Pearls and Perfection Problems: 6 Months Old

I wanted to preface this post by saying that Emersyn has grown, changed, and developed more in this last month than ever before!!!! It is just to much to handle sometimes watching how fast she is growing up!!! I have LOTS of pictures below because so much happened from month 5 to 6.

How Old: Six Months
Weight: 14lb 6oz (around the 20th percentile)
Length: 26in (around the 60th percentile)
Head: 16 3/4in (around the 50th percentile) the doctor wanted them to remeasure because she didn't think it was actually that size since she was in the 10th percentile last time, but after the shots... Emersyn was so upset that I think they forgot to measure and we forgot to remind them.
From the Doctor: Emersyn's doctor was very pleased with her motor skills at her 6 month appointment. She said she was very advanced and that we would need to move the crib down!! We just moved her to her crib a month ago!!!! If you have been following my blog, you may remember when she was born that she had the blocked tear duct as well as stork's bite around her eye. The stork's bite should be gradually fading but has not, so the doctor has us going to see a Dr. Hochman at MUSC on May 21st. If anyone has had experience in this area, we would love to hear : ) We are turning it over to God and trusting him. We would greatly appreciate your prayers next week.
Clothes: We had to get her new jammies in 9 months!!! Growing baby! Anything with the feet in them she needs 9 months for the length. Other things she can still do 6 months or 6-9 months. We have moved to size 3 diapers now after she had a major "blow out" in Costco and this mommy did not have a spare set of clothes with her. We had to buy her a set of pjs to change into at Costco. The girl knows how to get new clothes when she wants them :)
Sleep: For the first five months of her life, she was sleeping in a pack n' play in our room to make getting up for feedings more convenient since her room is on the other side of the house. During my spring break, we transitioned her to the crib in her bedroom. She did great the whole week of spring break while I was home. On the Sunday night before I returned to work, she literally woke every 45 minutes!! She continued this throughout that whole week!! Talk about exhaustion!! She improved and now she is waking once a night for a night feeding. Hoping to get back to those "sleep through the night days" we had from 8 weeks to about 4 1/2 months. I think she is just doing some major growing, changing, and learning right now. During that sleepless week, she also learned how to roll onto her belly in her sleep so this could have been part of the waking. Not sure :)

Food: At the beginning of the month she was doing 5 oz bottles while I was at work, but since she still wasn't sleeping through the night, we went up to 5 1/2 oz. A couple weeks later I tried 6 oz bottles, but she did not want to finish them or if she did finish them, she would wait so long between feedings that she ended up cutting out one of the day feedings which defeated the purpose of bigger bottles because she was getting less milk overall. Trial and error :). SO we went back to 5 1/2 oz bottles. She nurses before I go to work, takes two bottles, then nurses twice when I get home from work, and usually once in the night. A few weeks before she turned 6 months, we introduced oatmeal and she took it well... She's messy though!!! Pictures below :). A few days before she turned 6 months we introduced her first veggie, avocados.
Emersyn's Firsts:
**We worked on a lot of transitions over my spring break so I could be there all day to help her adjust and see how she did. The rest of the month she met some huge milestones, but I didn't really get the exact dates written down on all of them!!!
- First Easter Egg Hunt: March 29th at Wofford
- First Easter: April 5th
- Sleeping in her crib at night: We did this for the first time during my spring break, April 6th
- First time riding in her stroller without the car seat attachment: week of April 5th
- Using a big bottle: We had been using the Medela bottles that fit with my pump parts, but they only go up to 5 oz, so when she moved to 6 oz I had to transition her to her Avent Natural bottles that go up to 9 oz. April 8th
- Ride on the golf cart: We took her daddy lunch at work one day and he rode us on the golf cart. She LOVED it and just laid back in my lap as relaxed and "chilled" as could be!, April 9th
- Eating something beside milk: She had oatmeal for the first time, April 16th
- Friend birthday party: We went to her friend Grace's 1st birthday, April 18th
- Sitting up by herself: Around April 20th
- First solid food: We gave her avocados mashed up for the first time during the last week in April
- Scooting around on her belly and rocking back on forth on all fours: last week in April
- Baby Dedication: April 26th
Emersyn Loves: Being outside, having the wind blow in her face, chewing on everything, grabbing mommy's hair OUCH!, touching our faces, TV, riding in the car, riding in her stroller, riding on the golf cart, bath time, rolling all over the floor, playing and entertaining herself on the floor or in her crib, grabbing her swaddle blanket when she's sleepy, chewing on her Sophie, trying to figure out how things work, being sung to and music, playing with the remote, chewing on tags
Emersyn Dislikes: Being too hot, going to sleep by herself, being on one task too long, sitting in a still car seat, getting her nose cleaned, when too many people crowd her
Emersyn is Learning to: Make a lot more sounds while she is playing or laying in her crib, rock on her hands and knees, do 360s on her belly, push backwards while laying on her belly (she hasn't figured out how to crawl forward yet), sit up with little assistance, eat solids, drink water after her dinner (which she really doesn't care for), laugh out loud, sleep in her big girl crib, drink from a faster flow bottle
Mommy's Favorite Thing: You have blown us away this month girlie! You are very active and try to figure out how everything moves and works. You are very observant and easily distracted these days because you are trying to learn so much. My favorite thing this month is hearing you laugh out loud more, watching you go after toys and enjoy playing for long periods of time on the floor, and seeing your adorable facial expressions as you taste solids for the first time. You love discovering new things everyday, and I LOVE watching you outside.
Daddy's Favorite Thing: Daddy says, "I love how you love being outside. Whether it is just sitting and chilling on the back porch with me, walking around, picking the grass, looking at the garden, anything as long as we are outside together. Seeing you grow and learn so many new things there is something always new to look forward to each day!"
What I've Learned This Month:
** There is a such thing as a sleep regression: So as Emersyn was losing all this sleep and waking me up every 45 minutes the week after spring break, I did not know what in the world was wrong with my baby. Was it teething? Ear infection? Separation anxiety? Hunger? All these thoughts drove me crazy, and finally after a few nights of literally no sleep, I researched online for a majority of the night and realized there was something called a 4 or 5 month sleep regression. DING!! Finally, my child was not the only one who had been through this. Apparently many infants go through a sleep regression during this time because they are growing and learning so much so quickly. Looking back it was true because after that week of crazy nights, she learned how to roll and sleep on her belly in the crib, sit up with no assistance, scoot and roll all over the floor, eat solids, and even started making more sounds. She also became super observant of her surroundings and did not want to eat well because of distractions. I just think her little baby brain was making so many connections it could hardly settle at night.
** Big milestones are harder on Mommy than Daddy: I am telling you, this past month has literally BLOWN MY MIND!! Emersyn has become so mobile and is doing so much that it is sometimes too much for this mama to handle. I am that mama that when her child does something new, instead of cheering, I am like NOOOO my baby is growing up to fast lol!! Daniel is the one who cheers, although the night we found her laying on her stomach instead of her back he kind of had is own moment and just couldn't believe that she had figured out how to roll onto her belly in her sleep. Of course I am happy that she is meeting milestones appropriately, but each new milestone means one step closer to her independence from needing us.

** My parenting philosophy: Just as I had to write my teaching philosophy during my college years before I became a teacher, I am also developing my parenting philosophy as I learn with Emersyn. I know it will always change as she grows, but I hope to write a post soon about my thoughts so far.

More 6 Month Pictures

You can tell from the pictures that every month gets more and more challenging to get her to sit back in the rocking chair to get her pictures. There were several times I had to leap across the floor to keep her from going over the side of the chair. Busy girl :)

Pictures Daniel took one evening a week after she turned 5 months old.

Spring break memories!!

The first Saturday of spring break, we had our church directory pictures taken. Since we had all gotten ready, we decided to stop by my parents to take a few outside pictures too!

Playing at home one morning!!

Sleeping a little longer in mommy and daddy's bed since we don't have to rush out to work :)

We brought daddy lunch at work one day on spring break. He took us around the course on the golf cart! Emmie loved the wind blowing in her face on the ride!!

Checking out the green grass :)

Over spring break, we also had pictures taken with my Mama, MamaDoris, Emersyn, and me. These four generation pictures were a gift to my mama for Mother's Day from Emersyn and me!! We will treasure these forever :)

The week after spring break, Emersyn rolled over to her belly in her sleep for the first time.

Sleeping on her belly during nap time at Gran Gran's.

Riding the golf cart with Mimi and Pappy (Papa, Poppy... we still don't have a concrete name for him yet :)

Grace's 1st Birthday

During my pregnancy posts, I mentioned several times how blessed I was to have so many of my closest friends pregnant at the same time as me. Well, now we all have babies :) This is Jennifer and Brantley who were my college roommates with their babies Grace and Charlotte.

Emersyn always has to touch every baby she sees!!

Grace teaching Emersyn how to wave!!

Poor Charlotte got her hairbow yanked out by Emersyn.

Emersyn's Baby Dedication

We had Emersyn dedicated to the Lord at our church on April 26th, two days before she turned 6 months old. We pray that she will give her life to the Lord at an early age and strive to live a pure life staying close to Him always. We also pray that we can be the Christian parents God has called us to be for our children.

After the dedication, we had lunch at my parents house with all of our family! Emersyn has many godly family members in her life who have served in their churches for many years either as Sunday school teachers, deacons, choir members, piano players, GA leaders, Bible study leaders, etc. I cannot praise Jesus enough for surrounding our family with such strong faith walkers.