Betsy: 5 & 6 Months

Since I’ve been keeping a daily diary of sorts I don’t have to remember everything about the last 2 months of our life with sweet baby Betsy, which is good because I couldn’t if I tried! Blogging daily (almost) has given me the ability to remember the day to day as I reflect back on the big picture. Let this be an encouragement to anyone going through hard times with their little one (and to me if we have more kids…), it really does get better. I’m not convinced that it ever gets to be easy and we will most likely encounter a rough spot at some point that winds up being harder than anything we’ve dealt with so far. But the good outweighs the bad. This explains why people have more kids. They forget, or at least don’t remember as clearly, the bad parts and fondly remember the good. I wouldn’t be around if my parents had stopped at 1, and Betsy wouldn’t be here if we’d decided those sleepless nights with Carson weren’t worth repeating. Of course no one wants sleepless nights, and no one wants to clean spit up and poop off of their clothes, and no one wants to have to find a babysitter every time they want to go out, and no one wants to have fewer relaxing vacations and quiet dinners. But people do it. Because the sweet moments with their kids are worth it. If any of you would kindly remind me that I wrote this the next time I start complaining about my lack of a life, that would be great.

We sleep trained Betsy last week! Well, we’re kind of still doing it. She’s a stubborn one. I wish I’d kept better track of her total hours of sleep per day over the last couple of weeks. I am sure it has increased by at least 3 hours, maybe more. I am again recommending this book, Sleepeasy Solution. It’s not magic. It’s common sense, and things that you probably already know. For example, don’t rock your baby to sleep every night, or she’ll always want to be rocked to sleep and she’ll never learn how to get herself to sleep without you. But when you have a “high need baby” you will do anything to get her to sleep, even if you know it’s not a long term solution, because you just want some peace. So the book gives some guidelines and helps with how to go about breaking the bad habits without going crazy, and without just letting your baby cry for an hour alone in their crib. We’ve had some good days and some bad days, but overall she is sleeping better and is happier.

On Wednesday we went to the doctor. Betsy had to get 3 shots and 1 oral vaccine. She has a little bit of a runny nose and I’m pretty sure her teeth are bugging her, so that afternoon was pretty tough. After a 20 minute nap and then fighting to go back down for 45 minutes, she slept for an hour. In fact, everyone in the house (including Ginger) slept during that time. I left the dirty dishes in the sink and I took a nap, and I didn’t feel the least bit of guilt about it! Getting everyone out of the house, waiting for the nurse, then for the doctor, then for the shots, and trying to keep both kids happy the whole time really wore me out. I was feeling exhausted on the drive home, and it was only 11am. Betsy sometimes takes a late nap, between 4:30 and 5, and it lasts 30-45 minutes. She did this yesterday. But this nap that started at 5:00 lasted until I went in to feed her at 11:30. And then she slept until 6 the next morning. I think the poor girl had had enough of life and needed a good recharge. She was a joy the next day.

Betsy weighs 15 pounds 13 ounces (47%) and is 26 inches “tall” (70%).

She is still in size 2 diapers. Her growth has slowed down and so we are still putting her in some 3-6 months clothes and some 6 months sizes. Most of her pants are 9 months. The 6 month ones seemed too tight on her belly and looked uncomfortable to me.

Betsy gets real food every evening for dinner. So far she has eaten plain rice cereal, sweet potato, mango and apple. She likes to eat, lunging at the spoon when I bring to toward her, but still isn’t great at the swallowing part.

She does not take a bottle. I kind of gave up on that after many attempts with breast milk, formula, and what felt like a dozen different types of bottles and nipples. It was just not worth the drama. And so now I am Betsy’s prisoner until we can get her used to a sippy cup. So far she just likes to hold it and chew on it.

We don’t have a good schedule. She wakes up between 5am and 7am. She take 3 or 4 naps a day, 45 minutes is typical, but sometimes she surprises us by going close to 2 hours. Bedtime is 7 at the latest, she usually can barely last until then. I give her a “dream feed” between 10 and 11. She usually goes right back to sleep, but a couple times we’ve have to let her cry for 5-10 minutes. She has pretty much stopped waking up in the night. We stopped swaddling her when we started sleep training. She sleeps with this lovely little barefoot dreams bunny blankie. I would like one for myself in an adult size.

She loves the bouncer.
She loves Carson and smiles just about every time she sees him.
She loves Ben and also gives him some huge smiles.
She chews on everything she can get her mouth on.
She babbles and squeals.
She gives great belly laughs when she’s tickled.
She blows raspberries, especially when she’s tired. She also rubs her eyes when she’s tired.
She likes bath time.
She still has a bald spot on the back of her head.
She rolls front to back and back to front. Often she will roll across the room if nothing gets in her way.
She helicopters around when she’s on her belly and will often travel all the way around.
She likes the Sophie. Carson couldn’t have cared less about the thing.