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. 

6 Months

I'm back to amaze you with all the important baby things. Not just any baby things, but Baby Billy Brez things. Like how Will's back cracks a lot when I pick him up now. It never happened before! I'm not a doctor, but this has something to do with his growth and bones and such, I'm sure. Now at your next dinner party, you can offer information that baby's backs start to crack around five months old! You will be the life of the party. 

Will actually has had a lot of milestones this past month, which---fret not---I am going to discuss at length. Let's get rolling.

6 Month Well-Visit Stats:

• 19 lbs, 10 oz. (83rd percentile)
• 26.5 inches long (57th percentile)

Other Appointment Highlights: Blowing raspberries at the pedi, farting during important discussions about night-weaning, and not flinching during his first vaccination shot (though he briefly cried after the second shot). 

You see why he gets away with such behavior.

Eats: 

He is pretty much on a 3-hour schedule to a T during the day. His first feeding is at 6:30 or 7 in the morning and we just go from there for the next 12 hours. As such, I moved the BabyConnect app from my home screen and have not touched it since. It was a big day. He's also consistently nursing on both sides nowadays, which is both a blessing and a curse. It's so easy not to have to flip him, but it's also nice not being Lopsided Lolly all the time. 

We started solids and so far, Will is a phenomenal eater, as seen on the gram. Carrots, apples, bananas, and pears were a huge hit. He was pretty lukewarm about peas, which upsets me deeply. As evidence, consider this blog post from over a year ago where I discuss my strange love of peas. That said, I don't understand why I don't have a broader audience. The content on this blog is top notch. He's also had cantaloupe, watermelon, and bites of other random stuff here and there when we are out to eat (ice cream, French onion soup, black beans, etc.). I've been using our Beaba Babycooker to make him purees. Love that thing.

Right now, he gets a solid meal once a day, about 30 minutes to an hour after his 4 o'clock feeding, so it's straight from the high chair to the bath.  

I think it goes without saying, he doesn't miss any meals.

Sleeps: 

He's consistently taking three naps a day, sometimes four if he needs a late afternoon catnap thanks to an early wakeup time. He'll typically have one good nap a day that is around 1.5+ hours long. He's juuuust starting to consistently give me two hours of awake time between naps. He's able to go three or more hours between his last nap and bedtime for some reason. (Not that I don't try to get him to take one last nap.) 

His bedtime routine is much more relaxed than it was a few months ago. He gets his bath around 5:30pm when Will gets home from work and he gets cozy in his PJs and spends some time with dear old dad. Then around 6:30, I'll take him upstairs, draw the curtains, turn the sound machine on, feed him one last time, and walk around with him or rock him for a few minutes and he's out. Just like that.

I'm very back and forth about whether to night wean. Between 6:30pm-ish bedtime and 6:30-ish wakeup time, he'll typically wake up twice. On a good night, only once, on a bad night, three (or, like last night, he just doesn't go back to sleep for a loooong time after a feeding thanks to a 4am poop sesh). I always just feed him because he goes back to sleep easier, but I'm probably just creating a bad habit. Big Will has a work trip planned soon, and I'm toying with the idea of weaning/sleep training for the week that he's gone.  

That section was very boring and I apologize. Stay with me. I talk poop next. THE BEST PART.

Poops: 

Last month, I was all super shocked that he went a couple days without pooping. Well now, it's his regular! I was worried about cloth diapering and gross solid food poopys, but really when he's only pooping once every other day, it's a breeze. I'm only doing cloth diaper laundry once every two or three days now. He has to wear a disposable at night because he's a pretty heavy wetter, but it's really nice not to have to change him at all. 

Oh, and he officially needs privacy when he poops. It's fantastic. He will not poop while you're holding him anymore. He has to be in his walker, his Bumbo, his crib, or a stroller. It's hilarious when he's in his walker. He leans forward, grunts, and his forehead turns a little purple.  

Segue to more cute photos . . . 

Other Miscellaneous Milestones:

• He can use a restaurant high chair. 
• He grew out of his baby tub, so baths are in our normal bath tub. 
• He enjoys screeching at the top of his lungs, specifically in very echo-y cathedrals.
• He sits up unassisted (!!!!) . . .

     . . . though not perfectly, I'll admit.

     . . . we'll work on that whole posture thing somewhere down the line.

And it is with great sadness that I share the loss of our dear rat tail. 

Let's take a walk down memory lane . . . 

Snuck a peek at 2 months.

 
At 3 Months and 4 Months.

And hanging on for dear life at 5 Months.

We'll miss you, old friend.