Wow, what a 6 months it has been. In some ways it feels like Leah can't possibly already be 6 months old, but in other ways it feels like she has always been apart of this family. I guess because she is number 4, the transition of adding her to the family has been pretty easy. Don't get me wrong, 4 kids is a lot of kids and life is crazy. But, life was crazy with 3 also, so it doesn't feel too different (well except for the fact there is a newborn in the house). We don't have the time or the energy to stress over every decision we make with her and luckily she is a pretty laid back baby so she goes with the flow pretty well.
Leah at 6 months is really really sweet. She smiles and laughs a lot. Strangers are always coming up to me and commenting how smiley she is.
As I said, she is laid back. She is way less active than the boys were. She still mostly just lays there when I put her on her play mat. She will reach for the toys sometimes and puts a lot in her mouth. She still rolls stomach to back, but not the other way around.
Leah has been harder than the boys to get on a consistent schedule. I'm sure a lot of this is our fault as we are always having to wake her up to get to one activity or the next. I hate having to wake a sleeping baby, but I have had no choice. So, as a result every day is still a little different. For the most part bed time is fairly consistent usually around 7:30 or 8, give or take. She sleeps anywhere from 8-11 hours (she has even done 12 once or twice). On average I would say she sleeps till maybe 5, eats and then goes back to sleep till 8-8:30. But, like I said, this varies. Sometimes she sleeps till 7 and then is up and just when I think she is consistently sleeping till at least 6 she will wake up at 4 again. Luckily, she does go right back to sleep after I feed her a little.
During the day she eats about every 3 1/2-4 hours. She is usually up about 2 hours at a time and then goes to sleep before her next feeding. She does about 4-5 feedings a day. We just started doing a veggie at lunch time and so far she is doing OK. She is still learning so most ends up on her bib. She is not as big an eater as the boys, so I think the whole process is going to take longer.
She is a really light sleeper, so if she happens to fall asleep in the car as soon as we get home she wakes up. She is often hard to transfer to her bed, because she will wake up and be wide awake. She also doesn't fall asleep easily out and about. She likes to be alone in her crib when it is bed or nap time. She still sleeps on her belly with white noise.
Leah has started to play with her feet and she also likes to stare at her hands. She also occasionally will suck on her finger but, only rarely has found her thumb.
Leah loves smiling and laughing at her brothers, and me and her Daddy. She also loves looking around and seeing what is going on. I look forward to seeing how her personality changes or stays the same as she grows...
