Savannah: 6 Months Old – Trav and Erin + 3

Well, our sweet Savannah is officially half of a year old! In some ways, it’s gone by really fast; sometimes the nights (especially the sleepless ones) drag, but overall it’s hard to believe that 6 months have already passed. She has grown and changed so much since she was born!

According to our scale at home, Savannah now weighs about 16.5 lbs! I was shocked! I really don’t feel like she’s gained much weight at all in the past month, but maybe I’m wrong. We will see what her “official” weight is when she goes for her checkup in another week. Update: At 6 months + 1 week, she was 16 lbs 3 oz (50th percentile) and 27.5 inches long (98th percentile). She is still long and lean with a few fat rolls on her arms, chunky thighs, and a pretty slim belly. She is nursing pretty well still, although she is definitely more easily distracted while nursing than she used to be. It’s not hard to see why with Big Sister making so much noise all the time :) She is nursing about 5 times/day, which translates into every 3 to 3.5 hours. As you may have read, Savannah has tried “real” food (rice cereal and green peas) a few times and has not been interested at all. It really seems like she doesn’t understand the concept of eating yet; she doesn’t open her mouth for the spoon and seems to mostly dislike the taste of food (at least the ones we’ve tried). I may wait a week or so and try again. Obviously, she’s not wasting away, so I think she’s getting plenty of calories from mommy milk alone :)

It is such a bummer to read Brooklyn’s 6 month blog post and see that she was sleeping “wonderfully” from about 9 PM to 6:30-7:30 AM EVERY night. We are nowhere near that with Savannah. I am trying really hard not to compare them because I know all babies are different, but it would be SO nice to be getting a decent night’s sleep again. I am just plain exhausted. The past week has been especially bad. On a good night (which happens about once or twice a week at best), she will sleep from 8 or 8:30 PM to anywhere from 5 to 6 AM without waking up. On a bad night, she is waking up 3-5 times BEFORE 1 AM. I don’t know what to do with her! She isn’t waking up hungry, and I’m not even sure she is really awake when she cries out. But it’s not just “fussing”; she is in her crib screaming her head off. Most of the time, we can go in there and put her paci back in, and she’ll go back to sleep, but sometimes even that won’t work. I am determined not to get in a bad habit of letting her sleep in our bed. We will see if I cave in…it might happen if I don’t get some sleep soon! She is also now sleeping in a regular sleepsack as opposed to the Zipadeezip, as of last week I believe.

Savannah is taking about 3-4 naps per day of varying lengths. She is a very light sleeper and tends to be a cat napper for the most part. Most naps are unfortunately only about 30-45 minutes long, and she wakes up crying like she’s not rested, but won’t go back to sleep. She naps in her crib (because who can sleep with all the noise??). Occasionally, she’ll fall asleep in her car seat, but never stays asleep long once we get where we’re going. Sometimes I’ll get lucky and she will take a longer nap (1 to 1.5 hours), but those don’t happen too often. So, usually by the end of the day she’s pretty tired and ready for bed!

Savannah has gotten a lot stronger this month and continues to learn how to do new things. She is pretty close to sitting up all by herself. She can sit for just a few seconds at a time without toppling over if she is propped up with her hands in front of her. She is doing great with tummy time these days and can even push her chest up off the floor sort of like she’s doing a pushup. She can also spin around on her belly to reach things. She is getting a lot better at grabbing and holding things. I wouldn’t say she’s really mobile yet, but she can wiggle and turn on her belly to reach something she wants if it’s close by. I know it won’t be long before she takes off!

I’m not really sure how to classify her personality; maybe it remains to be seen. She can entertain herself pretty well some of the time, but other times she is fussy and wants to be held. I would say she is pretty quiet unless she is crying or you are talking to her, and then sometimes she will “talk” back to you. She will crack a smile or laugh if she’s in the right mood at any time of the day, even right before bed! But sometimes it’s hard to catch her attention (like when you want her to smile for the camera…haha!). She likes to be looking around at what’s going on around her.

Savannah still thinks that her big sister is the funniest person alive. It’s really sweet. All Brooklyn has to do is walk in front of her sometimes, and Savannah will just giggle and giggle. Brooklyn loves to give Savannah attention and “play” with her, as long as Savannah doesn’t try to take away her toys ;) We’re still working on the whole sharing thing. I hope they will grow up to be great friends!

As far as Savannah’s digestive issues go, I feel like we are over the worst of the spitting up phase. Hooray!! She still spits up several times every day, but the amount that comes up has significantly decreased, which is really nice. Her poop is still really, really liquid and only comes every 3-4 days, which translates into a big blowout whenever it happens ;) But I’m hoping that problem will resolve once she starts eating real food!

Likes: jumping in her doorway jumper, getting attention (especially from Brooklyn), taking a bath, being tickled (she is ticklish under her arms!), putting everything in her mouth, sucking on her paci

Dislikes: sleeping at night (haha!), eating “real” food – so far at least, being awake after about 7 PM

Savannah is still wearing size 2 diapers because we are trying to finish up the last pack. I think we’ll just move on to size 3 diapers rather than buy more size 2s even though I think they would still fit for a little while longer. She is wearing anywhere from 6 month to 9 month size clothes. Most 9 month size stuff fits pretty well in the length! She wore her first pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago for a family photo session. They were size 2s, and she had a lot of growing room in them. Her hair is ever so slowly coming in, and it still seems like it is blond/light brown. And those eyes are still blue!! If they change at this point, it will probably seem strange. I’m used to having a blue eyed baby now :)