6 Months

Well I'm really late in finally getting this post up considering Mary Hyatt is only a week and a half shy from 7 months.  I guess with all of the holidays and everything going on lately, I've been a tad bit preoccupied.  But, nonetheless, Here is Mary Hyatt at 6 months old!!  How in world did my baby get so big?!? How are we halfway through her first year of life?!

 This has been by far the best month.  I am sure from here on out I will say that every single month, but she seriously has started to develop such a little personality this month.  About a week after her 6 month birthday, she finally started to sit up on her own.  We still have to stay close by her if she is sitting up because she will get top heavy and lose her balance occasionally and will fall over and hit her head on the floor.  She doesn't like that one bit...we may or may not have accidentally let that happen once on our hardwood floors.  Oops..haha

 We still haven't been to the doctor for her 6 month check up. We actually go next week so I'll have to figure out her heigth then.  We did go to the doctor this past week due to another ear infection and she weighed 18 pounds.  She's a growing girl! She is wearing 6-9 month clothes and some 9 month clothes. Sometimes 9 month clothes fit better because of the length.. I think she is still pretty tall for her age!
She is wearing size 3 diapers.

As far as sleeping goes she has been doing great.  We did go through a week where her actually getting to sleep was tough. She started throwing some temper tantrums and I mean tantrums.  She would scream and arch her back and squirm and pretty much nothing would soothe her.  We ended up going to the doctor and she did have another ear infection so I guess that would explain the tantrums. Since then, she has been back to her normal self sleeping great at night, but not so great during the day.  She will usually sleep about 10 hours at night, but naps during the day are VERY inconsistent.  Sometimes she will take a good nap, other times she will take several short little cat naps. She does often continue to make us work to get her to sleep though. She likes to fight it. A couple of times we have tried to just let her cry it out.  The longest I've lasted letting her cry is 10 minutes, and it got us nowhere.  She ended up just crying louder and harder as the time went on and my heart and soul couldn't take it, so I picked her back up and helped her get to sleep. I mean how could you let this little face cry?!

She is still eating about 6 ounces of formula at each feeding and she is consistently eating solid food every day as well.  I've only been feeding her the solids at dinner time.  We usually give her rice cereal and either a fruit or a vegetable.  She is a great eater.  Her favorites are peaches and bananas, but she will pretty much eat anything if she's hungry. 

This month she has become so much more aware of her surroundings and is constantly reaching and grabbing for everything.  We let her sit in a high chair at a restaurant for the first time and she was trying to grab everything off the table. She has gotten to the point where she is so curious that being strapped in her car seat makes her mad because she has to lean back and all she wants to do is sit up straight and look out.  If we unbuckle her and let her sit up and hold on to the sides, she is happy.  And she has gotten pretty strong and will sometimes fight us as we try to push her back in her seat to get the straps around her arms. She has started to really like playing with toys now and bath time continues to be one of her favorite times of the day. 

Mary Hyatt has also really started to like tummy time.  She pushes up so high on her arms and is starting to make crawling motions.  She can't technically crawl yet but I have a feeling it will happen soon.  She has started to master a backwards scoot though.  She will often scoot from one side of her play mat to the other and there have been a few times where she has scooted all the way across our bed.  

Mary Hyatt really is such a good baby.  She has such a laid back personality and is so calm.  Generally if she starts getting cranky a lot, I know she is getting sick.  Since she has never ran a fever and doesn't pull at her ears, the only way I've been able to know to take her to the doctor is her fussiness.  Even this past week when I took her back to the doctor for a follow up, we had to see a different doctor in the practice and as he was writing up his notes he kept saying "Gosh, she is such a good baby." "I can't believe she is 6 months old and being so calm." "If I had a grand baby that calm I'd spoil her rotten."  Ben and I talk all the time about how lucky we are to have such a good baby, but we sure hope that doesn't mean our next baby will be double trouble!

It's hard for me to believe that our sweet baby girl is already 6 months old.  Ben and I are actually out of town for a wedding as I'm writing this, and of course we both have talked about Mary Hyatt nonstop all weekend.   Neither of us can even imagine what life would be like without her. Now that we have our own baby girl, this wedding weekend brought out a few different emotions for us.  After the father of the bride gave his toast, we both started talking about having to do that for MH one day.  Though we will be extremely happy for her, it made us emotional just thinking about it.  At least she's only 6 months old right now so we don't have to worry about that anytime soon...but at the rate time is flying, it'll be here before we know it.  For now, I think we'll just focus on being her mama and daddy and cherishing every moment of watching her grow and develop. We love you Mary Hyatt!