Last week Anna turned six months old. I predicted she'd crawl by her 6mo birthday, but she took an extra 5 days to really get the hands and knees and move all at the same time. Her want to stand kind of threw a wrench in the plans. She's a perfect little crawler at 6mo 1wk, and she has combined it with the pull up to get to furniture to stand at. She's much more independant that Aidan was at her age. At 6mo, Aidan was just ssitting well by himself and never seemed to even want to move. He didn't crawl until 9.5mo. Anna can also get to sitting now all by herself from laying on her stomach.
One thing that is harder though is that she falls over more and hits her head. Aidan was always so controlled and sure and she just wants to go without really having the strength or stability. I think we'll need to Anna-proof a little. She's starting to have an eye for exploring the tile at the end of the carpet.
Nursing seems to be mostly for nutrition and less for comfort than I remember with Aidan. Our nursing sessions are very quick as she gulps the letdown and then she's ready to explore. She does like to nurse to sleep but she struggles sometimes with fullness and the want to continue nursing to sleep. She seems to spit up at these times if she stays awake. Other than that, she very rarely spits up.
I don't see any teeth trying to swell or cut their way through, but she does like to chew on things. We haven't really tried any solid foods yet. A few weeks ago, Adam and I were talking about when we thought we'd try and we both kinda shrugged and thought she was still so little, had no teeth, and didn't really seem that interested. Then I read about this over here. That sounds pretty good to me. I'm not interested in shoveling food into her mouth to spit onto a bib. We'll see how it goes as I'm relaxed and folowing my mommy-instincts on this one.
Last night Anna spent her first night starting on the bed on the floor. She lasted about 3 hours, about 2.5 longer than I thought she would. I'm impressed, and optimistic that she'll keep it going. I don't mind having her in our bed, but now that she's mobile and starting to sit up and move around the bed in the middle of the night, she needs to be between Adam and I instead of on an end. It has been cute thus far, catching her standing at Adam's back at 3am or seeing her cuddled up with him, but I seem to start getting my mojo back at around 6mo postpartum and I'd like to be able to lay next to my hubby. Of course there are other rooms in our house, but now that she can quietly move around and potentially launch off the bed, I can't leave her in the room by herself.
Anna continues to be a very happy, easy-going baby. She loves to flirt from my arms or floor but doesn't seem to like being held by others very much (except Adam). She did pretty good one morning at my mom's house. I took Anna into my mom's room at 5am and asked her to play Mimi while I went back to bed with Aidan. I heard her screaming in delight and laughing as I lay in bed, unable to go back to sleep. She is really happy in the mornings.
I've also noticed that I can leave her in a room now for a few minutes at a time to get laundry or go to the bathroom. She'll crawl around and explore while I'm gone without panicking at my absence. That is very differnet from Aidan and oh so nice!
Aidan gets upset sometimes when he finds her playing with "his" toys but we've created a rule that he must give her a new toy before taking one away. This works for now, as she really doesn't care, and it's really cute to see his frantically search for a toy to swap and then throw the old toy off to the side. It is funny how he didn't want to play with the original toy but just didn't want her to have it.
Anna loves attention she gets from Aidan. He'll grab her head to kiss or jump over her, knocking her in the process and she sucks it up. She smiles at him and loves watching him play. I am amazed at how well they get along so far.
******
I know I need to write about Aidan too, so I'll start with a little story until I get to his 2.5yo next month.
Last night he was nursing and chatting about something at the same time (he almost never does this) and he stopped both, said "na-nas good mommy. yummy," and continued nursing and chatting about something I couldn't understand. He's been so happy lately and he lights up my days. It's a good thing, because the whining kills me.
Isn't it crazy the difference between each child? Justin and I talk about it everyday. My kids are total opposite of yours on nursing. Finley nurses all the time. Most of the day, and all night. Hayden didn't care so much by this age!
I can't believe Anna is already 6 months old. Craziness. And the 'toy swap' works well in our house too. The only problem now is Finley doesn't want to give up whatever she has, so Hayden has to wait now. That is NOT fun!!!
Talk to you soon!!!!
Posted by: Christy | October 03, 2006 at 08:04 AM