Sophie’s 6 Month Update

Sophie is 6 months old today! It’s her very first half birthday!! 🙂 We’re so amazed at how much she has grown. Here’s what she’s been up to this past month. PS – this is a long post, but there is so much to reflect on, and so many great things happened this month!

Sophie’s 6 Month Update

Nicknames: Sophie B, BeeBee, BeeBee Brynn, Honey Bunny, Baby, Baby Bonnet, Dolly, Sweet Girl

Size: At her 6 month doctor’s appointment, Sophie weighed 13 lbs 7 oz, which is in the 6th percentile for weight. And she was 25 inches long, which is in the 13th percentile for height! So she is a little peanut! But the doctor is thrilled with how she has grown, and he’s not worried about her a bit. He even exclaimed at how incredibly strong her whole trunk is, when someone holds her up! Sophie now wears size 3 diapers. Clothing-wise, we’re basically done with any 3 month outfits. A couple of her 3-6 month outfits still fit her fine. Most of her 6 month clothing is still good, but her toes do push up against the bottom of her 6 month sleepers, so I’ve been putting her in some 6-9 month sleepers more recently. (Thank heavens for Kidizen, am I right??)

RELATED: Kidizen: My New Favorite App (+ $5 for you!)

Fun milestones: 

Sophie rolls over all the time now to reach things! She has discovered that rolling isn’t just an action she can do — it is a way to get closer to things she wants! 🙂 She rolls from front to back and back to front, depending on how I’ve set her down and what toy (or wipes container!) she’s trying to reach.

At 5 and a half months (specifically, on April 2), Sophie also started eating baby cereal! I was planning on waiting all the way till 6 months, but two weeks early isn’t bad, and she really was ready! Sophie eats one meal of baby cereal a day (aside from all of her nursing sessions) and so far, has enjoyed rice cereal mixed with breastmilk, and baby oatmeal as well. It sure is a messy endeavor, but she loves it. She sits up so well in her Bumbo infant seat by this point, and she has really gotten better at swallowing (and not just pushing things out of her mouth with her tongue), so we knew she was ready.

Sophie also has a special voice she uses for talking to her daddy! It is adorable to watch the two of them interact. 🙂 Makes my heart just about burst.

She has recently found her thumb! She doesn’t suck on it all that much, but it’s certainly interesting to her!

Sleep:

Ah, sleep. That has been the biggest challenge, the hardest work, and probably the happiest victory this past month. Sophie moved into her own room at night back on March 19, around her 5 month birthday. For whatever reason, Sophie was really struggling to sleep through the night a few weeks ago. But she was also at an age when she shouldn’t have been waking every couple hours, or even wanting to eat every 2 hours. And she wasn’t napping thoroughly during the day. Enter: an awesome woman with the heart to help new parents! I’ve had the immense blessing of getting to chat with an Instagram friend’s mom (who teaches baby sleep classes to new parents!!) and really work out a good schedule for Sophie’s feedings, naps, and nighttime wakings.

Let me tell you – it feels so empowering to finally have a set plan in place. And not only have a plan, but have a baby who now understands the plan and is following the plan! Haha! 🙂 I’ve been more strict and intentional about Sophie’s waking time each day, her naps, and her feedings, and it has paid off. Of course, no plan is perfect, and a lot of perfectionism and 100% success rates have to go out the window in terms of parenthood, but I’m still so thrilled. Would you like me to write another post about the schedule we’re now following? Perhaps it’d be helpful to other parents out there!

Sophie’s morning nap is still her longest nap of the day. She also takes a decent early afternoon nap and, depending on the length of that one, a shorter cat nap if need be in the late afternoon. Her bedtime is around 7:30 pm, and she is sleeping much better stretches at night! We’ve been implementing a more strict schedule this past week and a half or so, and just a few nights ago, Sophie slept for 7 hours straight!! I woke up and was amazed! That’s the longest amount of sleep I’ve gotten since October 16, although no one’s counting. 😉

She likes: 

Baths! She likes to splash in the water, which is more messy but definitely fun!

Eating! Sophie has always loved to nurse, but this past month has brought about the exciting world of baby cereal! She is so cute about it, and tries to help guide the spoon to her mouth with her hands!

Snuggles and tickles and cuddling before naptime.

Books. Sophie loves being read to! Bjorn tends to read her history related kids’ books, and I cover the other bases, haha…but she really loves looking at the pictures and trying to turn the pages. She and I actually walked down to the library this month and signed her up for the “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” program! I think someone once calculated that that is only 1 or 2 books a day…or not even that! Sophie probably reads 7 books a day, so we’re well on our way to 1,000 books before she enters kindergarten! Woo hoo! 🙂 We have a packet from the library that we use for recording each book she reads.

Our fish! We have a big fish tank in our living room and Sophie loves to try to touch the fish through the glass! (I don’t mind cleaning the glass later – she is having so much fun with it!)

Peek-a-boo! That game wasn’t really fun for her when she was younger, but she’s starting to really enjoy it now. 🙂

She loves alllll the crinkle toys. Anything that crinkles is her new favorite thing – whether it’s plastic wrap I’m using in the kitchen, a granola bar wrapper…or any of her own toys with crinkle sounds!

Music really calms her. She loves any dancing and singing. And we’ve definitely watched (and danced to) Riverdance this month!

Sophie loves seeing herself in the mirror. She recognizes herself and loves to stare and then grin at herself.

Birds. We’ve had a lot of birds chirping in our yard, and Sophie has noticed this! Every morning when I go in to get her from her crib, we stop at our favorite window at the top of the stairs, open the blinds, and sing our song: “Good morning, God, this is your day, I am your child, show me Your way.” And then we look around for whatever birds are out that morning! Sophie just loves their cheeps and chirps! It’s darling to watch her light up!

^^ This photo cracks me up! I set her down for a couple minutes, and when I came back, she had taken her socks off and left them in a pile off to the side while she rolled over! ^^

Dislikes:

When she needs her diaper changed, she wants it changed right then!! It really makes her grumpy to have a wet diaper. What can I say? She likes to feel clean! And I can’t blame her for that. 🙂

She is also SUPER attached to her parents lately. And even more so to me. She looks for us, wants to make eye contact with us, and tends to get worried if she’s not being held by Bjorn or me and can’t locate us in the room. So, needless to say, we’ve had fewer date nights lately. 🙂 That’s okay — we really love spending time with our baby girl, too.

This past month, Sophie:

• Signed up for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program at the library!

• Started eating food!
• Spent some time with her grandma (my mom) who visited for a few days

• Celebrated her first Easter (and did her first Easter egg hunt)

• Got much better at sitting up in her Bumbo seat, and rolling over on the floor to reach things.

• Learned she is getting a cousin! A girl!

We are:

• THRILLED to have figured out a better feeding/nap schedule. Of course, this kind of thing can feel like a moving target, but we have plans in place and it’s wonderful that they’re working in this season. I am also personally thrilled to be sleeping longer stretches at night. I’m one of those people who loves their sleep, and I get emotional/sad/stressed/sick when I am constantly not sleeping well. So, even though it’s not all about me, working hard at this new sleep training thing has been rewarding and empowering and I’m grateful!

• Proud parents. 😉

• Grateful for the blessing of knowing this little girl for the past 6 months. What an amazing journey this half a year has been! And we’re looking forward to a beautiful future with our Solveig Brynn, too.

PS — if you liked all the photos in today’s post, then make sure you’re following me on Instagram! That’s where you’ll see a LOT of “in-the-moment” updates and cute baby photos! 🙂