looks so easy, I think I'm going to give it a try! I'm excited about it! There's so many yummy recipes out there. I hope Charlotte grows up to love her fruits and veggies. She has been eyeing me while I sip out of a cup. We were at Moe's the other day and I saw she was watching me, so I picked her up and let her gum on the top of the cup. Don't worry, she didn't get any of my sweet tea, but it was so cute! We also got a little sippy cut the other day and she seems to be taking to it quite well! Right now I just put a little water in it and it usually gets all over her, but she seems to like it!

Well, that's it for now!

4 month stats!

Charlotte had her 4 month well baby check up! She did ok with the shots, only cried for a few seconds. Afterwords she slept for 2.5 hours straight! lol THAT rarely happens. So, here are her stats:

13 lbs 10 oz (50th percentile)
25.25 inches (90th percentile)

Still not rolling yet, but that's ok! Hopefully soon she'll be rolling all over the place!

ChunkMunk

For the past couple weeks, things have been great with the baby. She is about 3.5 mo old right now. I'm not exactly sure how much she weighs or how long she is, but she is getting big! I call her Biggun and my little ChunkMunk. :) She is getting a little better at coordinating her movements, although she can't just reach out and grab something yet. But, of course, everything she does grab ends up right in her mouth! She is drooling a whole bunch now, and has been for about a month now. I'm constantly having to change her bibs because they get so soaked! Maybe a little bit of teething is going on, I don't know, although she seems a little young for that! Maybe I'll have a look in her mouth later and check it out. We're still tackling the 45 minute naps! Which is so frustrating and makes it near impossible to put her on any kind of schedule (I like the word "routine" better :) But I've decided to just quit stressing about it and just go with it. I've read babies outgrow this by about 5 or 6 months.



When I was sick a couple weeks ago, I had to take some meds (I was just too miserable!) and I think the antihistamine I took made my milk supply dip a bit. So frustrating! But I am still able to keep up with her needs and have only supplemented with formula once (at night, and would you believe she slept through the whole night that time? from 7:30-6:45am!) and I might have to use more formula later on, but for right now, I am just happy that I am able to give her whats best while she's still so little, and while it's still RSV season and whatnot. I am still pumping mostly so she is still eating by a bottle, but I try to nurse her atleast once a day for the antibodies and to maybe increase my supply a bit.

We also recently got a video monitor. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, it's a bit overkill, right? And I used to think that, too. Well, with all the sleeping issues we've been having (mostly with naps) and me constantly having the urge to go in her room and check on her, I got one. It wasn't too expensive, I got it for $85 on eBay and I figured it was a good investment since Charlotte is definitely not going to be the last Hill baby. :) Anyways, I LOVE it. I love watching her sleep and love watching her put herself to sleep (something that was not very easy to teach her, that's for sure...) and I can also see that when she's crying, she's not in distress. I can also see right when she's waking up so I can go in and pop that paci back in her mouth so she can maybe extend the nap (and my alone time!) for another hour or so. It has been wonderful having it and I definitely think it should be on any new mom's baby wish list!

And here is a video for your viewing pleasure.... :)

Back to Work!

So last week was my first week back to work! It went a lot better than I thought it would, although it did take me a couple days to get used to sleeping during the day. It was also my first week of being a nurse without being pregnant, haha! It was definitely much easier than before. I used to have to bring so much food to work with me because I would get so nauseous if I let my stomach get empty! (hello 65 lb weight gain! lol) I like being able to have a break for 3 days out of the week, although I still get to see Charlotte for about an hour total those 3 days. And then we spend 4 days together! It is going to work out great, I think.

This weekend Charlotte and I have also been a little under the weather. I have a horrible cold right now and I have to work tomorrow so I hope I feel better. I would hate to call in on my 2nd week back! How embarrassing! Anyways Charlotte only had a stuffy nose and she coughed and sneezed for a day or two, but she was such a happy "sick" baby! She wasn't fussy at all and slept great, something I was worried about when she was to get sick. I wonder if she only had allergies with all the seasonal changes we are going through right now. She seems to be doing much better now. Which, by the way, I thought breastfeeding was supposed to help babies not get sick! This has been the second time since she was born that she's been sick! So much for all that... :)

For right now, everything has been going great. We are still struggling our way through short naps (45 mins! ugh!) but I've read some info about how to extend them so I am going to be trying some of the tips this week. It worked today for her morning nap, she slept 2 hours! Anyone have any advice for this?? :)

In terms of milestones, not much has been happening! She turned 3 months old today, though! How the time has flown. I can't believe it! Seems only yesterday I was rubbing my tummy and she would kick me and I would press her foot and she would move it back in, lol. Such a little miracle! But she has been much more aware than she used to be and she loves to smile! She hasn't started giggling yet, but I can't wait 'til she does! :) She'll definitely fit into this laughing family! She can lift her head up a bit like you can see in one of the pics above. She also tried to roll over, but not yet! Soon enough though, I'm sure!