Peyton is so much fun at 6 months!! She interacts with us so much now and is VERY vocal. Her main forms of communication consist of squeals, spitting and gurgling. She doesn't say any words (i.e. ma, da, ba), but I keep trying! Peyton still puts everything in her mouth and gnaws on everything, but no teeth in sight! She loves music (The Itsy Bitsy Spider and ABCs are two favorites), loves to watch people dance (The Hokey Pokey or just random bouncing around works), loves anything that could be classified as "daring" (letting her fall a little while holding her, being upside down, bouncing), and she really loves sitting on the bathroom counter, playing in the basket of washcloths, lotion, etc., and looking at the baby in the mirror :) She still loves her Daddy and will just smile at him when she sees him. She has started resting her head on my shoulder/chest when I hold her and it just makes my heart melt! I love it! She has also started really using her legs to wrap around my waist when I hold her, which I also love, except when I'm trying to put her down and she holds on tight. Those little legs are strong! Peyton is super ticklish and so easy to make laugh.
Sleep - We had a few rough weeks when she was 4 - 5.5 months. She had gotten into a habit of waking up crying 45 minutes after going to sleep at night. She didn't do this every night, but she definitely did it most nights. We would go up and give her her paci, and she would usually go right back to sleep. She would then wake up crying sometime in the 5 o'clock hour. We would go put her paci in, and she would sleep for about 30 minutes, and we would keep this up until we got her up for the day around 6:30 or 7:00. We thought she would just work this out on her own, but it began to get progressively worse. She started waking up more times during the night and earlier (1:00, 3:00, etc.). She also started to be fussier than normal during the day (poor thing was probably tired because she wasn't getting good sleep at night). Well, we finally decided to put a stop to this around 5.5 months. It was a rough couple of days, letting her cry it out, but oh so worth it! It was amazing! The first night, she cried for 45 minutes, and I eventually went up to calm her down and get her to sleep, but then she slept all night until 6:30! The next night, she cried (not nearly as hard) for about 30 minutes and put herself to sleep!! She also slept all night until 6:30/7! Not only that, but she was sooo much happier during the day (back to her normal self)! It was a huge breakthrough and I only regret we didn't do it sooner. She goes down very easily 99% of the time (we all have our off days).
Eat - Peyton is now fully on formula and is doing really well. She is also eating cereal and baby food. Her typical schedule is 7:00 - bottle, 9:30 - cereal, 11:00 - bottle, 1:30 - baby food, 3:00 - bottle, 5:00 - baby food, 6:00 - bottle. It seems like she is always eating or drinking. I'm still trying to play around with her meals and will probably try to consolidate her eating and drinking at some point, but as of now, this seems to be working well. Peyton loves prunes, carrots, bananas and sweet potatoes. She will eat peas, green beans, squash, and apples, but doesn't love them.
She is such a joy!!
Poppa loves his grandkids and the feeling is mutual!
