Roarin Rorie Turns 6 Months Old!!!

Happy Half Birthday Baby Girl!!!

SIX MONTHS.....how have six months already gone by.  I don't even know where the time is going.  So much happened this past month not just with Rorie but with me and my new work situation as well as some horrible news that happened in my family.  

The bad news first, because it kind of leads to some other things I wanted to talk about this month anyways.  One week ago my cousin Lindsay passed away.  It hit me so much harder than I could have ever imagined.  We had both just in this last year became first time mommies.  She had her little girl just about a month after Rorie was born.  We had shared so many stories along the way through our pregnancy and even afterwards. She had a beautiful baby girl, seriously, absolutely beautiful.  We did both however have completely different experiences after birth though.  Wesley and I were blessed honestly with an amazing baby who just didn't give us really any hassles at all. I still don't know how we got so lucky.   Lindsay on the other hand got absolutely awful news that her little girl was going through some medical issues that she could be dealing with for the rest of her life on top of being very colicky.   All of this and now this poor little beautiful baby girl isn't going to have her momma.  The night that I found out I had just put Roar down for the night and got the call shortly after.  I literally broke down.  I just couldn't even believe it.  The next morning around 4am when Rorie woke up for the first time I just remember picking her up, squeezing her so tight and I just lost it again.  I just thought about that baby girl not getting to have anymore of those kinds of moments with her mom and I just couldn't even ...... I still just can't.  The thought of Rorie ever having to be without me .... no.  I really just can't.  

So before any of this happened though I had been doing a lot of reflecting on the last six months and how much it really has changed me.  This little girl literally has just taken over my life.  Every single thing that I do now in some way, shape or form is for her.  I think once we got back from NY I really started realizing the full depths of how much I love her.  We came home and it became evident that while in NY she had developed some "mommy attachment" issues.  I think it all happened for a variety of reasons.  We kind of broke every rule we had (the no sleeping in bed with us, the trying not to hold her all the time), I mean all of them.  It was hard not to just because of traveling and realizing she was just out of her comfort zone.  To be honest I think we really were too.  You just kind of go into survival mode I think.  We were away from the really normal routine, no matter how much we tried to keep the one we had.  So being back home though we started realizing that she wasn't even really into Daddy.  Prior to going to NY he could totally help in the middle of the night if she woke up crying.  It was usually no big deal.  But now, no way.  She would just scream and there was no stopping it.  The only way she would stop is if she saw me and I came in and took her.  To be honest I know we should have just done this whole tough love thing with her, but the sooner she gets calmed down the sooner everyone goes back to bed.  So it kind of is what it is.  But what this did though was made me just in love with her more than ever.  There is a special kind of feeling that every mom has to get I think in knowing that your baby needs you that much in their life and that you are sometimes the one thing that can make them better.  Every time at night when I can go in and just hold her for even two minutes sometimes and that is all she needs to be comforted to be able to go back to sleep, I just feel like the best mommy in the world.  

So this past month as well I've officially been working from home and it's been amazing.  Being able to be here with her is such a good feeling.  Our Nanny, Candace is working out amazing.  Rorie has taken to her just fine and I know they are usually having a blast while I'm working.  Don't get me wrong she's had her moments.  The very first day Candace started she kind of got thrown right into the fire because in the middle of the night I had come down with an absolutely AWFUL case of the stomach flu.  It was actually horrifying for me because I literally could NOT take care of Rorie.  I've never felt so horrible in my life, not just sick but just as a failure as a mom.  It was really the worst feeling that I wasn't able to do anything for her.  Luckily Wesley stuck around at the house until Candace came and then about midway through the day of her being here I had started to semi feel normal again.  I don't ever want to go through that again though, at least not again while I'm still nursing her.  

But all in all this past month has been such an amazing time seeing her develop.  She's sooooooo close to crawling.  We are in the superman backwards scoot phase right now.  She gets up on all fours though and wants to go forward so bad, it's just not quite happening.  Now don't get me wrong she is completely mobile.  Between the backwards scoots, the turning in circles and the rolling all over the place, she definitely does not stay contained as easy as she once did.  She's also sitting up now which I think she absolutely loves.  I think it's just a new level for her to see everything at so it's kind of exciting.  She still wobbles when it comes to trying not to fall backwards, that strength isn't 100% there. Ohhhhh and she officially has two bottom teeth!!  Those decided to make an appearance on the way back from NY.  The first one popped through on the plane ride back and then the next day the other one came through.  It was crazy!  She surprisingly wasn't even that bad.  She did end up getting a bit of a fever once the second one came in but it was under control with a little shot of Tylenol.  I might be thinking that this "hippy" alternative medicine stuff might work too.  We have had a Baltic Amber necklace on her for a while now so who knows maybe they really do work. 

 It was also a time for a few big girl upgrades.  Miss Rorie was just getting way to heavy to lug around in the infant carseat so she got promoted to her big girl seat that stay stationary in the car.  We're still adjusting but it hasn't been awful.  It actually took a few trips in it and fine tuning some adjustments to make sure she was as comfortable and safe as possible.  And since she's getting a little more mobile and trying to get up on those knees of hers her crib got lowered down to the next level!  

So many exciting things happening and so many exciting things to look forward too.  {we won't talk about the birthday party supplies I've already started stocking up on}

Ok here's a look at where we're at!!

Age 6 Months
Weight 16.10lbs (60th Percentile)
Height 27.5 inches (98th Percentile)

Clothing Size We're still in the same size here as we were last month.  6-9 months is really still really where we're at with a few 9 months thrown in there.  Some of my favorite outfits are the 9 month ones.  I did find the other day that a pair of pants I've been putting her in are still actually a 3-6 and they totally fit.  Now, they ride up her legs a little quicker than the other ones but they still work :)

Sleep Well we had a bit of a setback during the trip to NY where our sleep got sooooo messed up.  I think part of it had to do with just being in a new environment, sleeping in a pack and play.  It was definitely crazy though.  Like CRAY CRAY crazy.  She was waking up every hour and a half to two hours and I felt like we were back at newborn stage.  Literally the night we got home though it was like a switch went off and she was completely back to normal.  So our new normal is bed time around 7:15 after her last feeding.  She'll usually sleep till about 3-4 is without issue, sometimes she throws in a 5am.  I'll usually get up and feed her when she gets up and then she'll go back down and sleep till about 8.  If she isn't totally asleep till 8 she's usually totally fine laying in her crib playing until then.  It's been really nice for the new at home work schedule.  It's all working out.

Food Well this is kind of a big deal.  We started giving Rorie solids!!!  A few days before we left for our trip to NY we started giving her the Rice cereal.  She loved it.  And literally within like three days she was a pro and you would have thought she had been eating solids her whole life.  Once we got back from NY we went to the store and used the first of our coupons for the Free Baby food that we got on The Ellen Show!  It's the Beech Nut 100% natural "just" foods.  We started off with the apples and they were a huge hit.  she really did amazing and we were so excited.  She's now had apples, bananas, sweet potatoes and butternut squash.  Has loved all of them!  Other than that though she is still 100% getting milk from the boob.  I've been so lucky that we still haven't had to spend a penny on formula.  I will admit though that since we got back from NY and started this new work from home schedule I haven't pumped.  In a way I'm a bit bummed.  I know what you're thinking, why would you be bummed about not pumping and having to clean all that crap up.  Well back in October I realized that I had so much extra supply that I had found a gal in need of donor milk and I had been donating to her what I could part with.  Since I haven't been needing to pump though because of my body kind of adjusting to the new schedule I'm kind of holding onto any extra stock now just in case for us.  I just feel really bad that I'm not able to help her for the time being.

Activities Oh my goodness, I feel like she's doing so many things right now.  Since getting back from NY our nanny has started and with that we've been trying to get Rorie to do all kinds of new things.  Another big reason for that though is really because she's at just a developmental crossroads where we have needed to find new things for her to do.  She's now a finger painter.  (The not messy kind).  A friend told me about ziplock bag painting and its been great.  Ok now really she just wants to eat the bag, but it's still fun.  We've also invested in an inflatable pool and plastic balls and created a ball pit for her.  I won't lie the very first time I had our nanny try and put her in it she literally SCREAMED.  Like screamed bloody murder.   I chalk it up to she was just tired and hungry because later that day I tried again and it was no big deal.    She is back to getting to go on walks, I try to take her every day once I'm done working so we can both get out of the house.  

  
Likes She has always been a fan of bath time but I think she's loving it even more now that she's upgraded from the bathroom sink in her Puj to the kitchen sink since she's sitting up like a big girl!!  She loves food, like baby food, food.  She's seriously such a great eater and gets really excited when she goes in her high chair at dinner time.  She's now really loving Ruxin.  She laughs at him all the time and is showing a lot more interest in him.  It will be interesting to see once she's properly mobile and crawling all over the place how their relationship changes.  He still doesn't care about her.  She LOVES her Sophie giraffe.  She'll put just about anything in her mouth to chew on but she really loves Sophie. Speaking of putting things in her mouth.  So almost immediately she took to a binky and for me I was totally ok with it.  Then she found that thumb of hers.  Well she loves her thumb so much now that the only thing she uses her Wub-A-Nub binkys for is to chew on.  And to make matters even funnier, I thought I was really going to have a problem with the thumb sucking but no, I think I'm going to have a bigger problem with the BIG TOE sucking!!!

Dislikes She is not a fan of the first few minutes after she gets out of her bath.  She usually screams.  I'm not sure if it's because she really just wants to stay in the bath or if it's because Wesley is taking her to her bedroom and I'm not right there. (Yea we've got some major Mommy attachment issues).  But usually by the time I can get the lotion and start rubbing it on her she calms down.  She's also not a fan of really being left alone in general nowadays when it's not bedtime.  I'm finding that during the days if I leave her to walk into the other room she gets really mad.  Again it might just be the attachment issues we're dealing with.  Other than that she still is pretty easy to please.

Mood So she's still seriously just the best baby really ever.  She's happy about 90% of the day.  I am finding that lately when she gets really tired though she just gets PISSED.  She gets so mad and gets to a point of being so over tired that she has to really just cry it out, find her thumb and roll over onto her left side and bam she's out.  But man those like two minutes before she figures that all out, she's not a happy camper.

Best Moment This Month  I think I had a few favorite moments.  We got two big milestones this past month.  She got her first two teeth within a day and a half of each other and when she started sitting up.  It really is just so amazing to see her growing and learning so many things.  One of my other favorite moments was her getting to meet "Papa GMoney". Ok I know that's a ridiculous name, but it is what it is.  Mr. Graczyk had been dying to meet her, I mean I had been dying for him to meet her too.  When she's older I know they will be two peas in a pod.  The pic below is probably one of my favorites now.  She was just so infatuated with him.  It's just really special.  I thought I was lucky before to have him in my life, but now I feel even luckier!

Looking Forward To Next month we get to fly again, this time to Florida and she'll finally meet her Aunt Krissy and Uncle Hollywood (Axel), yep I think I've decided that is what she's going to call him because I think it will be awesome.  Anyways though, she'll get to meet them and her cousins, Shasta, Harlie and Dayne, as well and her Uncle Chaddy and cousin Caden (technically she already met him when we were home for Christmas)  All for the first time. though  I've been seriously dying for them to meet her and the fact that we've had to wait so long has been horrible.  Gosh they are going to love her so much and as much as I'm looking forward to them meeting her, it's going to be so hard to leave them.