Norah- Six Months.

Norah is six months- half a year! She is growing and changing almost everyday! She is such a happy baby and is such a joy! We love having you around, Norah, and being your parents is one of our biggest blessings!

Norah started out the month with getting quite good at rolling over. She can roll consecutively and never is in the same spot you left her! She is gaining strength all the time. She loves to kick her legs, practice standing up, and is now sitting up all by herself (mostly) at the end of the month. Norah first sat up on April 12 on our bed. She can sit up better on softer surfaces than hard, like the couch or bed, for small increments. She is still practicing, but is off to a great start! She can’t yet go from laying down to sitting up, but she definitely tries!

Norah started sleeping through the night again at 22.5 weeks, which is great for all! She wakes up around 8:15-8:30 and eats. She usually takes a short morning nap and eats baby food at 11:30, and then nurses again around 1:30-2:00. She takes an afternoon nap, and nurses again around 5:30 and takes an evening nap. She eats baby food again before bed around 8:30, takes a bath, nurses, and goes to bed around 10:15. Her eating schedule is pretty consistent, but naps still vary a little. She usually takes 3-4 naps a day, about 45 minutes.

Norah’s eating was a big change this month! Norah started the month eating rice cereal twice a day, and at 22 weeks we started adding fruits and vegetables. She has had pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, and plums. Norah is a great eater and almost always eats all her food! She sometimes pulls a face like it’s sour, but will keep eating it. I usually mix the food with cereal to make it a little more bland. (Also, with eating solids, her BM’s have drastically changed! They are much more adult like, and you can definitely tell when she is going because she makes grunting noises and gets red in the face!)

A new trick Norah learned this month was spitting. and she responds to her name. Norah loves to grab onto toys and reach for them. She also loves grabbing zippers/jewelry, sucking her thumb, and grabbing her toes. Norah smiles a lot and is starting to laugh more. She enjoys reading books, going for stroller walks, rolling over, trying to sit up, splashing in the tub and playing with water toys, being held, and spitting. Her two bottom teeth have come in more, but doesn’t have any other ones yet.  Not much makes her upset, but she doesn’t like getting dressed or being alone.

Norah is getting better at going to other people, but still gets overwhelmed if too make people are around her at once. We brought Norah to the nursery for the first time at 25 weeks, and she did great! We worried that she would scream and it wouldn’t last long, but when we picked her up she was happy. Way to go, Norah! We also began teaching Norah sign language this month. She has yet to sign anything back, but that takes time. We are teaching her mommy, daddy, up, more, eat, milk, all done, bath, and thank you so far. It will be so great when she can sign what she wants back!

Norah, we are so glad you are here and that we get to be with you everyday! You definitely make the world brighter, and you are our sunshine (as we sing the song to you each night)! Happy half birthday- we love you!