Marigold is 6 months old!
WEIGHT
18lb 6oz :)
LENGTH
*I don't know emoji*
SLEEP
At about 5.5-months-old, we decided something needed to change. Margo was taking forever to fall asleep for naps and bedtime, needing my full attention to do so; she wasn't napping in the Ergo (or any baby carrier) at all; she barely napped in the car; and she was basically dependent on nursing or rocking to fall asleep every time. The SNOO bassinet was still somewhat working, but she wasn't sleeping longer than 4-6 hours at a time. Nothing like the great stretches of sleep we were getting before the 4-month sleep regression started. So, we pulled the plug on the SNOO, literally, and decided to transition Margo to the crib.
I had purchased a sleep plan for 4-5-month-olds (Little Z's Sleep) a few months back, but had ignored it ever since, as it didn't exactly seem compatible with the SNOO. But when we were ready to ditch the SNOO and a little scared of how it was going to go, we decided the guidance of a sleep program would be v helpful. The new sleep plan would be most successful in a crib, so we were planning on stealing our sole crib from Jude so Margo could use it. But most randomly, a few days before we began our SNOO-less adventure, our friends (who have 6 kids) reached out and asked if we wanted a free crib, as they were ready to give away many of their duplicate baby/kid items. Perfect timing! We snatched the free crib, put our new organic crib mattress inside (I had bought one a few weeks earlier, anticipating that Margo would need a new mattress, as our old crib mattress had gotten saggy from toddler sleep/jumping), and haven't looked back since.
Now that we are on the other side of the 4-5-month sleep program, Margo is an AWESOME sleeper. She take 2-3 naps a day, for a total of 3-ish hours of nap, and she sleeps from around 8pm to 8am overnight, with one feeding in between. She's also learned to put herself to sleep!! So I go through our little sleep routine with her (which cues her brain to start settling for sleepy time), then lay her down in her crib, turn off the lights, turn the sound machine on, say, "night night," walk out of the room, and she's asleep within 5-10 minutes, with minimal to no fussing! Bedtime isn't always that easy, especially if she hasn't had enough wake-time between her last nap and when I'm trying to put her to bed, but even then, it's usually no more than 15-20 minutes of fussing. And I'm popping in to check on her every 10 minutes if the fussing persists.
We've never been fans of CIO methods, so this sleep plan seemed to hit the sweet spot of not letting her cry too long on her own, but successfully teaching her to fall asleep on her own. And helping her get the consolidated sleep she (and we) so desperately needed.
Now keep us in your prayers as we barrel toward the 7-month sleep regression. *eep*
FIRSTS THIS MONTH
-Rolling front-to-back.
-Army crawling just the tiniest bit, like an inch.
-Sitting unassisted for several seconds, sometimes up to a minute, before attempting to face plant into the floor.
-Sleeping in a crib.
-Putting herself to sleep.
-Attempting to grab our plates off the table as we eat.
-Sitting in the cart at the grocery store!
NICKNAMES
Margo, Margs, Meergs, Meer Claire, Margo Moo, Girlfriend, Sis (more like "siiiiiiisss!"), and Sissy
OTHER THINGS TO NOTE
-Girlfriend FINALLY likes the carseat! And her timing could NOT have been better. We took a 12-hour trip (more like 20 hours EACH WAY with all the stops!) to Rhode Island right as she was turning 6 months old and she did so well! Sure, there was some crying, especially when we were getting toward the end of 2-3 hour stretches in the car, but it really wasn't bad at all. What a big girl!
-Refer to first picture for Marigold's newest favorite trick: sticking her tongue out!
-We were a little scared for 0.2 seconds that Margo had a milk protein allergy just like her big brother, Jude. Let's just say her diapers were a little . . . blood-streaked. Yikes! But I got in touch with our lactation consultant and she suspected that it was bleeding from a fissure or something like that, since she didn't have any other symptoms. So we switched to an easier-to-wipe-off diaper ointment, aka A&D, and we haven't had an issue since.
-Margo has been upgraded to her own sleeping space: our closet! We do have another bedroom just for her, but it's down the hall from us. For now, we prefer to continue keeping her close by while she sleeps.
-Our favorite new Margo skill is that she can sit in her highchair while we eat now! Which means we can eat hands free! So long as she's in the mood to tolerate such thing. :P
-All of a sudden, Marigold LOVES books! She loves when you sit and read to her and she especially loves if she can get the corner of the book in her mouth. One could say she's really devouring books these days. Yuk yuk yuk yuk yuk.
-Milestone unlocked: TRIPLE SIBLING BATH!
-She's always been great about letting me put her down for self-play, but this month, we've seen her enjoy it even more. Probably helps that she's getting the hang of this rolling thing AND she can inch forward the teeeniest bit AND she's really into all the toys. Now please excuse me while I go re-baby-proof the whole house, k bye.
