Madeline's Monthly Message: Month 6

Dear Madeline,

You are 6 months old... you are half years old. Wow! Almost exactly a year ago today I was sitting down to a dinner of delicious dry, well-done steak (just how I like it), a baked potato, and a crisp salad with some bacon ranch dressing on it. My mouth began to water profusely. Not because I was hungry for the delicious meal before me, but because I was about to puke my guts out. It was the first time, at about 13 weeks along, I had ever puked during my pregnancy with you. It was one of the only two times I had that issue. A quote from my journal at that time the day following the event,

"I puked so hard that I felt as if someone was strangling me and forcing my throat up into my mouth. My eyes felt as if they were about to explode each time I heaved. When it was over, I even spit some blood out. Not a lot, just small traces. Something must have popped in the midst of all the pressure. This morning I woke up with broken blood vessels in my eyes and tons of tiny little blood dots around my eyes and along the bottom of my neck under my jaw. THAT is how much pressure I had. It was the most awful throw up I have ever experienced in my life. Needless to say, I did not eat my dinner. I feasted on some unsalted bland saltine crackers and water the rest of the night. I pray to God this never happens again."

I mention this to you because I want you to understand something... I would do it all over again. I would do it every day if I knew YOU would be the result. Thankfully, I only had to do it two times (Phew!), and both times were the same awful. Not every woman says it, but I have heard many mothers say that the pains of pregnancy are worth it. Until I went through it myself, I didn't really know what they were talking about. It got me thinking about all the other not-so-pleasant experiences I had during and shortly after my pregnancy with you. Honestly, I can hardly remember them! You were SO unbelievably worth it Mads.

This past month has been so amazing. You are changing drastically every day. Your 6 month check up is tomorrow where we will get the official measurements (height and weight) for your current size, but we weigh you by difference on our scale once in a while and the other day you were about 19.5 pounds. You are a chubby baby, but you are also very long. You don't look ridiculously overweight or anything. I'm really not concerned about it. I know you will grow into your weight when you start moving around more and walking. Your skin glows, your hair is growing, your eyes sparkle, and you are happy. You haven't been sick a day in your life... you are an extremely healthy baby!

We are still breastfeeding. I hope to be able to continue this until you are at least 1 year old... maybe a little longer. I don't want to be one of those mothers who is still nursing her child at age 8 though, sorry. I think even if you are a biter when you get teeth, I will still pump.

February 14th we introduced you to solids with your first meal of rice cereal mixed with breastmilk. You had been showing an interest in food for a couple weeks before that, but I wanted to wait a little while longer so you would be ready. We did rice cereal for about a week and then I bought some baby oatmeal for you to try. Since we started you've had the rice and oatmeal cereal, bananas, carrots, applesauce, and now prunes. This next week I plan to introduce you to sweet potatoes and avocado. I am making your food instead of buying it. I want you to get the best nutrition you can and I find comfort in knowing where the food you are eating is coming from. I'm happy that I have the time and oppertunity to make your food for you.

A strange new thing - you punch yourself in the eye over and over sometimes when you are breastfeeding. It's not extremely hard, but it's hard enough to make a sound and leave red marks on your face. It really bothers me, so could you stop it? You've always rubbed your eyes and sort of messed with your face when you eat, but this is just a little much. You love drinking out of cups so I regularly give you breast milk, and sometimes a small amount of water, in the colorful cups we have.

We're still working on getting you to sleep in your crib AND getting you to sleep through the night. It's not as bad as it sounds... you always start out in the crib. If you wake up, I will usually hold you, feed you, or bink you back to sleep and then it's back to the crib you go! But after the 3rd or 4th time, I get tired. So, I let you lay next to me in the bed. You're a smart little person... you know what you're doing. One night you started fussing and I picked you up and took you to the bed with me. I set you down for a minute in between me and your dad and you put one hand on your dad, one hand on me, did this HUGE smile, and nuzzled your cheek into the pillow and were out like a light. Sometimes you won't fuss at all. You'll just lay calmly in your crib whispering to yourself and scratching. You scratch everything. Sometimes I can hear a little "scratch, scratch" when you are laying in your crib and I know you're awake.

During your morning and afternoon naptimes you love to be swaddled. The really funny thing is you act like you don't like it, but when I start to wrap you in your blankie you get this huge smile on your face, while at the same time you are making this fake cry sound. It's quite amusing.

Along with scratching, you also have to touch everything, and of course, you are now trying to put everything in your mouth - your toes, your hands, my face, my arm, kitty, your clothes, your bib... etc. I actually have two hickies from you because once you get attached you have this full-force suck. We think you're teething because you drool like crazy and sometimes you go crazy trying to chew on whatever you can get in your mouth. Your little hands are so dry and sore sometimes. I try my best to keep them dry, lotioned and clean, but it's almost impossible. No teeth yet.

Tummy time is as fun as ever. You love to sit up. You're very good at sitting and rarely tip over now. I try to put you on your tummy to see if you will roll over or try to crawl. Sometimes you get so frustrated with not being able to move that your whole body moves and you accidentally roll over or almost get yourself up in crawl position. The other day you actually DID push yourself up with your arms and stayed in the "crawl" position for several seconds. It was the first time you have done that. Kitty has been a huge help with your progress in the area of movement because you want to get to her.

You love when we clap and say "Yay!". It makes you laugh. Lately, everything makes you laugh. You laugh at kitty, when we play peek-a-boo, you laugh at silly noises or grunting sounds we make... sometimes you laugh at nothing just because you feel happy.

You still talk all the time, but you have started whispering more. I think it's because your Dad whispers to you all the time. As long as we're writing about sounds, you also do this fast in and out breathing thing lately... all the time. Your dad and you also do what he calls "maximum velocity" where he makes rocket noises and throws you in the air. You scream and chortle like crazy, you love it so much. He also holds you like a guitar (ever since we got guitar hero) and fake plays you sometimes. You love to touch his face and feel the stubble from his 10:00 AM shadow (your dad shaves and his face is hairy again around 10:00 AM), and you still love when he gets home. You just stare at him and smile for several minutes and then lean toward him so he will pick you up.

You've started to notice kitty more. You always notice when she enters a room and you love to pet her (more like pull her hair and pinch her) whenever she is within reach. It doesn't matter what we were doing, everything stops so you can watch her. Kitty also makes you laugh. You love to watch her play with her toys and jump around. I was looking at my journal from when I was pregnant and found an interesting thing. Kitty, from the very beginning of my pregnancy, used to sit on my belly. At the time I wondered if she knew something and if she was keeping you warm or something. It is so fun for me now to see Kitty and you together. She sits wherever you are and tries to keep you warm by sitting on your legs or right by your side. I love that you and kitty have a sort of bond thing going on. Of course, if you keep grabbing her face like you do, that bond may quickly end.

You love to go outside on walks, and now that the weather is getting warmer we are doing this more and more. We found a park real close to our house the other day when out walking with our friends and I hope to spend more time there with you.

Also this month you experienced your first big snowstorm (the weather is kooky). We tried to let you touch it and play in it, but it was sort of windy and you had absolutely no interest in it at all. You fussed and cried and pulled this angry face the whole time, so it wasn't long before we were back inside. Next year we'll try again.

This month your dad and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I want you to know how much I love your Dad. Every year that goes by with him gets better and better. I hope when you are older you realize how blessed you are to have such an amazing father. He truly loves you with all of his heart.

Madeline, you've inspired me to achieve more, to try to accomplish more... because of you I am trying to be a better person. I'm enjoying every minute of my life more than I did before. I am loving those I love, harder, and cherrishing the blessings I have in my life more. Thank you for reminding me of what is important in life.

Love,
Momma