Half a year has gone by and Cora is more and more fun every month! Some big milestones were met this last month. Cora is sitting all by herself and quite reliably actually. She reaches to grab toys with both arms and occasionally will fall forward ending up on her stomach and then rolling to her back. She now rolls both ways, left and right, stomach to back and back to stomach. She also has her two bottom teeth coming in! She looks so cute with the two little teeth poking through.
At her 6 month doctor's visit last Friday she weighed 15 lbs 7 oz, which was 35%. She was 25 inches long, 15%, and her head was 16 and 1/4 inches, 40%. Her cheeks, thighs, and arms are getting even chubbier and she is quite the happy little smiley baby. The pediatrician did recommend starting flouride drops and vitamin D supplemental drops, which we have started. We also got her a little tooth brush to start brushing her teeth! Since she has been slightly tilting her head to the left the dr recommended an evaluation with a physical therapist, which we did today. Neil took her while I was working and apparently it's not severe at all and we don't really need to go back for any follow up. They just recommended doing some stretches to loosen up the muscles in her neck. We'll see how that goes! The dr also recommended getting her eyes checked out at somepoint since she has one eye a little bigger than the other, but she didn't suspect anything would be the matter. Cora was also a champion getting her shots this time! She screamed a tiny bit, but got over it right away. Way to go Cora!
The biggest thing with 6 months is that Cora has started full time at day care as of last week. It seems that she is doing pretty well, but that things seem to change day to day. For example, yesterday she ate 12 ounces of milk during the 8:45am-5pm day and didn't want to eat her pear/cereal mix. So today I sent 15 ounces of milk today, but then she ate her apples and wanted more, but only ate 2 ounces between 9am-2:30pm. It's tough to plan what she will use up! She is generally taking a 30 minute to 1 hour nap in the late morning and a 1 to 2 hour nap in the afternoon, although on the weekends she has been a bit tougher to get to sleep for naps, especially if she gets overtired. A couple days at day care they said she has been a little fussy, but they think because of her teeth or gassiness, etc. But I kind of think she gets overstimulated and then overtired and is then fussy before a nap.
Neil and I have worked out a pretty good morning routine to get us all ready for work/day care. Neil is flexible on when he gets to work and sometimes will get her ready while I shower, but generally I've been getting up around 7:15am, showering and getting myself ready, then Cora wakes up around 7:45-8am (or we wake her up) and I feed her. She's not usually interested in eating solids right after nursing in the morning, so I get her ready for the day, pack her diaper bag and lunch, then we leave the house around 8:20am. It's a ten minute drive to day care and I usually see if she will nurse there before I leave. I set her up with some toys and the day care provider (Miss Linda) and sneak out in time to get back home by 9am. If she sees me leaving she will burst into tears. The smile I get at the end of the day though is priceless!
The biggest adjustment for me has been figuring out a pumping schedule for the work day. Last week I started out pumping at noon and 3pm (like she had been normally eating from me), but then I only ended up pumping 3 ounces each time for 6 ounces and it turns out Cora ate 10 ounces! So the next day I pumped at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm and still got around 7 ounces, while Cora ate 9. By the end of the week I was starting to really stress out about how much I was pumping during the day and worried about losing my milk supply and not being able to breastfeed Cora for at least a year, etc. Thursday I had to be in West Yellowstone for the day for work and was pumping sitting in my car and again stressing about not pumping very much. I didn't know what the problem was and read all about decreasing milk supply online. Was I stressed out from work? Was I not eating and drinking enough during the day? Was it because of the introduction of solids? Maybe it was partially all of those things, but then Sunday I started my period for the first time since Cora was born. So I looked up if that could have any affect and yes, it said that women often notice a decrease in milk supply! Who knows if that really was the cause, but this week I've pumped 13 ounces one day while Cora ate 12 and 11 the next day, which was way more than she ate. I figure it will all work out some how. We have around 120 ounces of milk stored in the freezer and if worst case scenario happens and I don't have enough milk for her, then we can always supplement with formula and she will be just fine. Even though I'd love to breastfeed for at least a year!
So then Neil usually picks Cora up on his way home from work and I nurse her around 5:30pm-6pm. Sometimes she naps a little or we play with toys and read books or we go out...to hang out with friends, play our softball games, go to the Farmer's Market, etc. (summer is so busy!). Then around 7pm we try to do solids for dinner, which appears to be her biggest appetite time of the day. Last night we were out at a restaurant with some friends and their babies and Cora ate more food than she ever has in one sitting (1 tablespoon of pear/rice cereal and 1.5 tablespoons of butternut squash). Then I think tonight beat out last night with 1 tablespoon of green beans (new!) and 2 tablespoons of oatmeal cereal. Every few nights we give her a bath (which has been more often now with eating solid foods and getting food all over!) and then she nurses and goes to sleep between 8-8:30pm.
Sleeping has been pretty good the last month as well. She is still sleeping in her Zipadee-Zip and her arms and startle reflex don't seem to bother her at all. She rolls around a lot and lately has been sleeping either on her left side or on her stomach. She will typically sleep until 5-6am and wake up to eat, then fall back asleep until either 7:30-8am on the weekdays or later on the weekends. Sometimes she'll wake up around 1am or 3am to eat, which usually makes me more tired, but for the most part it's not too bad. I can't seem to get to bed before 10:30pm-11pm, so if she wakes up at 1am 2 hours later I really feel like a zombie. But a 6 hour stretch from 11pm-5am and then another 2 hours from 5:30am-7:30am or so really isn't so bad. A couple nights last week when I wasn't pumping as much during the day, I thought maybe if I "dream feed" her at 10:30-11pm right before I go to sleep, then the extra feeding will help my milk supply and she will sleep longer until the morning. A couple nights it worked well and one night she still woke up at 1am.
Last Sunday was an amazing day though where I essentially slept until 10am, which was awesome! Cora went to sleep at 8pm and I think slept until 7am, when I then brought her into bed with me. I nursed her and she fell back asleep around 7:30am and we slept until 8:50am. Then she nursed on one side in the side lying position for about half an hour and we both fell asleep again. Then I changed her to the other side and we both fell asleep again for another half an hour until 9:50am. I wish every morning could be like that!
Here's a few pictures of her lately. Sitting up, standing in her saucer, enjoying the summer sun, laughing at her friend Harbor, and chewing on everything!
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