6 month update

Interestingly enough exactly one year ago we found out we were going to be having a baby and now we have a 6.5 month old.  Crazy how that works out!  A lot has happened in the last month, a lot of firsts for Olivia and I cannot express again how great of a baby she is!  It is funny, the first month or two that she was home, it was hard.  Like real hard.  She was fussy often, hard to console, and I felt like I was failing as a mother.  Now she is a wonderful baby.  She is constantly looking and smiling at me.  It is crazy what just a few months can do!  We finally got the go ahead from the doctor to let her sleep through the night, so in the past week, she has been going to bed at 8pm and waking up anytime between 6:15-7:30!  Before that I was waking her up every night at 4am for a feeding but the doctor is so pleased with her weight gain that we no longer have to do that!  This is such a wonderful praise; however, I still get the fun task of waking up at 4am to pump for her!  

Let's get into the nitty gritty:

At her 6 month appointment, Olivia weighed in at 13 pounds, 12 ounces and is now in the 10th percentile on the growth chart and that is the growth chart for FULL TERM BABIES.  Her head circumference is in the 22nd percentiles for FULL TERM BABIES, and her height is 24 inches, which is the 4th percentile.  It is amazing to us that she is charting at age in all categories for full term babies.  The doctor told us first to catch up is head circumference, followed by weight then height, so she is tracking perfect.  He is very pleased with her growth and she is begging to look more like a term baby in terms of size.  She is now in 6 month clothes almost exclusively!  She is still a little behind in a few age appropriate milestones for her actual age (of 6 months), but is hitting perfect for her adjusted age (3.5 months), so we are hoping to get her on some Physical Therapy soon to help push her to begin catching up to her actual age.  We also go the go ahead from her doctor to start her on solid foods in about another month or so, he would like us to wait until she is closer to 7.5 months actual (5 months adjusted to try them), but something to look forward to!

A few firsts:

MY FIRST MOTHER'S DAY with a child:

We are getting lots of smiles and her dad and I can often do things to initiate laughing, which has been amazing to hear:

Olivia celebrated her first CINCO DE MAYO:

Olivia finally got to meet her cousins, Corbin, Holden, and Garrett (and we tie dyed shirts to mark the occasion):

Another first, Olivia's first road trip fell on her 6 month birthday exactly, so I remembered the sticker, but forgot her lamb so we did two 6 month pictures this month.  The first is from the beach and the second is when we got back home.  We went to Myrtle Beach for the weekend with my mom, and she is pretty well, she is overall such an easy going child, but she is like her mom that you can push off a meal for awhile but once she gets hungry, she is hungry NOW!  So we made a few stops on the car ride home cause our screaming daughter wanted to eat NOW.  

This picture is back home with her lamb for scale.

As a point of reference, here is her picture from last month compared to 6 month, look how much longer she is now!

Our little girl has also somehow figured out a way to turn herself a complete 90 degrees while she sleeps in her bassinet, seems like a move to the crib will be soonish.

Olivia also got to celebrate her first memorial day twice, once meeting her first baby friend, Madeline, and second with family!  Check out that festive dress (Sorry Olivia this is now your life, your momma loves dressing for a holiday or really any good occasion)!

And just this past week, as Olivia is now 6.5 months old, she took her first trip to Busch Gardens and got to ride her first train there!  

I know everything seems all bubbles and rainbows and there is a LOT to be thankful for, but as we are continually warned, Olivia is not out of the woods yet.  Her immune system is still compromised and that takes much longer to catch up, though it is not something easy to see.  In addition, we still have follow ups for her sight and hearing and next week brings a follow up with the NICU, they don't even check in until 6 months old, so we will hopefully get a bigger picture from them.  Our doctor, obviously, gave us the go ahead to get out of isolation and be out and about, but still warns about taking her around people who are or have been sick and still warns about hands on with other kids.  Adults tend to carry less germs than children.  So we are happy, but still cautious!  We did our first Sunday back at church this morning, but it will likely be weeks or months before she can stay in the nursery.  So we still feel like the NICU parent a lot when we think about things like that.  Even just the other day, a lady in this NICU group I am in posted a video of her holding her son for the first time since he was born.  I was feeding Olivia as she was falling to sleep so I was watching the video without sound and I could feel it all rush back.  The mother looked to the son, then instinctively looked up and without hearing the sound of the alarms or the beeps of the machine, I just knew what she was looking at.  She was looking up to her son's monitor to see why his stats were going low or heart rate going high.  And I very vividly remember those days.  Now my head is filled not with worry about her heart rate, but about when Olivia might catch her first cold?  What will that look like?  I read a story the other day about a former NICU baby who got a cold at 18 months and was hospitalized for it.  So yes, the fear is not over, but we move forward with hopeful caution and embrace all the firsts!  And am waiting patiently for her to roll over that first time...