6 Month Update

In celebration of Noelle's half birthday (6 whole months old!),

we went to the park and played

 on the slide

 ... in the gravel

 ... on the tire swing

 ... and the swings

We also went to the doctors.

Ellie is healthy and usually happy.  She's doing great.  She's 14lbs 2oz and a whooping 27in long (she jumped up to the 90% for height and jumped down to the 15% for weight... Zach says she's not growing anymore, just stretching out!)  I think it's official, we have a bean pole on our hands.

Ellie's just dying to get going.  She rolls around like it's her job and has started to push up onto her knees.  She loves to stand (with assistance) and to blow raspberries.  She's got two teeth and more are coming soon!

We also celebrated her half-birthday by....

Sleep Training!  

As per Dr's advice, we've started to "train" her to fall asleep on her own.  She sleeps through the night so that's not the issue (thank goodness) but until today, she had yet to fall asleep on her own without Zach or I marching her around the house endlessly, swaddled tightly, usually with the water running and the bathroom fan on.  It would take us about 1/2 an hour to put her to sleep (putting her down usually 4-5 times unsuccesfully before we could leave her in the crib)... and we have done this 5-6 times a day for the last 6 months.  Part of me is very happy that it's time to sleep train her.  The other part aches as she screams away in the crib until she falls asleep.

I know there are lots of approaches and opinions about sleep training, but because of Ellie's colic and temperment, we felt like the gradual approach would be confusing for her.  And if our first three attempts at sleep training are any indication of how this is going to work out, I think we're on the right track.  My baby put herself to sleep three times today without too many tears (at least not hours worth....), though it is much harder to let her cry than to get her and walk her around.  Oh well, I hear consistency is the key.  So... here we go!