Six Months - Yes, Really

Little Sprout is officially half a year old today!  Our sweet girl is amazing me every day with her newfound skills and happy spirit.

 This month, the girl decided to speed things up and mastered the art of sitting up independently, crawling, and pulling herself to a precarious standing position in her crib, all within the space of two weeks.  

 The siblings are starting to realize that they had better put away their stuff or baby sister might get a hold of it and destroy it!  Little Sprout loves demolishing pancakes, bread slices, crackers, and pretty much any food she can get her hands on.

 She has some favorite toys now - this IKEA bear being one of them.  She also has a yellow Toad (of Super Mario fame) that the Nerd gave her way back at Christmas.  She loves that thing - slobbery legs and arms are evidence of that.  Little Sprout is also becoming quite attached to a certain animal-print blanket.  Of course, it is a thick, fleecy blanket - so perfect for summertime.

This is the face of a definite mama's girl.  She loves her daddy and grandparents too, but if I am in the room, she wants me.  Unfortunately, breast feeding has become a bit of an issue this month.  She still loves nursing and hates bottles, but at the beginning of this past month, she decided she didn't like one of my breasts and chose to only nurse on one side.  I've tried hard to keep my milk supply up, but I can tell it is quickly diminishing.  I think it will soon be time to wean, but stubborn baby girl hates bottles and refuses to take them.  Anyone have any good ideas on going from breast to bottle?  My other kiddos never had any trouble with it, although this is the longest I have ever been able to nurse one of my children.  

Ah, my heart aches as I look at these pictures, knowing how fast they grow up!  I will try to hold fast to the moment today...

Five Months

Where does the time go?!  And why don't five months go by this fast when I am pregnant?!  Little Sprout has been growing like crazy, and I'm pretty sure I don't like it one bit!
So, what has the little lady been doing in her fifth month of life?  Well, she started eating "solids", much earlier than any of my other three did.  So far she has had the prerequisite rice cereal of course, carrots, bananas, pears, green beans, and peas.  She has also dabbled in whatever we are eating - pancakes, sandwiches, and mashed potatoes have been gnawed to mush by her toothless little mouth.  The kid loves to eat!
Physically, the girl is way ahead of schedule and scaring me just a little with her attempts to be mobile.  She can already get up on her hands and knees, rocking back and forth until she lurches forward.  I see crawling in the not-too-distant future.  It's crazy - she can't even sit up unassisted yet and still is practically mobile!  I love her little fat rolls - Little Sprout now weighs a solid 14.2 pounds.  Give her a couple more pounds and she will have doubled her birth weight.
Also, this past month we switched Little Sprout from 'sposies to cloth diapers.  She now sports a brightly-colored gDiaper wherever she goes, and I must say she looks awfully cute in them.  (She's got the red one on in the pictures).  We changed over to cloth for a variety of reasons, but mostly I am trying to save us some money.  The gDiapers make the transition much easier than I thought, and since I do laundry every day anyway, washing diapers is not a big deal.
Oh, and (knock on wood!) Little Sprout is finally starting to sleep for longer stretches of time at night.  In fact, the last three nights, she hasn't awakened until 4:00 am to feed - a feat that this very tired momma is so thankful for.  Let's hope it continues!
Happy Five Months, baby girl!