Blake Olivia: 6 months

What's been happening this month:

• Night waking.  This has been exhausting and stressful.  I have been going back and forth about what to do.  My natural instinct says NO to crying it out.  I really want to be patient and see if I can gently guide her into better sleep patterns without crying.  I downloaded The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley to my Kindle and sacrificed even more sleep to read it.  I have started using her techniques and they are helping, slowly.  Sometimes it feels painfully slow but I think it is working a little bit.  I'm trying to stop stressing about this and accept it for what it is.  Going to bed at night can give you anxiety if all you think about is that fact that you will be up in an hour or two.  If you accept it, it's less stressful :)
• Blake is loving different textures and scratching her nails against everything. 
• She is distracted and curious about EVERYTHING.
• She turns to her name.
• She rolls from her tummy to her back as soon as I put her down.  She still really does not like being on her tummy.  I just keep putting her her back on her belly :)
• She loves playing with her toys and has definite preferences.
• She tries to hold the bottle when Grammie is feeding her.
• She is growing out of her clothes like crazy.  
• I finally had to cut her toenails.
• Doesn't love the Ergo like she used to.  I want to get better with my sling and see if she will switch to that.
• We are weaning off the swaddle, starting with unswaddling one arm.  More to come on this later.
• Even though the night wakings can be frustrating, those moments in the middle of the night are a special time for us.  We rock and sway and I smell that addicting baby head smell and I can almost feel the "mommy hormones" running through my brain.  I know this is just a short time in her life so I'm trying to enjoy every moment.