Gabriella is 5&6 months old!
The two months are combined this time because we’ve had so
much sickness going around our family for the last few months. We’re finally all doing better (and Gabby is
actually 7 months now, but I will try to keep these accurate for 5-6
months).
They sure do look alike!
Weight: 14
lbs., 6 oz. at 5 months. 16 lbs. at 6
months! She lost some weight around 5
months because of being sick.
Length: No
length for 5 months. 26” at 6 months!
Head Circumference:
Nothing for 5 months. 17” for 6 months.
Diaper Size:
She’s wearing size 2 now. I think we’re
going to start doing size 3 overnights soon.
Such a happy girl! <3
Clothing Size:
She is wearing 6 months, but I’ll need to pack them up before she hits 7
months. Lots of her 6 month things are
too tight around now that she’s actually 6 months old :)
Nicknames:
No changes here - She is called Gabby most often, along with variations. I call her Gabby Girl a lot. Pete calls her Gabby Goo. And Caleb calls her baby or Abby (ah-bee) :)
Her first New Year's Eve/Day!
Health: She
has had a lot of sickness the last couple of months :( The whole family got the
stomach bug in the beginning of January and Gabby managed to avoid that (yay
nursing!). Shortly after that, she got
RSV, which caused an upper respiratory infection and bronchiolitis. Those were some difficult weeks – Gabby &
I never went to church in January and Pete & Caleb only went once. She was supposed to be dedicated, but we had
to cancel because we didn’t want to risk spreading RSV (and Gabby sure didn’t
feel like going out anyway). She lost
some weight during that time. It’s hard
to remember the exact timeline – Gabby has had ear infections a couple times in
January and February. Once was one ear
and once was both ears. One of those
times was the second dedication date, which was again cancelled. It’s been an odd start to the year for us!
Her first Valentine's Day!
Sleep: For
a while, Gabriella was only getting up once in the night. But once RSV started, then she started
getting up really often. Her sleep has
been totally unpredictable and all over the place since then. Right before she hit 6 months, she slept
completely through the night one time, 12+ hours! But that didn’t become a new
pattern :) She’s usually up around 2 times/night. She’s pretty consistent with 1 morning nap
and 1 afternoon nap. She sometimes tries
to sneak in a 3rd nap close to dinner time, but I try to make her
hold out because then she can go to bed around 7-7:30.
Diet: She’s
just nursing still. I think she’ll start
solids between 6-7 months. She’s
generally nursing 6 or 7 times a day still, occasionally more or less, but
usually around there.
Month 5 Loves:
She LOVES her family! She gives all 3 of us great smiles and definitely
recognizes us. It’s fun to see when
she’ll recognize a grandparent too!
She likes her exersaucer.
I kept meaning to have Pete get it out.
We finally got it and it really helps when we’re eating dinner and
trying to keep her awake and occupied :)
She likes crinkly books.
I try to always keep one in the diaper bag for her now. She basically scrunches it up and shoves it
in her mouth!
Month 5 Dislikes:
She still HATES baths. I’ve been giving
her sponge baths so that she doesn’t cry as much.
She doesn’t like being sick.
Her personality seemed so different in January (and some of February,
month 6) because she’s just had so much sickness. It’s sad!
I can't believe how much she's grown!
Month 6 Loves:
She loves rolling. She pretty much rolls over as soon as she’s set down now :)
No more leaving her alone unless she’s on the floor!
She loves the toy turtle that she got for Christmas from
Uncle Dave & Aunt Rachel! We’ve been practicing sitting up and this helps
keep her attention while she’s sitting.
She loves tickles! You can always get her to laugh a lot by
tickling her neck or legs :)
Month 6 Dislikes:
She doesn’t like being alone. If I leave her in the living room while I run to
the bathroom or to the kitchen or something, she starts crying and yelling
right away!
She does NOT like the NoseFrida! She screams through us using it on her, just
like Caleb used to… But it’s so helpful!
She's so active now!
It's hard to get her to sit still for a picture
Milestones:
She seems to be teething, but she hasn’t gotten any teeth yet.
She’s continued to roll both ways, but it just doesn’t seem
like she’s super interested in it.
She’s starting to sit up, but still needs assistance (at 6
months). She does love practicing
sitting up – much more settled than if she’s sitting down.
She also tries to stand, by holding onto our hands. She isn’t actually pulling herself up yet,
but she definitely likes to try to do it with our help!
By 5 months, Gabby was giving kisses! So sweet. Then around 6 months, she started grabbing my
face to pull it in for a kiss :) I love her affection!
Caleb at 4 months and Gabby at 5.5 months :)
Baby Gear Love:
We still love the Fisher Price Rock &
Play, the Boppy, the SwaddleMe, our swing, and the Tula. We are working towards switching
her into her crib, which will eliminate the SwaddleMe
and the Rock & Play.
She likes our exersaucer, Bright Starts Springin’ Safari Bounce-A-Round. It’s the same one we
had for Caleb. She also likes the Bumbo because it helps with sitting up!
One last thing that we are loving right now is our NoseFrida! Like I said above, Gabbydoes not like it at
all, but this nasal aspirator works SO much better than those bulbs!
This is how our photo shoots go these days...
Random Thoughts
and Mama Update combined: Like I said up above, this has been a really
rough couple of months for our family.
Caleb got a stomach bug between Christmas and New Year’s weekend. Pete and I both got it on New Year’s
Eve. Gabby stayed healthy through
that. Caleb had to stick to a bland diet
for several weeks because his stomach would reject “real” food every time he
tried it.
After that, I had a very odd thing that was ultimately
diagnosed as a spontaneous cerebral spinal fluid leak. I had clear fluid pouring out of my nose for
no obvious reason. That night I got an
awful headache, which continued for several weeks. I haven’t been able to exercise.
I haven’t been able to go to church. It’s finally now (around 6-7 weeks after
it happened) starting to ease up. I’ve
been able to go to church a couple of times in February.
Gabby had RSV. Both of the kids had multiple ear infections.
Pete, Caleb, and I had sinus infections.
All 4 of us were on antibiotics at one point. It’s just really been an usual season for us
and we’re hopefully coming out of it now.
This was the day after the leak happened.
I had an awful headache this night.
I didn't know at the time that it would continue for several weeks!
I haven’t been able to exercise or anything, so I’m not sure
where I’m at with weight. It’s really
frustrating to not be able to do anything right now, but I know it won’t last
forever. My mom has been a huge help
with Caleb. She’s been taking him to the
Y every morning and keeping him through lunch so that I can basically just lay
on the couch. Any time I get up and
start doing things, I get a horrible headache.
It seems like the leak caused the initial headache, but now my body is
having a hard time recovering from that.
A lot of the stories I read said that it can take around 6 weeks to
recover from the leak headache. I’m
right around 6 weeks and finally feeling like I can see the light at the end of
the tunnel. It’s certainly not done, but
I’ve been able to get off the couch some!
My phrase coming into 2017 was “Choose JOY!” and I’ve had
lots of opportunities to practice that already, but they certainly haven’t been
what I expected :) I’m looking forward to watching Gabby continue to grow and
learn new things… And hopefully I’ll be back to regular life any day now.
