Lucy turned six-months old this week and celebrated by having one of the smiliest and happiest days ever. She woke up grinning and pretty much only took breaks for sleeping. I didn’t mind it at all. :) All of that smiling, plus a sunshine-y day made for a pretty good six-month photo shoot, despite the fact that Papa wasn’t around to operate the camera. I think we got at least one good photo with Mama’s skills. (Play the movie below to see her warming up for the shoot.) We also enjoyed making some fantastic “chocolate cookies”:http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=recipe3956&contentGroup=EDF&layout=edf. One of my very favorite recipes! So chewy and perfect.
p{color:gray}. Movie: This 9.6 MB clip runs 1’17”, shot on October 25, 2006. (Note: If you can’t see the video, you may simply need to update your free “Quicktime”:http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ plug-in.)
Earlier in the week, we experimented with feeding Lucy some “puréed sweet potatoes”:/news/2006/catching-up-with-lucy/. She didn’t find it as delightful as I had hoped. We got her all set up in her high chair and fed her with a colorful spoon, but she kept grimacing and finally cried. The next day, I mixed the sweet potatoes with a little breast milk so it would taste more familiar, and sat Lucy on my lap to feed her. She promptly blew raspberries into the spoon — quite cute, but a bit messy.
A few days later, Lucy went in for her six-month checkup. To our surprise, the doctor recommended that we not feed her solids yet. “If she is happy with milk and not acting hungry for something more, then don’t worry about it,” he said. Makes sense, I suppose, although we were sort of looking forward to the spoon-feeding phase. But nursing is more convenient anyway, so we’ll just keep following the baby on this one.
We also asked the doctor about swaddling — is it weird that we still “swaddle”:/news/2006/luv-2-b-swaddled/ Lucy for all sleeps? He seemed to think so. “Try swaddling her with her arms out, I’d like her to be able to move around a bit more.” Well, we tried that today and it took over 35 minutes and finally re-swaddling with arms inside for her to fall asleep this afternoon. That’s not okay with me. We are going to try swaddling with only one arm out tomorrow for a nap and see how that works. I’m trying not to stress about this, reminding myself that probably Lucy is bound to give it up one of these days.
The rest of the doctor’s appointment was pretty standard: Lucy is weighing in at a still-slim (30ish percentile) 15 lbs 2 oz and measuring a still-tall (60ish percentile) 26 inches long. She is continuing her long and slender trend, although you wouldn’t know it by squeezing the rolls on her thighs (which we do as often as we can)! Lucy was quite brave through her shots, crying when she got poked but recovering quickly. She seemed slightly feverish and out of sorts the next day, but is totally back to normal now.
I’ve been trying, in the spirit of “slowing down,” to take a walk with Lucy every day. It is a bit more challenging as the weather gets colder. Luckily, I used to be heavier and have a pretty big winter coat. With my trusty sidekick in her BabyBjörn, we wrap ourselves in down and brave the elements. The other day we ventured out in the autumn rain, shielded by Jon’s “extra-large British umbrella”:/news/2006/study-in-black-and-white/. Lucy seems to enjoy it, and I will sometimes have extra fun by listening to an audio book in one ear (_Northanger Abbey_ by Jane Austen is the current selection on the iPod). Lucy looks especially cute when she returns home with a pink nose and cheeks. The other day, I was wishing that I could introduce her to the joys of hot cocoa after a chilly adventure. Then I thought, “Warm milk is almost as good!” Lucy didn’t complain a bit about the lack of chocolate flavor. :)
Hey Ann – I was trying to remember when we stopped pinning Benjamin’s arms with a blanket while he slept and it was definitely older than 6 months. I think it was probably around the time it started getting warm outside so maybe April which would have made him 10 months old. Maybe sooner than that, but I know for sure we were still doing it at 8 months of age. He wouldn’t sleep otherwise, or, he’d go to sleep only to wake himself up by hitting himself in the face. We didn’t completely swaddle him, but he was definitely wrapped up tight with his arms tucked in. It doesn’t seem to have caused any problems – he’s on track developmentally speaking.
My kids and I would love to see Lucy and, as we put it, “chook her cheeks”. (Sort of like doing “pudgy bunny” but more gently…) She is just as cute as can be! But if you do get out our way with her (which I highly recommend, BTW–you and Jon could come stay with us and speak at my chapter) we promise to ask Lucy’s permission before the chooking.
hey ann!
wow! 6 months sure go by quick, huh? cadence didn’t want solids until she was around 10 months old, and i was okay with that since nursing IS so much more convenient. i think the longer they wait, the more beneficial it is in terms of avoiding potential food allergies and giving the digestive system time to mature more. then again, i know plenty of babies who started solids at like 4 months and who seem fine. isn’t it nice that our babies tell us when they are ready for something new, whether it’s at 4 months or 6 months of 10 months or a year? and when she IS ready for something solid, she’ll be one lucky (blessed) baby to be able to enjoy your cooking!
Hey Ann,
We weaned Ben from the swaddle by going cold turkey — the swaddling was driving me insane (he would always break out of it and start crying — and we were double-swaddling at that point). It was between 4 and 5 months that I weaned him from it and it was a little bit of an adjustment, but he did fine. I wonder if you might want to try cold turkey instead of slowly doing it? Ben likes to sleep on his tummy (which is why he didn’t sleep for the first 4 months of his life) and was old enough at that point to roll back and forth by himself.
It was scary to try to get him to sleep without the swaddle, but I figured he was ready since he went down so easily.