Ella 6 Month Update

Stats:

• Weight: 16 lb 4 oz  - 58th percentile 
• Height: 28.5" - 99.9th percentile
• Head Circumference: 16.6 inches - 43rd percentile
• Diapers: Size 2
• Clothing: Disney 3-6 month and I just started 6-9 month, Spasilk 9 months, Steelers 6-9 month, Carter's 6 month pants but getting tight, Leveret 6-12 month onesies but I haven't put her in one in weeks so I bet it is too short and still too wide.  Carter's 9 month dresses. The 6 month dresses got too short a few weeks ago. There is this one dress we got as a gift size 12 months  that is Carter's Child of Mine and it is almost too short for her. I'm not sure how it is smaller than the other Carter's stuff.  She also has to wear the 12-24 mo socks. She outgrew the smaller socks. She also outgrew shoes in size 2T. 

Sleep
Ella's overnight sleep has been awful this month. It started out OK but then we traveled and that messed everything up. She also is teething so eats less each time and then wakes up starving. It hasn't been so fun. There have been a few times she slept through the entire night recently but almost all of those involved her going to bed late and it being super difficult to get her to fall asleep. She has been napping better. Her naps are longer and I can almost say she takes 3 naps a day now. Sometimes 2 sometimes 4. Before she would have so many 20-30 min naps that she might end up with 6 or 7 naps in a day.

Eating
She still nurses between 2 and 4 hours a day but most closer to 2. She has a lot more pumped milk now because when her mouth hurts from teething sometimes she just wants some milk from a cup.  She spends less time nursing than she did last month, but she's taking a sippy cup a lot more now. I also feed her baby food daily now which takes time but doesn't count in those totals. I feed her 1/3-1/2 of one of the sitter containers at a time. At first I was feeding her 1/3 the amount in an assisted sitter container but that didn't last long. I don't pump every single morning now. If she's awake throughout the night, a morning pump for the side that Ella did not nurse on is not required. Ella had puffs this month for the first time.

Sample Schedule:
She still doesn't have a specific nap time or food time yet.  Basically she sleeps for a long period of time starting at close to 9:30 PM. She sleeps until about 6:30 (but it also ranges from 5:30-7:30 and about half the days this month she woke up once in the night between 1 and 3 to eat then go back to sleep).  Then she says away for 1-2 hours playing and chilling with Dave. Then she goes to sleep for maybe an hour if I'm lucky.
She then will be awake and play for about two hours. This time has been getting longer throughout the month. She eats after she wakes up most of the time and before she goes to sleep again. Throughout the day her naps range from 20 minutes to 2 hours but lately are on the longer side.  She is up for more than 2 hours at a time pretty much every time she is awake. But a lot of the time she's awake for 3 hours. Sometimes for 4 or 5. Sometimes she plays and is pleasant when awake. Other times she's so fussy and won't let me put her down to play. She might also seem tired but she sure won't go to sleep.  At 8:30 at the latest, I start feeding her to get her to eat then go to sleep.  Her bedtime routine involves Dave swaddling her and then taking her around the room/house to try to find me to nurse. She sees me and gets all excited when she sees me. If I swaddle her and walk her to the chair it's just not the same.

Special Moments:

On May 21, we nursed with a cover for the first time. She did better with getting distracted. She still only ate for a few minutes.
On May 22, she gave Gio a nice hug. (Gio is 10 months old.)
On May 23, she threw up for the 2nd time ever. I'm talking just a little spit up too. She's been so amazing with her lack of throwing up.  Later in the evening her awful teething started. Teething was bad probably 1/2 the time this month. We even gave her Tylenol maybe a dozen times.
On May 25, she fell asleep on me without a swaddle. I took a little blanket and covered her and put her in her crib. She napped without a swaddle for a short nap. I kept checking her on the baby monitor since I read babies shouldn't have blankets until they are a year old.   Later she peed while I was in the middle of changing her! This was the second time this has happened. (I didn't mark the first so not sure when.)
On May 26, she waved bye but it was more of a Miss America type wave.
On May 28, she crawled about a foot with her butt in the air to get around something then she went back to rolling. She prefers to roll so she tends to do that to get to things.  She went on her first airplane.
On May 29, she watched Sesame Street for the first time
On May 30, she stood on her own leaning on the exersaucer for a long time.
On May 31, she had her first puff, was in her first pool, and nursed for the first time in a restaurant.
On June 1, my mom fed Ella out of a cup and Jen fed her out of a sippy cup. She's branching out to people besides me.
On June 2, she waved her hand at Uncle Mike in the car when he stopped paying attention her.
On June 3, she had a bath in my parents' kitchen sink. She pushed the foot of the stuffed duck on her own to get it to talk. I also noticed her actually sleeping on her stomach. She had rolled over on her own and then went back to sleep.
On June 4, she was on her first park swing on my lap.
On June 5, she learned to go from sitting on my leg to standing. She did this a lot.  She also crawled a little to me. She waved bye 3 times to Adrienne. I'm not sure what it was but she was actually waving.
On June 6, she went on a baby swing by herself.
On June 7, she liked to suck on and slobber on my cucumber. Later she finally went to sleep after dancing to some music being played from a transistor radio.
On June 8, we swapped what side of the tub she'd get a bath on. Now she sits up instead of leaning back.
On June 9, she touched my nose when prompted. Then mouth. On June 10 she did nose and chin. But since then she's failed and just tries to gently kick me in the face while laughing.
On June 11, I realized she learned to pull things closer to her if she wants what's in it or on it. Like she pulls a basket closer to her to get what is in it.  We put her on a baby swing and she learned to pump to go faster.
On June 14, she had her first blowout when playing that ended up on the carpet!  She also went into our own little kid pool for the first time.
On June 16, she had mixed veggie puree since she already had all the components separately.
On June 17, she had 2 meals of baby food puree.

This month Ella traveled and had to deal with 2 flights and 3 airports. Waiting in line to get new tickets after a cancelled flight was the worst of it all. She had to spend time away from Daddy and sleep in another room.

Development:
Ella had mixed vegetables this month since she ate all the components separately. I think the only new one from last month was peas.
She sits a lot better this month. She can sit for many minutes at a time. She even turns and looks different directions and doesn't fall over. 
She rolls multiple times in a row and changes her angle to get to something.
She tries to put everything in her mouth. 
She grabs everything instead of just touching it. 
She waved bye a few times but really it was rare. She waved bye to Adrienne twice as she was leaving. She still doesn't understand Dave leaving on a bike versus leaving in a car though. 
She kisses and hugs me all the time.

Other Tidbits:
Likes
She still likes to play a lot! 
She loves it when she's swaddled (even if it is the 1 arm swaddle or 0 arm swaddle).
She gets so excited when she's on her changing table about to be swaddled. She knows food is next and she's super excited. 
She likes to stand with support.
She likes to sit by herself.
She likes to be held.
She likes to talk and smile at us. 
She likes to watch TV.
She likes to look at her mobile. She just loves those planets. She likes to reach and touch them if we are holding her.
She likes when Dave makes her fly. (She doesn't love it as much when I do it.)
She loves to roll over to get from point a to point b. She rolls 5 ft across a room.
She loves to squeal with delight. These squeals have been getting louder too.
She loves grabbing her feet.
She likes to kick those feet when she's lying on the ground.
She loves to grab everything including my face. 
She likes to put everything in her mouth.
She loves to pull my hair. She even reaches for the hair going into a ponytail to pull it out of the ponytail. Ugh.
She likes the page in The Very Hungry Caterpillar that shows all the different food he ate.
She likes to scoot around to get close to Poly to pull at her feet or pull her fur.
She loves when you get out tylenol. She tries to help get that syringe in her mouth. 

Dislikes
She doesn't like to nurse if I'm talking or if anything is going on. 
She doesn't want to nurse during the day without being swaddled if she wants to fall asleep next.
She doesn't want to fall asleep in the car and she protests and cries for a bit. Sometimes she finally ends up falling asleep when we are about 1 minute from home.
She doesn't like to be anywhere she doesn't want to be. She could be happy on the floor playing then change her mind and you better pick her up or she's crying.

Fun Facts
Longest time sleeping: 10 hours 21 minutes  
Days with a sleep greater than 5 hours: 24 
Diapers used (from June 1-19): 11.6 per day (decrease from last month)
Time spent nursing (from June 1-19): 109 minutes (1:49) per day (decrease from last month)
Feeding average per day (from June 1-19) = 2.2 oz (increase from last month)
Time spent sleeping (from June 1-19): 13.6 hours per day  (decrease from last month)

Favorite Toys
Duck
Dragonfly
Sophia the Giraffe (teether)
Strawberry teether

Favorite Songs
All of Me
Happy

My Update
I needed a new title because I don't feel like it's a recovery but my update. I'm still up 1-3 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight.  I fit into a pair of old jeans again.  I only tried 1 pair.  I'm running further consistently. Before I was running 1.5-2 mi on most runs and now I'm doing 3-3.5 on most runs.