Today, Anneliese turned 6 months old. The last month has been an explosion of development. Last month, she was just beginning to figure out how to use her hands more precisely. This month, she’s a pro at it. Everything is going into her mouth. She loves exploring different textures.
Anneliese is now rolling fluidly in both directions, and pivots around to reach things she wants.
Even more exciting though, she is sitting up. Strong and sturdily, for a long long time. This opens up tons of possibilities for new play, as she can now hold things in two hands and examine them carefully, with a more convenient vantage point than flat on her back.
These awesome fruits and veggies (except for one carrot) were made by my oldest sister, Julie. She hand-sewed and needle-felted them. How awesome is she?
Zora is starting to tolerate Anneliese more, and will sit near her for a couple minutes at a time, even letting Anneliese pet her. Anneliese LOVES our dog, so this makes her very happy.
Sleep has become an issue – probably because of a few factors.
One is because we moved, and there isn’t really a dark place in this house (yet) for her to sleep during the day. I bought light-blocking curtains from Target, but they don’t work very well. I think tomorrow I’m going to pull a Dooce and put aluminum foil over her windows. At least until I can find a solution that’s prettier. Too bad I don’t have the packaging for the Target curtains anymore… that’s $30 I sadly can’t get back.
Another is that I suspect teething, still. Sometimes she just seems like she’s in pain… and she gnaws on everything, chews her fingers, my knuckles, etc. No evidence of a tooth yet, but that doesn’t mean she can’t feel it.
The other factor is that whole, “around 5-6 months babies lose their infant sleep pattern and move to a more adult sleep pattern” thing… Some people refer to it as sleep regression, but since it’s moving form an infant pattern to an adult-like pattern, it’s actually PROgression. The crappy thing is that it means about 45 minutes after falling asleep, the baby will wake up. And if she can’t fall back asleep on her own, it means I need to help her. With my boobs.
Nursing to sleep is definitely the best (read: most consistently successful) way for me to do it. My husband can rock her to sleep or hold her and pat her back, but if it’s me, she can smell the milk (or something) and DIVES to the side, indicating that it’s time to nurse. Even if she’s not actually hungry. She won’t take her pacifier until after she’s nursed, and no amount of bouncing, rocking, singing, patting (from ME) satisfies her if what she wants to do is nurse.
Luckily, the first chunk of night is usually pretty good… she sleeps for 3 hours in her bed, nurses for maybe 20 minutes, then sleeps another 3 hours in her bed, then I bring her into my bed and she pretty much nurses the rest of the night while I sleep. But I’m a tummy-sleeper and would prefer to have her in the cosleeper, NOT nursing the entire second half of the night.
So I was reading excerpts of the “No Cry Sleep Solution” online… I’m really not a fan of the idea of letting my baby cry if there is something I can do to help her. But I also recognize that I need to teach her how to fall asleep without the need to suck (whether that is my breast or a pacifier, since pacifiers can fall out in the middle of the night). That way when she wakes up at the 45 minute mark, she will be able to fall back to sleep on her own, and will only have to alert me if she is actually hungry or has a dirty diaper (pee usually doesn’t bother her at night but poo absolutely does, and who can blame her?).
I’m not sure it’s a book I’m actually going to buy and read all of – but does anyone have experience with it? It seems to make a lot of sense, from what I’ve read, and it’s not disrespectful to mother or child (“just let the baby cry it out – she has to learn sometime!” or “This is why you don’t nurse to sleep.” or “don’t co-sleep because you’ll ruin your baby!” … Elizabeth Pantley is absolutely a proponent of nursing, cosleeping, and NOT making your baby cry if you can avoid it.)
I have to say though, this precious face is wonderful to wake up to.
Anyway, moving on… Anneliese has started sitting in her high chair while I eat breakfast or dinner (lunch is usually when I can grab some food while she’s sleeping). She plays with toys at the table (soft ones), and I recently gave her a mama’s milk popsicle, which she enjoyed thoroughly.
I’m excited to start baby-led weaning with her, and I know she will enjoy it too, but we are waiting for her papa to come home from his “work trip” before we do. He will be gone for much of the year, and if there is something the timing of which we can control so he doesn’t have to miss it, we will. This is one of those things.
Anneliese and I listen to a lot of different music during the day, and it seems she’s really in tune to it. Check this out.
This girl is hugely interested in other people, especially other babies. That’s pretty cool because I have a lot of friends with young babies, so when we get together she has a blast. (Please excuse the mess – this is when most of my stuff was still in boxes!)
This month was also the real start to our elimination communication “journey” together.
We are also missing her papa, who is away for work right now, because mama doesn’t do this very often….
Today also marks our 6-month exclusive breastfeeding date. Once I realized I COULD breastfeed after breast reduction surgery, 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding (no formula or solids or anything else) became my first BIG goal. And here we are! It’s not always easy, but what is? I absolutely love nursing my little girl though. I could write a whole big thing about it, but it’s very late so that’s all I’m going to say for now. Go us!
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
I am glad you are sticking to your guns and listening to what your baby girl needs. My son also falls asleep at the breast, and this is really the only way he will go to sleep, if he wakes, I will nurse him again and he is fine. Cosleeping works best for us. We all get a good nights sleep, and my son’s needs are met. People are quick to judge, but I do not know any teenagers who sleep with their parents or are nursed to sleep! Congrats on 6 months of breastfeeding! That is a milestone!!! Congrats!
My kids sleep through the night – of course they are 13 and 9….my point is that the babe isn’t going to need to nurse back to sleep forever. In retrospect with my first I worried about a lot of things I shouldn’t have – toilet training, sleep training, weaning. No one goes to college still needing to be nursed to sleep.
And just a word to the wise, Annaliese may have other plans for her weaning. My youngest, at 5 months old – he couldn’t even crawl yet – launched himself onto a pear that a woman at a Le Leche League meeting was eating. We laughed, because we were talking about infant led weaning. I guess he was letting me know he was ready to try solids. (His very pro bfing doc said it was okay as he was a very big baby.)
She’s a cute little girl, and solo parenting is hard.
[...] month. So that’s covered. Icy toys, wet cold cloths, Borion’s camilia, Hyland’s teething gel, breast milk popsicles, ice cubes, and Tylenol. I went out to buy ibuprofen (Motrin) for her today and the infant Motrin [...]
Everyone loves the bananas
I love this. I love these photos. I love this post. I love this baby. She is too cute for words. Happy half birthday baby girl.
happy birthday little one.
I showed some pics of Anneliese to my boyfriend the other day. he’s used to me cooing over babies and kittens on the internet and usually says something to the effect of “yes, it’s a baby. what about it?”
But your little one got a “Oh wow, she is cute!”
and these pics are super cute.
Awesome awesome! My fave is her with the dog – SO cute!
She is a cutie pie.
6 months is a rough age for sleep, there’s a lot of motor stuff going on and it keeps babies up.
If you followed forums at all, 6 months is when lots of parents just Lose It with the sleep deprivation.
The thing is, the baby does what the baby needs to do. Trying to change the baby tends to backfire. Much better to hire a mother’s helper or ask grandma to come for a visit so parents can take naps and sleep in a bit.
M
I like Elizabeth Pantley’s books, too, and you’ll probably find NCSS helpful …. but I have to add, I think Anneliese is sleeping pretty well for a six-monther. Better, in any event, than my kid most nights. Unfortunately my 9-month-old has decided he doesn’t WANT to nurse sometimes when he wakes up, so he just whines and cries because he wants to go back to sleep but doesn’t know how without nursing! Alternatively, he wakes up at 3 a.m. happy as a clam, ready to play, and won’t be still to go back to sleep … but five minutes later he’s a puddle of tears because he’s still tired. This from a kid who slept through the night at 3 months old! Nowadays we’re slowly improving again, back to one or two wakeups, but naptimes are still hit or miss.
That having been said, a few of the tips from that book might help a lot, not only to improve the sleep she’s getting now, but to give her some good sleep habits and sleep associations for later. Just take what you like and leave what you don’t … I’m with you about letting babies cry, I simply won’t do it!
Love your blog! My first time to comment – because I am passionate about the book “Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child” it is amazing! I ignore the crying baby advice. The main premise is that if you catch baby before too tired & keep a solid sleep routine you won’t ever have a crying baby. I am on baby #4 (also 6 months), used it with ALL of them & it works like a charm. Put them down before they are tired for naps & they sleep better at night too. The man is a genius!
What curtains did you get? I have been going to get some but will save my money if they don’t work.
I had some success with the NCSS with my oldest daughter, but I was never able to just lay her down and have her put herself to sleep. She was three-ish before she started sleeping through the night (the real night, not the 4 or 5 hours that is counted by professionals as sleeping through the night)and still occasionally needs shushing and a middle of the night back rub. My youngest daughter is almost 18months old and still nurses at night almost every night. Sometimes her daddy can get her to fall back asleep without it but not often.
Congrats on the 6 month mark!
Forgot to tell you: you might check your local library for a copy of NCSS, I have seen several copies at our’s.
Happy Half Year, baby girl! Oh and I’m so proud of your breastfeeding goal! I remember how happy I was when I woke up on Olivia’s 6 month day and realized we’d done it, too.
It’s such a happy feeling.
<3
So much I want to comment and say…I love using those “popsicles’..we have that exact same brand and they’ve gotten both of my girls thru awful teething experiences. Also, I love that 2nd picture of her and Zora, where she is rolling over..that is so cute and should be framed!!!
Thirdly, I bought and read the No Cry Sleep Solution when my 3 yr old was Anneliese’s age. It is really helpful. Also, The Dr Sears Sleep Book. Both are on my bookshelf and I still consult w/ them for my 13 month old. All I can say is…she’ll get the hang of it. My first daughter was a HORRIBLE sleeper. I diligently took a comforting and loving approach to helping her sleep and would go in an nurse her back to sleep.No sleep “training”, no cry it out, just let her know I was there for her. And by a little after age 1 she was an awesome sleeper. It’s taking a little longer w/ my 2nd daughter (she still wakes up a few times at night at 13 months old) but we’ll get there. To me, I’d rather them know I will come for them, even if it’s nighttime, when they cry. It might take a little longer to do it this way, but, I think it sends the right message. As Dr. Sears calls it, it’s “Nighttime parenting”. Just b/c the sun goes down, doesn’t mean I don’t have to parent my kids. And speaking as a mom w/ a 3 yr old who is now weaned, you DEFINITELY miss the middle of night nursings and snuggles and you’ll watch your 3 yr old play and learn and wonder..”where did that little baby go??” 
She looks beautiful and like you! Go you for the EBF too, I know it is an act of loving perseverance. I too recommend HEalthy Sleep HAbits Happy Child. It is not a pie in the sky theory by some snuck hoping to make a buck! It is by a doctor who researched children’s sleep habits for decades. It’s about knowing what sleep the child needs for health, what cycles they should be developing at each stage and how to help them get there. He advocates nursing to sleep-it is natural!-but helps decipher the night wakings and how to deal. And you don’t have to CIO, but he does say it is easiest to follow for you and baby at certain allowed times, instead if wondering how long you have waited, what to do next etc. Definitely a must read! My son’s sleep isn’t perfectly regular but I know how to help him now after a period of exhausted bewilderment! See what you think.
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Congrats! 6 months breastfeeding is an awesome milestone! Happy 6 months to Anneliese!
Have you tried reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth – it is excellent and practical – I couldn’t let BiP cry it out and with this book I didn’t have to … she is now and awesome sleeper and napper … Everyone I have recommended it to have said it changed their (and their baby’s) lives!
Happy Half-Year!
And congrats to you on making the 6 month breastfeeding mark!