6 months old

Wow, I can't believe this picture of Charlotte and her daddy was taken 6 months ago when she was just an hour old.  If the next 6 months go as quickly as the last she'll be 1 before I know it.

I struggle to remember exactly what Lucas was like at this stage (what he could do, where we were with weaning, etc) but maybe this is quite a good thing so there's not the temptation to compare them too much.  After all they are little individuals, doing things at their own pace and in their own special ways.

So what is Charlotte up to...

Sleeping

I really count my blessings where sleep is concerned with Charlotte.  She's been an amazing sleeper since she was born (well as long as you don't count her first two nights when she screamed the maternity ward of Aberdeen hospital down and even the midwives couldn't pacify her).  I still go to bed every night though thinking this is going to be the night she'll catch me off guard and be up at 3am.  Why is it that we do this to ourselves - worry about what might never happen??

She has her last feed around 8.30pm and by 9pm she's sound asleep in her cot, snoring her head off.  That's her usually until between 6.30-7am.  I'm hoping to start edging her bedtime back a bit so that her and Lucas have a similar one, around 7.30am.  Being completely selfish, I'm really looking forward to Mark and I getting our evenings back so we can spend time just the two of us, even if its just to catch-up or watch a new box-set together.

When it comes to naps during the day, Charlotte has never really been one for them.  The most she'll have is 20 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the afternoon.  This isn't every day and there are some days she doesn't nap at all.  These are the days when I literally feel like I get nothing done.

Eating/ feeding 

We started weaning Charlotte about 3 weeks ago and I'd forgotten just how messy it is, especially to start with, when they are exploring everything an getting to grips with their co-ordination.
Baby-led weaning is a completely new thing to me.  With Lucas it was just purees, purees, purees.  With Charlotte we've decided to do a bit of both so she still has some purees (either homemade or Ella's Kitchen pouches, depending on how organised I am and how busy our day is) but she has also been having finger food.  So far she loves bananas, avocado, cucumber and toast.  Its amazing to see how quickly she masters a new skill and 3 weeks in she's managing to eat more now than what lands on the floor or is smeared all over her face :)

I'm still breastfeeding her too.  After not managing to breastfeed Lucas I really wanted to give it another go second time round and when it was a success (as well as a struggle to begin with) I really wanted to be able to keep it up until she was 6 months old.  Now that I've reached this milestone I'm in no hurry to stop.  Sure it would be nice to have a little bit more freedom to be me and not just mummy, but Charlotte is so content in our little routine and I love the time especially in the evening when we're snuggled up together feeding, so I'm happy to keep going. It might be a different story however once her first tooth comes through.

Measurements:

It was Charlotte's 6 month check-up with the Health Visitor yesterday and I was desperate to find out what she weighed after not taking her for a while.

My petite princess now weighs 14lb 14oz and is 64.5cm long.

She is still in most of her 3-6 month clothes but I think by Christmas she'll be ready to move up to the next size and into some new super cute outfits.


Milestones

She's sitting up all by herself now and is getting more and more steady each day.  She has also started bouncing herself forward whenever she's sitting on someone's knee, a sure sign she's desperate to be on the move already.  I think seeing Lucas running about the place is all the motivation she needs to get moving, but second time round I know that life becomes that little bit more crazy once they're crawling, so I'm happy for her to just take her time.  Lucas took ages to crawl.  He was quite happy to just sit in one place and play.  I have a sneaky feeling though that Charlotte is going to be on the move a lot sooner.

She's now also recognises familiar faces and voices and gets really excited by them.  She gets especially excited when Mark walks in from work.  As soon as she hears his voice telling us he's home and see's his face at the living room door she starts shrieking and her arms and legs go wild.  I love this stage when they really start coming into their own and showing their personality.  She's definitely a lively little girl with such a sweet, smiley nature.

Happy 1/2 birthday my little Charlotte.  Its been a whirlwind 6 months which I wouldn't change for the world.

Eilidh

xx