6 Months!

Happy Half Birthday, Gemma Lynn! You have brought us love and happiness beyond belief! We are so lucky to be your mommy and daddy!

The past month has been devoted to Gemma's sleep here at our house, and it is really starting to pay off! After our consultation with the sleep coach, we had a plan that involved Gemma being put into her crib awake for bedtimes and naps after a wind down routine. The first three nights and following days we sat in a chair right next to her crib. We then progressed to the middle of the room, to the doorway, then outside the door every three nights. The first night was kind of hard- it took an hour and a half for her to fall asleep, and there were tears, but I could comfort her and picked her up a couple of times. The second night was down to 45 minutes, and it got less and less ever since. Most nights we now put her down, leave the room, and she will protest and wiggle around for a couple of minutes, but she's almost always asleep within 10-15 minutes, often times less! And, a week ago she started consistently sleeping through the night without a feeding! She sleeps for around 12 hours at night now! Sometimes she stirs around 4:30 or 5 for awhile, but she puts herself back to sleep.

Naps have been a little slower to make progress. She almost always falls asleep within 20 minutes, and often times under 10. Unfortunately the naps sometimes only last 30 minutes, and she can be quite tired during the day. We are starting to get more days with longer naps, and yesterday was awesome. Her first nap was an hour, her second nap was an hour and 40 minutes, and she had a third nap of 30 minutes. Hopefully we'll start to see a little more consistency in the naps soon. I think back to where we were a month ago though, and what a change!

In the past few days Gemma rolled from her tummy to her back for the first time, and she has also discovered that she can make funny noises with her lips and tongue. She loves to play with her feet and chew on her toes. We have started to do more reading during tummy time, and Gemma often gets a big grin on her face when I read all the different books. She has started to notice our cat, Bubbles, and she watches her intently. In fact, Gemma watches everything intently! She doesn't like to miss a thing! She still loves her jumperoo and "flying" with daddy too.

Gemma has become a bit of a mommy's girl in the past few weeks as well, and some stranger anxiety is starting, especially with men. We had friends and family visit over the weekend, and her bottom lip came out and the tears started a bit a couple of times when she looked at a couple of the guys. When this happens, she only wants mommy!

We've started a few more foods- chicken, different vegetables. So far, so good! I bought Gemma a sippy cup, so we'll be trying that out soon too.

Gemma is such a fun little girl, and even with all the sleep changes she has been overall very happy and smiley. Here are some photos from the past month!














































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