6 MONTHS

Sweet Baby Ayla Ocean turned 6 months old this month (August 4th to be exact).

It feels like she has reached a big milestone in turning 6 months.  Where did my little newborn go?  I must admit I love the current stage of life she is in.  We have so much fun together.  Ayla is very interactive, talking, squealing (very high pitched), reaching for things, playing with toys, and putting everything in her mouth.  

The biggest change is ...

SOLIDS!! Yeppers, we have a little eater on our hands.  Ayla's first food was Avocado.  She has also had bananas, winter squash, mango, and baby Oatmeal (we like the Earths Best Organic whole grain oatmeal cereal) we mix it with a little bit of breast milk and she gobbles it right up. The oatmeal cereal is her favorite.  She gets so excited when she eats it, she kicks her legs happily and opens her mouth real big for every bite till it is all gone.  I also gave her peas recently but I don't think her little tummy could digest them very well because she threw them all up.  And this girl never even so much as spits up, let alone throw up.  So we will wait a few months before trying to feed them to her again. Feeding her solids is very fun.  I spent several days researching baby food, and first foods, and how to make them etc, etc.  I wanted to do my best to ensure she had a healthy introduction to solid food.  So far I make all her food myself, except for the oatmeal cereal, other than that she hasn't had any commercial baby food.  It is really easy to make and I like knowing exactly what I am feeding her, no preservatives, dyes, added sugar, salt and whatever else those manufactures might try to add in.  This way I know it is fresh and healthy and tastes like normal food.  I am not saying I will never feed her commercialized baby food, but at this point I simply prefer not to.  It is funny how different Chris and I are when feeding her.  Chris tries to keep her as clean as possible, making sure she doesn't get any food around her mouth or on her hands.  He hates messes, especially when they involve food.  I on the other hand, really want her to enjoy the process and think that messes comes with the territory.  It is fine by me if she gets food on her chin and then sticks her hand in her mouth, so the food gets on her hand, and then she pulls her ear, and rubs her legs, and plays with her hair, so naturally the food gets all those places too, then I wipe her down and she is good as new.  Although, despite my best efforts to wipe her clean, occasionally I do find bits of banana or squash up her nose or in her ear, shoot must have missed those places.      

SITTING!  Ayla can sit up all by herself now.  She isn't crawling yet, which is sort of awesome because she will sit and play with her toys and completely entertain herself temporarily.  I can briefly leave the room and when I return she is in the exact same spot as when I left her.  I am really love that!!  But alas, I know this is short lived so I am trying to soak it up and enjoy this time while it last.  

ROLLING!  Ayla has become a professional roller.  She can roll front to back, back to front, left to right, and right to left. She has even figured out how to maneuver her body to roll in the direction of whatever she is trying to reach.   

GADGETS! Ayla is currently obsessed with all gadgets, remotes, phones, the laptop, ipod, camera.  She wants it all, and everything goes directly into the mouth.

TEETHING!  Ayla is teething.  She doesn't have any teeth coming up yet, but her little gums are definitely bothering her.  Hence the primary reason everything goes into the mouth.  We give her teething rings, and frozen wash cloths to bite on, but she really loves when I put a few ice cubes into a plastic ziplock bag.  That entertains her for quite a while and keeps those little gums happy, at least until the ice melts. 

POOP! No more running soup, now we have a thick, sticky, paste and it is smeeeeeeeelly. We went from 8 poopy diapers a day as a newborn to only once every other day while traveling, to currently 1-3 times a day.    But no more blow outs!! (knock on wood) At least not since we moved her up to size 3 diapers about a month ago. 

NO MORE BINKY!  Ayla decided this all on her own.  She has suddenly lost all interest in binky.  For a while we would try to give them to her, but she spits them out and wants nothing to do with them anymore, so we stopped giving them to her. At least for the time being, there are moments when I really wish she would still use it.  One good thing about it is we won't have to worry about weaning her off them and having a 5 year old that wants to take her binky to school. 

BOTTLES!  We gave Ayla her first bottle at 5 months. She is still exclusively only drinking breast milk and occasionally water in a sippy cup.  I have started pumping once a day so we have milk on hand to mix with her cereal and we are able to give her a bottle when we go out.  Which means no more nursing in public anymore.  This is really nice, especially since she was starting to hate having the nursing cover over her and was always wanting to pull on it. Plus she gets very distracted when she is trying to nurse if there are people talking or unfamiliar noises so that was making nursing in public pretty difficult.  She has taken to the bottle just fine, no problems, and still loves nursing so it is a win win for everyone. 

SIPPY CUP!  Ok I mentioned this previously, we have started to give Ayla water in sippy cup.  This is more to satisfy her love and obsession with cups than it is for her to drink.  She will drink a couple sips from it occasionally but mostly she loves to hold her sippy and pretend to drink from it. 

JUMPEROO!  We got Ayla the Fisher Price Rain Forest Jumperoo.  Oh my heavens, she loves it!!  She has got the jumping thing down.  She jumps and jumps and jumps some more all the while being extremely vocal with her high pitched squeals of delight so all the world knows how much fun she is having.  (I will post a video of her in it soon) Needless to say it has been a worthwhile investment and Ayla and I both strongly recommend it. 

6 MONTH Stats

Weight= 18 lbs 6 ounces

Height= 66 centimeters

Head= 45.5 centimeters

Her growth rate has slowed down a bit.  Her weight went from 90% to 65%, her Height went from 90% to 25% and her head is still growing strong remaining in the 90%.  Her doctor said it is normal for babies growth rate to slow down a bit when they reach 6 months.  So I am excited to see how she continues to grow in these next few months. 

Happy Half Birthday to our Sweet Island Baby Born be the Sea!!