6 Months Old!!

Happy 6 month birthday to my sweet EC!!! What is so cool is her aunt Amy and Uncle Cody's birthday was on the same day as her 6 month milestone! Love that she got to share that with her sweet aunt and uncle. I want to capture for myself and my family a few milestones she has hit these past 6 months, because, well I am horrible at keeping a baby book.

Look at this sweet brand new face!!! From the get go she was a great sleeper!!! I could lay her in bed with Jay and I and she would sleep until I woke her up. 12 hours and more!!! I had to quickly snap out of that and put her in her own bed before I had a co-sleeping baby!! After that she only would wake up once a night eat and go right back to sleep! PRAISE JESUS!!! I prayed for a calm baby and oh how He answered my prayers! Linds had colic and the first few months was just so angry. I was so terrified of going through that again but God heard my prayers and sent me EC who is so chill! 

EC and her boyfriend. They are 4 days apart. I was so thankful to have a friend to go through this pregnancy with! Made the record breaking summer bearable. At the month mark I stopped breast feeding. When it comes to breast feeding mama's are so opinionated. Holy cow! I am all about do what is best for you and your family. However, when I made that decision some women decided to step in and tell me how wrong I was. Oh please!!! Somewhere around 1 month old EC was sleeping through the night and eating roughly 4 oz every 3 hours. I had to go buy some NB cloth diapers since she was so long. She may have been 9 lbs but those 9 lbs were evenly distributed. Contrary to this picture she is an extremely happy baby. I had not gotten her nap schedule down but she napped often. We were always on the go so she rarely took a nap in her crib.

2 months old brought drama. I had noticed that she was real pukey. No big deal Linds did the same thing so no biggie. Well the big difference was Linds gained weight. EC was not gaining weight. By 2 months she had only gained a few ounces since birth. Her puking got worse and she was so angry after she would throw up. She would throw up whole bottles. So we lived at the Dr's office for the next 2 months. I was a nervous wreck. Oct brought her first road trip to AR. She loved all the attention my family gave her and Linds got to have her first sleep over with her cousin Hope. Big month in the Dunks house hold. 

By the end of month 3 her puking leveled off. She was gaining weight just slowly. However, she was developing beautifully. Toward the end of month 3 she was rolling over front to back and back to front. O geeze! I got a mover! She began to let me know that being on the go all the time was no longer bueno!! So I was forced to sit down and figure out a schedule. She now wakes at 8 am eats, nap from 930-1130, eat, play, nap from 230-5, eat, play, bed at 8! She is her momma's girl she loves her sleep. Even better she puts herself to sleep! 

4 months old and so smart and beautiful. She loves her sister. She just watches her and laughs at her! Linds is such a great big sister. She is so sweet with her. Lots of kisses and hugs. Month 4 brought her first trip to Texas to see Jay's family. She did great on the car ride down there. The car ride back not so much but hey a week sleeping in a pack and play then a 9 hr car ride would make me cranky too! She began to get on her knees and rock and could scoot on her belly. If she really wanted something she would just roll her way to it. At her 4 month check up the Dr. gave us the all clear for cereal. Since I was putting it in her bottles I just put off feeding her with a spoon. I was in no rush. She was still slowly gaining weight even though she puked like non other. We had to give her Reglan and that seemed to help along with changing to Soy formula. Oh and giggles appeared this month! 

Finally, when she turned 5 months old I gave her cereal by a spoon. She loved it!!! We tried green beans at the end and she broke out with some rash so I stopped them. Not sure that it was the GB but hey why rush things. She got her 1st ear infection and 1st round of antibiotics. The diarrhea was a nightmare!!! She is crawling all over the place now and nothing is safe any more. Month 5 was boring!!!! Boring is good in this house. She is just so easy. She eats 6 ounces. I lied she learned to crawl out of the Bumbo. I thought those things could suction any baby yeah not this string bean! 

Now we are just a day into 6 months but I love it. I gave her peas and she thought they were great. We went on a walk in the stroller and she tolerated it better that when she was a month old. Why my girls do not like to stroller or the car seat is beyond me! She loves to jump and crawl and just plain move. Everything goes in her mouth. She can sort of sit up but just for a second and it is still very tri podish. Her favorite thing to do is stand in a downward dog yoga pose. The cutest thing ever. When she is really tired she will suck her 1st 2 fingers and lay her head down no matter if she is sitting up or laying down. She does not do being tired well. I just love my little ginger! 

Cloth Diaper Update Part 1

EC has been in cloth for about 5-6 weeks now and honestly I love them. I wish I could say that they have been nothing but smooth sailing but as with any new journey there are bumps in the road. Over the next few weeks I want to share with you some of the bumps we have encountered and the lessons learned so hopefully if you use cloth or are interested can learn from them and avoid them!

When we got EC home I was so excited to put her in cloth but the one size covers I bought swallowed her and irritated her belly button. Her newborn clothes did not fit because of her diapers not her size! So we used Pampers until her belly button fell off. Once it fell off and I ran out of pampers I invested in 4 newborn covers and 2 All-in-1s. I already had 4 newborn fitted diapers and 12 prefolds so I was ready to start our diaper journey. I had 4 all-in-2's with 8 inserts and 2 pocket diapers that were just way to big so I put those in the back of the drawer with her one size covers. I started out using the prefolds with a cover because they were the least bulky. My first few attempts were not successful due to operator error. We had a poop explosion in public because I put the cover on wrong and a few leaks because I folded the prefold wrong. So I went into Green Bambino and they showed me a new way to fold. Once I had the fold down and remembered that the cover actually has to cover all of whatever is inserted inside it we were good to go. The fitteds were ok at first but once we switched to formula with some cereal in it the fitteds were great. The all-in-1s I hated from the beginning. They fit for about 2 weeks, took forever to dry, and leaked out the side. As EC's stomach was adjusting to the change in feeding she was not pooping everyday. When she finally  poops it is massive. The fitted just does a better job handling the massive amount! The prefolds with a cover do keep it contained but when cleaning it up it is just messier. With the prefolds I did run into her bottom being irritated. I figured it was because her bottom was not getting air and the material does not wick away the moisture. I asked my fav diaper store and my instincts were right. My solution was to alternate the prefolds with the fitteds and then when her other diapers fit I used those in the rotation as well. And of course I changed her more often and used a cloth diaper friendly cream. So.....the morale of this story is don't just buy all one sized diapers or all of one kind. I will get into the all of one kind in another post but trust me on this one for now. My All-in-1s may not fit but my newborn covers and fitteds still fit and will continue to fit for a good while. They just extend my stash!

Stay tuned for Laundry and why buy multiple styles. I know you are on the edge of your seats for it!!!