Makenzie is 6 months!

 I can hardly believe that half a year has gone by already. It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital anxiously waiting to hold our new little girl in our arms. Now she is already 6 months old. She is half-way done being a baby. It makes me so sad, but at the same time we love watching her grow. Makenzie is at such a fun age and is learning so much. She is such a happy little girl and so easy going.  We just love her to pieces.

 Here are the stats from Makenzie's 6th month: 

Height: 25.3 in. (28th percentile)
Weight: 15 lb 3 oz. (31st percentile)
Head Circumference: 42.8 cm (58th percentile)
Clothes: mostly 6 months
Diapers: size 3

Eating: Makenzie is now eating solids once a day at dinner time. She has enjoyed sweet potatoes, carrots, peas (not a huge fan though), prunes, squash, apples, and pears. Her favorite so far seem to be the sweet potatoes and prunes.

Sleeping: Makenzie is now back to sleeping at night. FINALLY!!! About three weeks ago we had finally had enough. After talking with our doctor we read a book on sleep and determined that we were the main cause for Kenzie not sleeping. This was for two reasons. First, she was going to bed too late for her 'sleep rhythm' and second, we were going in during the night and feeding into her sleep issues instead of letting her learn how to self soothe. So, we had to toughen up and do the old cry it out method. We are not very good at this, but the first night we tried it we purposely did it right as we were getting Morgan started with her night time routine so we knew we would be busy and it would be easier to 'tune out' the crying. That first night she cried 25 minutes. She woke up twice to eat, but that was it. She ate and went straight back to sleep. The next night was even better, she only cried 10 minutes. I wish I could say things have since then gone perfectly, but they haven't. But overall she is sleeping again. The downside is that we have found the 'magic window' of bedtime for Makenzie is 5:30-5:45 pm. Yes, that's right she goes to be before 6. She then sleeps until 5:30 or 6:00 waking to eat twice, usually around 11:00 and 3:00. We love that Makenzie is sleeping at night again and she is much happier again, but it really makes doing anything in the late afternoon hard. We are total home bodies right now. Our next thing to tackle is trying to get her to nap during the day. Currently she feels that napping for 20 or 30 minutes three times a day is enough. I on the other hand disagree. Of course as long as she sleeps at night I am a pretty happy lady.

Likes:
* Baths. Makenzie loves to splash in the water and will stay in the tub forever if you let her. She can be totally losing it, ready for bed, and if you stick her in the tub she becomes totally happy and smiley.
*Her jumperoo. Makenzie has learned how to really get her jumperoo bouncing.
*Raspberries. Not the kind you eat, but the kind you blow. The kid will blow raspberries non stop all day long some days. She also loves to 'beat box.'

Dislikes:
*Loud noises. Makenzie does not like loud noises and will hide in my arms if I am holding her and she hears a loud noise. She especially dislikes the blender and coffee grinder.
* Having her neck stretched. This has been challenging for a while, but now that we are trying to put her to sleep on her own it is even more challenging since I used to stretch her after she fell asleep in my arms. We try to do it when she is in a playful mood and make it into a play thing rather than stretching, but she is really smart and usually doesn't fall for it.

Here are some cute pictures and highlights from Makenzie's 6th month: 

* We went to a birthday party for her 'cousin' Lucas and she got the play with her BFF Macie.

It was the day after this play date that Kenz started doing her push-ups. I really think she watched Macie very closely and took notes.

Kenzie has really struggled this month with napping. On Halloween I tried everything to get the girl to nap so she would be up for Trick or Treating. The old dryer trick did not work, so we ended up driving around Vail for 30 minutes. Morgan kept asking me "Mommy, where are we going? What store are we shopping at?"

Makenzie has been enjoying more solids. This month she had sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, prunes, squash, apples, and pears. She enjoyed them so much one night that she tried to feed herself. 

 Makenzie and Morgan love to spend time together. Morgan has been trying very hard to be patient with her sister while trying to teach her how to play ponies. Unfortunately Makenzie doesn't quite understand ponies yet, instead she just wants to eat the fences which annoys her big sister.

 Makenzie is now trying to use a sippy cup. She loves to chew on it and occasionally will take a sip, which always surprises her. She gets this look on her face every time like hey, what was that?

Makenzie is so ready to start crawling. She now gets up on all fours and rocks. She has gone in a forward motion a few times, but still can't quite get the hands down.

Wait....!

Our little girl sure seems in a hurry to grow up and be a big kid like her big sister, Morgan. Over the past week Makenzie has started to show signs that she may end up being an early crawler! Last Sunday before we left for the Red and Blue game (I will post pics of that soon) Makenzie was playing on the floor in our living room and all of a sudden she started doing push-ups.

She spent most of her time on the floor last week perfecting this new skill. She is able to now push herself up like this and move backwards. If all her toys were behind her she would be able to get anything she wanted.

Yesterday, while playing on the floor Makenzie continued working on her push-ups and then figured out how to pull her knees in below her. 

 Then last night before bed she starting not only getting her knees up, but giving a gentle rock. I think we are in trouble. I told David his honey do list just got a little better. I think it is about time to get this house baby proofed.

Makenzie is 5 months old!

 Makenzie is now 5 months old. We are really enjoying how big she is getting and all the fun things she is learning to do. At the same time we wish she would slow down and be a baby forever.

Here are the top 10 highlights of Makenzie being 5 months old: 

1. We had a couple of visits this month from her Nanny and Pa. One one trip they even brought Aunt Jen and the girls, Caity and Lindsey, with them.  It is so nice that they live close enough to do day trips to come visit the girls. They both just love hanging out with them and I love to see them building such strong relationships with all their grandparents.

2. We are preparing for Kenzie's first Halloween! We found this adorable costume at a great price so I couldn't refuse. I just hope we have a cool Halloween this year. In Vail at Halloween time you just never know if it will be shorts and t-shirt kind of weather or the bundle up, freezing cold kind.

Kenzie showing off her costume to Nanny and Pa.

3. She moved up from the infant bath seat to the 'supported sitter' seat. She loves her new seat because now she can face her big sis and can reach to take all Morgan's bath toys. 

4. Morgan introduced Makenzie to one of her favorite new things to play "Do.c Mc.Stuffins". Morgan found one of Kenzie's toys that is a purple hippo and decided it looked like Hali and then she found an old beanie toy she had to be Chilli. I just love watching the girls together and seeing how much more they interact with each other every day. 

5. Makenzie was able to start using our jumper.oo. She really enjoys getting in this for a few minutes each day while I am preparing dinner. She has definitely figured out how to get it to bounce!

6. Makenzie started solids!!!! We started first with rice cereal, then oatmeal cereal, and this week she started sweet potatoes. It took her a few days to get used to them, but now she loves her solids; especially the sweet potatoes. The photos below are of her second night trying solids. David wasn't home from work yet so Morgan asked if she could be the photographer. I love the pictures taken from Morgan's perspective, so funny. 

7. Makenzie is sitting up! At first she was sitting up with a little support from the bopp.y pillow, but very quickly she didn't need it. Makenzie now loves to sit and play and doesn't want to spend much time on her tummy any longer. She enjoys playing at Morgan's old lights and sounds mirror. 

8. Makenzie took her first trip to the zoo. Over fall break it is kind of a tradition for us to gather up a group of our friends and head to a morning at the zoo. It was a beautiful morning and was great to finally see the new elephant exhibit.

My girls ready for the zoo!

The whole gang that joined us that morning

 

 Sammy, Morgan, Erin, Ian (holding) Maci, Ben, Makenzie, Paige, Lucas, Seth, and Parker. 

9. Makenzie is continuing with her PT and may be receiving a helmet in a month or so. At the beginning of October I took Makenzie in to Han.ger (the same place that does all Morgan's bracing) to get her head examined. They measured all different angles on her head and said that while she does have a mild case of plagiocephaly they think we should helmet it so it doesn't get worse and so she doesn't have any side effects. Right now the back of her head is slightly off, but the biggest concern is that her left side (ears and face) is slightly more forward than her right side. If her head continues to grow this way and the left side continues to move further forward compared to the right that could lead to vision issues in the future. Which is why it is good we are catching things early and we can fix it with the helmet. She would probably wear the helmet for 3-6 months. Once we get insurance approval we will go back to get her head remeasured. At that time they will either make the helmet or say that her head has improved enough on its own that she no longer needs it. 

     In the meantime we are continuing working with PT on her toricolis. Makenzie is making great gains and thus far is keeping up with developmental milestones! Yeah! She has learned how to roll, but mostly just rolls from her back-to-tummy. Once on her tummy she hardly ever rolls off. And as I said before she is sitting on her own too.

Morgan and Kenzie are co-treated at the same time most weeks. That makes our lives so much easier.

10. Makenzie got her 5 month old photos taken. She didn't have a great morning nap that day, so she wasn't in the best mood, but we did manage to get a couple of cute shots. 

Look at all those knee rolls. I love a chubby baby!

*Eating: Makenzie is still breastfed but has started on solids. She eats every 2-3 hours during the day still and gets her solids at dinner time with the rest of the family.

*Sleeping: I don't know what happened this month, but I want my baby that loves to sleep back. Makenzie has slept like a newborn this whole month and I am E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D!!!! She has been up to eat 3 times a night and has been waking in between. We think most of the problem started at the start of our fall break when Makenzie learned to roll. She would roll over in her sleep and wake herself up and be totally confused as to why she was on her tummy. Then two nights after this started we took our trip to Philly. While in the hotel she slept in a pack-n-play (not exactly comfy), continued waking herself by rolling over, and we didn't want her waking Morgan so I would feed her right away. We think this started a REALLY bad habit. Once we returned from the trip she bad sleeping habits continued. This past week we have really be trying to work on it, but she is still getting up to eat 2 times a night. I think I may break out the old Nap. Na.nny tonight and see if we can use it for a night or two to break her of these bad habits. We will see.

*Likes:
*To sit and play
* Eating her solids, especially sweet potatoes
*Being tickled. She giggles the cutest little laugh, but like her big sis she can only handle so much   before she starts with the hiccups.

*Dislikes:
*Loud, unexpected noises.
*Anything that goes fast, she does not seem to be the same thrill seeker like her sister. She doesn't like to be lifted in the air above your head or zoomed in a laundry basket like her sister loved/loves.

Can you see how unhappy she is about this. Morgan used to and still does love this game. Kenz gets totally freaked out.

*Some cute random photos from this month: 

Makenzie's first taste of sweet potatoes.

Playing hide and seek!

I put Makenzie down in the middle of Morgan's room with the train toy while I folded laundry.

She scooted herself back and  back until she ended up under Morgan's bed.

I love to watch Makenzie play and see how she interacts with her toys. She is no longer just swatting at toys, she is definitely exploring and learning.