Jocelyn 5 and 6 months

My precious little girl is growing so fast!  I thought Charlie's first year went by fast but Jocelyn's is traveling at the speed of light.  In the craziness of moving I have gotten so far behind in blogging.  I feel like I am cheating Jocelyn of capturing and writing about all of her milestones.  I am harboring deep mother's guilt, but optimistic that I will catch up!

.  

Between months 5 and 6,  Kirby and I made the decision to get some help with Jocelyn's sleeping.  At about 3 months (around the same time we moved in with my parents), Jocelyn began taking only 45 minute naps and began waking twice to eat at night instead of just once.  Additionally she would wake two or three other times in the night.  Sometimes it was only five minutes and other times it was for a half an hour.  Always with tears and we knew she so desperately wanted to be sleeping still.

We signed up for a sleep plan through babysleepsite.com.  Let me just say that I am not a gimmick person!  I cruise past the kiosks in the mall selling junk (in my opinion).  I don't fall for the cheesy commercials selling you their miraculous products.   I cried and cried and cried before signing up for the sleep plan.  I felt like such a failure that I couldn't help my baby girl get the sleep she needed.  But after unsuccessfully trying numerous methods to help her sleep and reading countless articles about how important sleep is, I knew we needed help

 

This sleep plan was no joke!  I filled out pages and pages and pages of information about Jocelyn's routine (or lack there of).  One of the many suggestions we received was to begin feeding her some solids since she was still being exclusively breastfed.  So we started foods just two weeks earlier than we would have otherwise.  Let the fun begin!!

Soo excited to be in the high chair for the first time!

Rice cereal and for the most part she loved it.

We focused solely on night time sleep, as recommended.  The sleep plan made us mindful to so many things (nighttime routine, room temperature, having white noise, earlier bedtime, consistency in soothing her back to sleep etc. etc. etc.)

After 5 nights (some more painful than others) , she began sleeping through the night without even waking to eat and suddenly our baby girl was popping her head up with bright, warm smiles each morning.   And we were seeing more of them throughout the day as well.

After three weeks of following the sleep plan Jocelyn fell into a normal sleep routine for both nighttime and naps.  It has made a world of difference for all of us.

Sweet potatoes anyone?

Bananas... Not a fan!

There are no teeth or any sign of teeth coming soon so it looks like I will be mashing up foods for a while.

 It is an absolute rarity for my little love to fall asleep in my arms, but when it happens I cherish Every. Single. Second.  I look at her and think of all the fun we will have together.   I am amazed at how she has stolen my heart and as I give her whisper kisses I want nothing more than to keep her heart filled with love and joy.

This may be hard to understand, but now that Jocelyn is consistently getting the sleep she needs, it feels like I have a new little love on my hands.  She is full of smiles and  various expressions and giggles.  She has begun making sounds and we know it won't be long before she starts babbling.

She rolled over for the first time on February 6th, a moment we have been anxiously awaiting.  She is so in tune to everything going on around her.  We take lots of trips to the park and she smiles from ear to ear as she swings.

 

6 month stats
Weight: 15lbs. 5 oz.  70th percentile
Head: 16 inches 68th percentile
Length: 24 inches 40th percentile