Carolee...my big 6 month old! :)

Now she’s 6 ½ months old. Wow, where did the time go? So here are a few updates for you.

At her 4 month check up she weighed 14 lbs 2 ozs, and was rolling over very easily by that time; she was trying to sit up but was still very wobbly. She was a big talker and especially liked to talk after she was done nursing. I am pretty sure she was saying thank you because it was always the same every time she finished eating. Such a great experience and always made me smile. She was still sleeping through the night, and I was even being asked for advice from others how to get their kids to sleep through the night. Honestly, the only things I can say are 1. we have always been very blessed with babies who sleep all night, 2. she just has a very calm and peaceful personality so she’s easy going, and 3. we used a rice bag around her from armpit to armpit for the first 5 months of life. With this she always felt comforted and never moved during the night. So nice! She always loved tummy time and several times she fell asleep right there on the floor. She was definitely my first to do that regularly.

At the appointment I asked the doctor “That’s all?” when he told me the weight and I will always remember his response: “She’s a girl. She’s supposed to be smaller, calmer, and smarter. We can already see she’s calmer and smaller…” Then I said “I can’t imagine smarter than Caleb right now” and he said “You’ll see, she’ll be even smarter.”

In August/September my whole house got sick again, and surprisingly started with Skyler getting croup. Carolee got it as well and it was pretty bad. She had it for over a week but finally got over it. We had a few scary nights but we made it through. One night we took her to the new emergency center here in Buckeye; they said she wasn’t sick enough for the steroid even though she could barely breathe. They even did a chest x-ray in a horrible contraption that reminds me of a human stretch machine, and yet still wouldn’t give her a steroid. One of my children will need to be bleeding to death for me to take them there again. Even the pediatrician told us not to go there; our choices from now on will either be Banner Estrella, Goodnight Pediatrics, or Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

She started sitting up officially at 5 months and is now trying to crawl. She has magically moved a few times, and yesterday we caught her do a partial army crawl to move. She likes to move in circles to reach her goal; every time she goes in a circle she moves forward and she loves doing it.

At her 6 month check up she was 16 lbs 15 ozs, and is very healthy. She got her shots that day and had a slightly bad reaction to them. One leg had a huge bump in it and turned bright red. She ran a fever (which I know is normal); I massaged her leg every once in a while and the bump finally went down a week later. I was sure scared at first though. She’s now wearing 12 mos clothes and is a nice chubby girl. We found out that her girly parts are closing up for some reason so we’re now using an estrogen cream daily to make sure her body knows that’s not the way it’s supposed to work, and it’s working!

She’s a very happy baby and still sleeps great! We can even put her down in her crib for her nap without any effort, and have been able to for months. We lay her in bed, wrap her up, she rolls to the side and sticks her thumb in her mouth; we leave the room, and she goes to sleep! You know how nice that is?

She started eating food at the very end of November. She was completely breastfed until then, and is still nursing but eating very well. She loves her food and gets so excited when she gets in her high chair. She got two teeth within 3 days around Thanksgiving. She was so great about that; I didn’t even know they were coming in. I happened to put my finger in to check and sure enough there was a very sharp tooth on the bottom. 3 days later its neighbor showed up and she still has just the two. I’m actually very grateful for that though because I normally stop nursing a couple months after they come in. She got hers at 5 ½ months, Skyler got his around 7 months, and Caleb around 7 ½ months. She has definitely been the earliest.

She’s now sitting up in the tub and enjoying her baths. For the first couple months she would scream and cry every time, but she loves them now and has a great time. She loves to stand and is trying to walk holding our hands. She gets so excited and happy when she gets to stand. She blows bubbles every time she gets baby food and eats a lot.

She loves getting hugs and kisses from her brothers, and loves getting raspberries on her belly too. She actually loves anything with them, and they love her to pieces. The first and last thing before and after nap and bed time is a hug and kiss for her from Caleb. He helps me all day with her and loves sitting with her, holding her, helping her stand, and picking her up. She currently takes a 2-3 hour nap every morning around 10 and another 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon around 1. Then she sleeps from 730-8 or so in the morning. What an easy baby and I love her to pieces.

She’s also the perfect model for me. She’s been modeling my products since she was a couple months old and now loves the camera. She smiles and gets excited when I whip out the camera. What a great girl!

Monday December 26, Daddy finally convinced Mama to get Carolee’s ears pierced. I cried when she cried, but her bad cry still isn’t anywhere near normal cries. She’s such a mellow baby that even when something hurts she’s not that bad. Instead of crying when she wakes up in the morning, instead all I hear is a “hoo, hoo” and then about 5 minutes later another one. Anyway, so she got her ears pierced and here are pictures of our beautiful baby girl with earrings!

The last photo was just taken today. you can see how much she's changed in just a few months through the blog post. I hope to be better about taking pictures and updating on here from here on out.