6 Months with Zelie

Hey, y'all. It's been a while. Lots to update, so buckle up. This one may be a doozie. 

When I last blogged, Zelie was but a four month old blob of squish. Now she's a six month old blob of squish. It's a subtle difference, but read to the end, and I think you'll come to really appreciate the nuances.

Her personality is still very very happy and giggly. She kicks her legs and squeals with delight regularly. Belle of the ball at the commissary, this one. Unfortunately she is regularly in my lap when this kicking and squealing happens and I have a frightening assortment of bruises on my legs. 

She has powerful legs. Some would call them thunder thighs. 

She spends way too much time in my her favorite baby toy, the walker. 

But I was given the OK by her physical therapist, sooooo it's fine, right? 

Let's just dive right in with the baby stuff and I PROMISE you, the various life updates will just flow right out of my fingers. 

6 Month Well-Baby Stats:

• 18 lbs., 11 oz. (93rd percentile)
• 67.9cm long (84th percentile)
• 42.6cm of lopsided dome (56th percentile)

EATS

Breastfeeding is going well. Since my last update, I've battled a couple supply dips here and there, but nothing constant nursing couldn't fix. On the form at the doctor today, I wrote that she eats approximately every 2-4 hours for approximately 5-30 minutes each session. So that narrows it down for ya.

She's tried her first few solid foods just this past week. We started with throwing her some table food to keep her occupied in her high chair - sweet potato fries, mashed up peas, watermelon, and banana. Not sure anything actually made it into her belly. Yesterday I tried spoon feeding her a puree for the first time and it was an adorably epic fail. I forgot to try today, but this weekend we'll work on purees a little more to see if we can get her to figure out swallowing. 

SLEEPS

Dude. My blogging hiatus has mostly to do with the lack of sleep that occurred from 3.5 months to 5.5 months. This was indeed a two-month long four month sleep regression. My girl was NOT interested in sleeping at night. Or during the day for that matter, but nights were hard. 

Also during this time I started going to the gym with the kids in the mornings, so any bit of afternoon nappage was used to shower and eat, so there was no time/interest in blogging. **Impromptu postpartum weight loss update** I started going to the gym back in March and ever since I've lost over 10 pounds and 5% body fat. I reached my pre-pregnancy weight May 3 at 4.5 months postpartum. (I only know this from my Fitbit app! I'm not THAT crazy proud of it. ) BUT, my clothes STILL weren't fitting - so now I'm working in a lot of strength training to get my core back. I am 3 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight, 20 pounds down from New Years, and my ab muscles are only just starting to come back together. But anyway - I LOVE being able to go to the gym and I will miss it deeply when we move. 

Back to the sleep stuff . . . Z turned the corner - FINALLY - a couple of weeks ago. Now she is typically waking only once between 6:30 and 6, but up for the day pretty early. The longer stretches are such a game changer for me though! I no longer DREAD the thought of going to bed. Moms you know what I'm talking about.

POOPS

I've been lazy about cloth diapering, so it's been all disposables for a while now. We went on a trip to Chicago and it took me, oh, I dunno, about THREE weeks to get caught up with the laundry. And at that point she grew out of Size 3 diapers, but obviously I have about 100 left, so I need to use them up while they still kind of fit. 

She will go several days without pooping - a solid week recently - and then just unleash her fury all at once. I changed five poopy diapers of hers today and two of them were massive blowouts. 

When I last updated, Zelie was battling TERRIBLE skin issues and was doing PT for plagiocephaly/torticollis. About a month ago, we finally saw a pediatric dermatologist for her skin, and she was diagnosed with eczema, psoriasis, AND cradle cap. She also had staph colonization that exacerbates her eczema. So her treatment involves nightly bleach baths, Elidel, steroidal ointment (when necessary - haven't actually needed it!), and ketacanazole shampoo. 

It seems like a lot, and to be honest, going from weekly to nightly baths are kind of a pain in the butt, but her skin is utterly perfect now. 

No photo shoot head polishing necessary. 

Every night is a long process. Fill up the tub with water and 1/4 C bleach, throw in the kids to soak for 5-10 minutes. Then on top of that we must drain, rinse, and lather them all up. Rinse again. Then on top of that we have to apply Cetaphyl cream, any necessary ointments, and wrestle them both into jammies. I've done the whole rigamarole once by myself and needed a life vacation afterwards. Will and I have developed a good routine, but skip just a day and you see a big difference in their skin. 

She was also recently discharged from physical therapy! She has a little bit of weakness and tightness left on one side, but it's barely noticeable and not contributing to any delays so we high-tailed it out of there. Her head is still asymmetrical, and it probably always will be, but we are confident that it will (a) round out just a little more naturally and (b) she will inherit a full head of hair, such that it won't be noticeable to the naked eye. 

Fingers and toes crossed anyway.

She is sitting up on her own (way better than Will was at this point). 

She puts everything she can in her mouth, and will attempt to put your face skin right on in there. 

She is constantly planking, pushing up to all fours, and rocking back and forth. She scoots around a little bit backwards, too. It's only a matter of time before she takes off crawling. 

We have two weeks left in Illinois before the big move to California. We still don't have the packers/movers scheduled (thanks, TMO) and we still don't have a place to live on the other end. We've been stagnant at number 9 on the base housing wait list for a couple of months. We did try pursuing a rental in the nearest town 20+ miles away, but we were passed up for another renter even though the move-in date isn't until August. Homes get scooped up quiiiick near the base. It is PCS season, so we'll see what opens up in the area when we arrive. Until then we'll just be like Zelie - wanting to move, trying to move, but not really.