Official 6 month stats

Eleanor had her 6 month appointment last Friday, just a couple weeks late :)  She weighed in at 17 pounds 12 ounces (76th percentile) and was 26.25 inches long (58th percentile).  The doctor said that Eleanor looked great.  She was pleased we had started offering food and a sippy cup and said to continue doing what we're doing.  We don't go back to the doctor until Eleanor is 9 months old (unless she gets sick).  Eleanor handled her shots like a champ and only cried for a minute or so.  Hooray for a healthy baby girl!

Playing with the tissue paper while waiting for the doctor :)

6 months - things I don't want to forget

I am LOVING being home with Eleanor this summer.  It's awesome.  It's also pretty great that Matt has a really light work schedule in the summer so he is home with us a few days a week as well.  We've been able to get in some good family time (as well as working on a ton of stuff around the house, but there will be a post about that sometime, hopefully this month, when everything is finished!).

Also, she has finally figured out how to roll from her back to her belly.  Granted, she has only done it a few times, but it's a start.  She will consistently roll from her belly to her back...but only one way.  She will roll toward her left but is not so sure what to do when I try to encourage her to roll toward her right.  If you lay next to her left side on the floor she will try to roll over and keep rolling into you - this is probably not nice of us, but it is fairly entertaining :)

Eleanor has also started transferring things from hand to hand and using both hands to put something in her mouth.

Using both hands to eat the phone :)

She can blow some awesome raspberries, and does so very frequently.  Eleanor blows them at us, at other people, at our cats, at her toys...pretty much all the time.  It's pretty funny.  Check out this post-bath video (sorry the lighting isn't very good) of her blowing some raspberries at me.  Matt has even started calling Eleanor "daddy's little raspberry."

Eleanor loves our cats.  Loves them.  Her face lights up when she sees either of them and she starts making excited noises and trying to touch them.  Mac will not let Eleanor touch him (we have to be holding him when she does).  Sadie will let Eleanor touch her for a little bit and then has gotten really good at positioning herself just out of Eleanor's reach.  Which is fine since we then use Sadie as a motivator to get Eleanor to start trying to crawl :)  Eleanor isn't anywhere close to figuring this out, but she moves her little legs like she's trying to get somewhere.  She has pushed herself back and pulled herself slightly forward but that's about it.  She'll get there eventually though :)

Sadie hanging out with Eleanor.  Eleanor really wanted to pet Sadie but couldn't quite reach.

Eleanor has figured out her sippy cup, which didn't take long at all!  Less than a week later and she's sipping out of a straw like a pro :)  She's also enjoying food.  She got some banana down on Saturday and some zucchini today.  So far Eleanor has had avocado, broccoli, zucchini, banana, and pickle (I was at Panera for lunch and she kept reaching for my plate...so I just cut my pickle into strips and she was happy to eat that.) We're going to try carrots soon, and I think sweet potatoes.  She's gotten really good at getting the pieces in her mouth, and even biting down on them and breaking chunks off.

Check out the piece of zucchini in her mouth :)

She's a sippy cup rockstar!

She is taking 5 ounce bottles about every 3.5-4 hours.  She usually has 5 bottles a day. She's also getting 2.5 tablespoons of rice cereal mixed in with each bottle.

Little Miss is a pro at sitting up now.  Every now and then she falls over, but not very often.  We've even graduated to sitting in highchairs in restaurants and in shopping carts.

Eleanor is still picky about what she finds funny enough to laugh about, but when she does laugh it's pretty awesome.  Check out this video.  Aren't her laughs adorable?

We have Eleanor's 6 month appointment next week, so I'll update with her official stats then, though at the doctor two weeks ago she was up to 17.1 lbs.  No wonder she's getting so heavy to carry around in her carseat!

Avocado!

Today we started solids with Eleanor!  We had planned on starting when she turned 6 months old, but then waited since she was sick.  Now she's finally back to normal (and finally back to mostly sleeping through the night again, thank goodness - it's rough getting up every 1-2 hours when you haven't had to do that in 4.5 months!), so we decided to give it a try today.

We are doing baby-led weaning with Eleanor, which basically means we are not giving purees and are offering table food.  If you're interested in learning more here is the website.  There is also a book about it that I found helpful.  We have several friends who have done BLW and quite a few mamas in an online group I'm part of have done it as well.  As a disclaimer, I'm not against purees.  As long as you're feeding your kid(s) healthy food, feed them however you like :)  But for us, BLW makes sense.  Here are some of the reasons why we thought this would be the best choice for our family:

-At some point kids need to go to solid foods anyway, and regardless of whether they do purees first or go straight to table food, most kids end up gagging a bit when they start finger foods.  Let's just let Eleanor figure it out from the get-go.

-BLW isn't suggested until babies hit 6 months of age and are showing interest in food, can sit up unassisted, and can take food/objects to their mouths.  Good news since our pediatrician doesn't recommend starting solids until 6 months anyway.

-With the amount of thickening we have to do to the formula in Eleanor's bottles because of her reflux, purees really aren't that much thicker than what she's got in her bottle.  She's still choking/gagging, though it is definitely better, with the thicken formula.  I'd rather just go straight to solid foods than give her food that is about the same thickness and might be just as likely to come back up like her formula.

-With BLW Eleanor can eat while we are eating.  I don't have to spoon-feed her a puree before our meal or while I'm trying to juggle eating my food too.  Just put some food on her tray and let her have at it :)

Those are just a handful of the reasons why we're choosing this route.  Today went well, I think!  Right now food is for exploration, figuring out that there are different textures and tastes.  Eleanor did get a few pieces of avocado in her mouth and mushed them around for a minute before spitting them out, which is great for her first try!  It'll take her a little bit to figure out that she can actually swallow food, but she'll get there.  We've also got some green beans and zucchini (I'll cut it into strips) that we're going to try soon too!

6 months!

How in the world is this possible?!?!?  Today Eleanor turned 6 months old.  Our sweet girl has been a little under the weather the past few days thanks to a viral form of tonsillitis, but her fever seems to finally have broken and she has seemed more herself today.  Happy 6 months, Sunshine!