This past week our Olivia turned six months old!
We’ll go back to the doctor for her six-month checkup later this month. I’ll have new measurements and percentiles in the next update.
Olivia still loves the bouncy seats and bouncy seat toys. I have to strap her in all the time now, as she can roll right out of them otherwise. She’s really taken off with the exer-saucer and Baby Einstein jumper. When she’s in the right mood, she’ll stay in one for half an hour at a time. Olivia loves playing with toys when she’s in a bouncy seat, saucer, or jumper, especially rattles, other instruments, and baby paper. If you hand her a toy, she almost always reaches for it immediately. She can pick up several of them independently as well.
Olivia is all about her pacifier. We can’t go anywhere without at least one. She can also get it in and out of her mouth completely independently. It’s awesome that she’s mastered this skill but also means that we have to make sure that she isn’t pitching the pacifier overboard. Olivia’s favorite animal is a flat lovey bunny, which she will cuddle up with in her bouncy chair, which is about the cutest thing ever.
Olivia is also all about tummy time and working on her crawling skills as much as possible. You can’t leave her on the floor on a blanket or in one of her gyms without her flipping over and making her way all over the place. She is dying to start crawling and will take off with it as soon as she really figures out how to get her legs going. It’s amazing to see her motivation and determination. Apparently, Olivia is also ready to start swimming because she kicks like crazy all the time and is starting to learn how to blow bubbles.
This past month, Tommy, Olivia, and I were all sick with colds, which made for some really rough nights of sleep. Olivia had a few nights where she was up constantly because she couldn’t breathe well. Then she regressed back to waking up at two and five a.m. Since then, things have gotten better. Olivia has only been waking up once, usually around four. She’ll go right back to sleep after she eats. She’s even made it all the way through the night a handful of times.
The other challenge with Olivia’s sleep this past month is that she keeps rolling in her sleep. She can roll over completely whether or not she’s in a swaddle. While she can roll back on her own, instead she tends to flip out and need help at four in the morning. Being in the transition swaddle without the arms doesn’t help, as she really needs them to stay settled. If anyone has ever dealt with something similar, I’d love to hear your tips.
The second she could, Olivia became a side sleeper and hasn’t looked back. It’s so funny how different this sort of thing can be from one kid to the next. Tommy was well over a year old before he stopped sleeping exclusively on his back.
Olivia has settled into a great nap schedule and consistently takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap. The morning nap can be as early as 9:00/9:30 and tends to be shorter, around an hour or a little less. Then her afternoon nap can be anywhere from 2:00 to 4:00 and tends to be longer, sometimes as much as two hours. If we’re out and about, she often will still nap in the car. Otherwise, I pretty much always put her in her swaddle in her crib for a nap at home. She’s done so well with it.
Toward the end of the month, I increased Olivia’s bottles to six ounces, mostly in the hopes of helping her stay asleep longer at night. She’s still eating around every three hours during the day, even with larger bottles. Now that Olivia’s sitting up so well as likes being in her highchair sometimes, we’ve tried puffs a few times. She does exactly as you would expect she would with them at this age.
People ask me all the time about Olivia’s hair color and eye color. She still doesn’t have a lot of hair, although it keeps filling in more each month. The hair she does have is pretty dark. It seems like people expect girls to have more hair. Tommy had almost the exact same amount of hair at this age. Olivia’s eyes have always been bright blue and don’t seem to be changing, so I think that will be her permanent eye color.
All of the summer clothes I’ve bought for Olivia are six-month and six-nine month. She’s still in a handful of three-six month clothes a few three-month items, like the pajamas without feet. Olivia is still solidly in size 2 diapers.
You can find all of my Olivia updates as well as my Tommy baby/toddler updates, general family updates, and other family-related posts in the family section of the blog.
