Dear Coraline,
As of 1AM this morning, you turned six months old. I can’t believe you’re already half a year old (and yes, I’m already thinking about your first birthday party). You weigh about 16 pounds and fit well in clothes sized six months, although there are some three month outfits you can still wear. You’re also now in size 3 diapers (as of day 170), which look a bit big on you but fit well, which is what matters.
You now sleep through the night pretty much every night — and for that your poppa and I thank you — sleeping anywhere from 8 1/2 to 11 hours straight depending on how your day went and how tired you are. Your bedtime averages right around 8 o’clock, but some nights you’ll go to bed as early as 7:30 or as late as 9. You primarily sleep on your stomach and still enjoy sucking on your thumb when drowsy. And you always flash us the most awesome smile first thing in the morning — you’re such a happy morning baby that if you didn’t look just like your poppa and have my eyes, we wouldn’t believe you were ours. (Mommy and Poppa don’t do mornings.) You’re happy every morning, even when you have a bad night, like night 156 when we suspect you had teething pain.
And, yes, I’m still counting by the day. On day 154, you laughed spontaneously for the first time. What made you laugh? Our dog Caleb walking toward you. You held out your arms for him and he walked right into them. That’s another thing — you’re already an animal lover. You giggle and smile at all our cats and dogs and enjoy petting them all, but Caleb seems to be your favorite. Maybe because he not only loves being petted by you but because he smiles back at you, too. (You’re even good at scratching his funny spot that makes his hind leg kick.) He also loves to kiss you, especially on the face. You don’t mind it, but your poppa and I do.
You now definitely seem to have favorite toys. At the top of that short list is your pink glow seahorse, which lives in your crib. You love it so much you even figured out how to press its belly to make the music play (night 158); you now turn it on whenever you need comforting and love to sleep snuggled up against it. You’re also now excited when you see your bottle — you know it’s time to eat and eagerly reach out to grab it. On night 163, while your poppa was giving you your bedtime bottle, you reached out and held it on your own. He was so proud of you and couldn’t wait to tell me what you’d done.
This has turned out to be your worst month health-wise since you were less than a month old. On day 161, you were sniffly and fussy; that’s the first time I remember you truly reaching out for me to pick you up from your exersaucer. You got over that little cold in about a day. On a recent Saturday, you developed the sniffles again. By the next day (day 171), you were full-on miserable, coughing so much you threw up a whole bottle’s worth on me. That was also the day your poppa assembled the high chair we bought you, which you enjoyed sitting in despite feeling so awful. We monitored your symptoms closely until that Wednesday morning (day 174) when you woke up with a noticeable rasp and wheezing. We whisked you to the doctor, where you were diagnosed with RSV and croup and prescribed a nebulizer for breathing treatments. Proving once again that you have a very sweet personality, the doctors called you a “happy wheezer” at your recheck that Friday since you were all smiles for the whole staff. You’re finally feeling better and yesterday (day 180) at your recheck the doctor said your lungs were clear as a bell and that we could stop with the nebulizer treatments.
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| First St. Patrick’s Day (day 175) |
You’re so close to sitting up by yourself. You do really well with a bit of support from me or your poppa. During a bath (day 177), you managed to hold on to the sides of your tub and sit up on your own for the first time, which was awesome to see. You are also close to crawling. You do what we call “inchworming,” where you’ll basically shimmy on your tummy until you get to where you want to be. Between you rolling over and inchworming, you can move very quickly in the blink of an eye. As of yesterday you developed a fondness for gravitating to my work laptop, which you like to smack on the keyboard, proving you are indeed your father’s daughter.
I absolutely love how happy you are all the time (even when sick), how quick you are to smile, and the sweet way you’ve started cupping my cheek with your little hands when I’m feeding you or holding you close. Sometimes you even reach out to grab my nose while you’re eating. You also now stroke and pull on your poppa’s beard, which he loves. It’s the little things like that that make my love for you grow stronger every day — the increasing ways in which you interact with and respond to us. Soon you’ll be hugging us back, something I can’t wait to experience. Not that I’m in a rush for you to grow up. You’re still my sweet little baby and I intend to cherish every little moment with you that I can, and I am so proud to be your mommy. Here’s to a fun month seven.
love,
Mommy
