She's Half a Year Old: 6 month update

 (Sorry this is so late)

That's right everyone...MadeLynn Rose is half a year old! Oh goodness...! It has been a very fun and memorable month. I have to say that it is such a joy to watch her grow and at this age, she is really exploring her world. This has been my favorite month so far because so much growing has happened in this month. From teeth to talking and crawling, walking and sitting...so much has happened!

We began this month by starting a relaxed fitness plan. I really wanted to make a good effort every single day to get outside and be active. We began walking at least 4 miles a day, twice a week. I tried and tried to get MadeLynn to like riding in a stroller (I tried 3 kinds of strollers!) but she would rather be worn in the Ergo. This month we made the transition from the Moby Wrap to the Ergo which has be so nice. The Ergo is more convenient and easier to get on...but I do miss the snuggliness of the Moby. Perhaps I will get another wrap soon.

Still getting a few snuggles in the Ergo.

MadeLynn got a walker for her 5 month birthday and oh-my she absolutely loves it. At first she enjoy moving in it but as time went on and her legs grew stronger, she began not liking walking in the walker because once she gets going she doesn't like that feeling of moving. Such a silly girl.

She also started like the excersaucer. She finally got long enough to reach the ground and all the toys.

BIG NEWS, BIG NEWS, BIG NEWS...we have a crawler!

MadeLynn began crawling this month! It started off that she would just get up on all fours and sort of throw herself forward. Then it morphed into the Marine crawl and now she does a combo of both as well as the typical crawl. She is fully mobile now. She still does not like to sit, although she's been able to for about two months...she just refuses to do it...too much of the world to see!

At the end of September we had a very special visitor...Nana came!!!

We had all kinds of fun while my mother was here. I was absolutely spoiled. Every morning I was able to sleep in a bit, eat breakfast, shower, put on make-up and fix my hair. I only usually get a couple of those things done in the morning. While Nana was here we went shopping (Do you have enough glasses now Mom? haha) traveled to Kansas City and we also explored a bit of Illinois and went to an Amish town.

 While in Kansas City we got to take the most amazing picture...A four generation picture! My grandma, Helen, my mother, Veronica, me and little Miss MadeLynn. It's so amazing that we have four generations still living! MadeLynn enjoyed talking to her Great Grandma and really love listening to her sing...as well as hearing the whole family sing! MadeLynn did so wonderful traveling to Kansas City and playing with all my cousins kids.

This is the same rocking chair my mother sat on for her baby shower for me, the same chair I sat in for my baby shower for MadeLynn and now here I am, holding my little peanut.

LET'S GO KANSAS CITY CHIEFS!!!

We went to Arthur, Illinois to visit an Amish museum with Grandma Goebel, Aunt Steph and Nana. It was so much fun to have both sides of the family together. It's always such a blessing to be able to have both sides do things together.

 

While Nana was here we also played in the leaves for the first time...she did not like it. It could have been because it was close to nap time...but she was not having it.

*We also got thrush this month which is the the most annoying thing in the world because it was so hard to get rid of and MadeLynn will not let me give her any medicine. Thankfully it seems to be all cleared up now.*

And Nana watched MadeLynn so Jonathan and I could go on our first date together since having MadeLynn! We actually went to dinner twice...so two dates!

MadeLynn also started solids this month. While we have tried many things, green beans still are the top on the favorites list. She isn't a hug fan of baby food but that's ok because food before one is just for fun. We are still 100% breastfeeding...no pacifiers or bottles. We try to add baby food in once a day but usually I can only get a couple of bites in before she starts spitting it out.

MadeLynn can now pull herself to a standing. She is constantly amazing (and scaring us) by what she can do!

 ANOTHER BIG THING HAPPENED!!!

At 6.5 month, she had two more teeth pop out! Cannot believe my 6 month old has 4 teeth!

So here it is, the six month stats:

Height/Weight: She is 16 lbs 6 oz and 26.54 in long

Routine: (The routine hasn't changed since last month) She wakes up between 5am-7am. I usually feed her and see if she might go back to sleep. If she's not sleepy, then we go out to the living room to play and crawl around while Mommy gets coffee. At around 10am she takes one hour to two hour morning nap. Some morning we meet with a new mommy group and go on walks. Most mornings we try to get outside to get some fresh air. After a good morning nap we always try to have a good stretch of play time. After all that playing, she will then take a hour to two hour afternoon. Then Daddy comes home and they have a blast playing! She usually strikes up quite the conversation with Daddy and tells her all about her day. Bath time is between 7pm-8pm and she LOVES the water. She will now take a bath on her belly! She looks so cute playing with her toys in the bath. Then bedtime at 8:30pm

Sleeping: She has one 2 hour morning nap and one 2 hour afternoon nap. Some times she breaks those apart and has 4 one hour naps. At night, she has one long stretch of sleep any where between 5-9 hours (I count anything over 6 hours as sleeping through the night) and then she eats and usually goes right back to sleep for an hour to two hours. Typically she goes down at 9:00pm and wakes up at 5:00am for the morning and plays for 2 hours and then goes back down for a morning nap.

Eating/Feeding: Nowadays she eats about every three to four hours and still only eats from one breast at each feeding. She gets either a fruit or a vegetable (though she prefers vegetable) of baby food once a day. It is usually only a couple bites because she's really not all that interested right now.

Sizes: Size 4 diapers and 9 month clothes.She even wears shoes now!

Milestones: She can crawl, pull herself to a standing position and say mama, dada, "brawl" "wow" and "ouch"...she can't say the words in quotations too well but that's what the things she is saying sound like. Oh and yes, our little six month old has 4 teeth!!!

5 month update

"Look out world, I'm 5 months old!"

Wow, I cannot even believe that my sweet little baby is 5 months old already...that's one month shy of half a year old! That saying is so true, "They grow up so quickly." And it is really hard to really fully appreciate every moment. Life gets so busy and I find myself constantly thinking "When did she get all that hair?" or "When did she learn how to do that?" Life really does happen in the blink of an eye.

At the beginning of this month MadeLynn started propping herself up on all fours. I couldn't believe what I was seeing the first time I saw her do it!  (This is from the day she learned how to do it)

MadeLynn has become a really good napper. She usually takes a 1-2 hour nap twice a day. I love that I can count on that time to get things done and that she has such a good stretch of sleep. She usually wakes so happy and alert.

She can't quite sit up on her own but really it's because she doesn't want to. She just wants to be on the go-go-go! Whenever I sit her up, she leans forward towards her feet or a nearby toy. This picture is the only proof I have this she IS capable of doing it...she just doesn't want to.

This has been another really fun month. Jonathan finally finished summer school (yay babe, so proud of you!) and on his week off we drove with his family all the way to Michigan. This was my second time there and I had such an amazing time last year, I was very eager to take MadeLynn there. We had such a blast and MadeLynn finally got use to being around all her crazy boy cousins. At the begining of the trip she would cry everytime someone else cried but by the end of the trip nothing phased her. She did fabulous!
She went on a swing for the first time and loved it...I even pushed her super high and she just smiled and smiled!

These two are about a month and a half apart and it's crazy to look at MadeLynn and she how much babies learn in just two months.

On this trip, MadeLynn started liking her pacifier. She has always hated it but now she likes using it which made it very easy to travel in the car with her.

On this trip MadeLynn and I got to experience a few firsts. She had her first picnic...

Her first swim in a lake (and she absolute loved it!)...

She went deep in the water with me and her and I had the freezing cold lake water all the way up to our chest! We just wanted to be close to Daddy as he and Uncle Brandon played with cousin Ethan in the water.

MadeLynn had a lot of fun playing with all of her cousins. I think she is finally use to all the noise they create.

 But the biggest thing that happened while in Michigan was that I left my little baby girl for THE ENTIRE DAY to go on a sibling bonding day on Mackinac Island which was completely sponsored by my in-laws. I was a nervous, anxious mess but I am glad we took the opportunity to allow other people to watch her so we could have a great day that was kid-free. (Still, I won't be doing that anytime soon...or ever again lol...I just missed her so much but I am proud that I actually did it and was able to have so much fun).
Here we are right before I left her for the day.

And here she is completely and totally fine without me...although she only ate about 8oz of the 20oz I had spent two days painstakingly pumped for her. She absolutely hates the bottle. She sees it as more of a toy so when it's time to eat she just gets frustrated that no one would give her to Mommy.

 

And here we all are 100% kid free about to board the ferry to Mackinac Island!

 

But the biggest most amazing this that has happened this month is that my little itty-bitty baby girl already has not one but two teeth! At 4 1/2 months old my little peanut has two teeth!!!

Here is when the first tooth started breaking through.

 Here is a few days later...

And here they are a few days after that with BOTH teeth finally broke through.

As you can see...she is NOT enjoying the whole teeth-breaking-through process. She has been quite whiny and irritable these past couple of weeks but it has meant more cuddly nursing for me...which I totally love!

And last but not least...here are her 5 month stats...

Height/Weight: She is 16 lbs and 27 in long

Routine: She wakes up between 5am-7am. I usually feed her and see if she might go back to sleep. If she's not sleepy, then I put her back in her crib to play with a toy and watch her fish tank music toy until 7am. (I am in the process of trying to change her wake up time to 7am). At around 9am she takes one hour to two hour morning nap. To get her to fall asleep, we usually take a walk to kind of relax her and get some fresh air. She loves being in her Moby wrap during that time. After she wakes up, we get dressed and she plays. She loves toys now. She will get up on all fours and try to throw herself at a toy...but mostly she tries to superman towards them and then get frustrated because she's not going anywhere. After all that playing, she will then take a hour to two hour afternoon. Then Daddy comes home and they have a blast playing! She usually strikes up quite the conversation with Daddy and tells her all about her day. Bath time is between 7pm-8pm and she LOVES the water. Then she get fed and goes to sleep between 8pm-9pm. But since we got back from Michigan it has been more like 9:30-10:00.

Sleeping: She has one 2 hour morning nap and one 2 hour afternoon nap. Some times she breaks those apart and has 4 one hour naps. At night, she has one long stretch of sleep any where between 5-9 hours (I count anything over 6 hours as sleeping through the night) and then she eats and usually goes right back to sleep for an hour to two hours. Typically she goes down at 9:00pm and wakes up at 5:00am for the morning and plays for 2 hours and then goes back down for a morning nap.

Eating/Feeding: Nowadays she eats about every three to four hours and still only eats from one breast at each feeding. She is still exclusively breastfed.

Sizes: Size 3 diapers and 9 month clothes. But 6-9 month clothes fit her the best.

Milestones: This month she learned how to get up on all fours and throw herself forward, she also learned how to say "Dada", "Baba" and grunt!. But the biggest milestone has to be that she now has two bottom teeth!

4 month update

 

MadeLynn's Four Month Update

Hello everyone! Miss MadeLynn Rose is now 4 months old! She has changed SO much in this month and July has been very busy for the Goebel household. These pictures are from our trip to Kansas City which we took the beginning of July. It was about a six hour drive from our house to there and let me tell you, it was a very miserable drive. We thought it would be a good idea to travel at night since we figured that MadeLynn would probably just sleep the whole time. No...she did not.  MadeLynn hates her car seat. She gets too hot in it and only lasts about 15 minutes. So that was a miserable drive. But the trip was so much fun. We got to show off MadeLynn!

But the best part about the trip is that MadeLynn got to meet her Aunt Megan!

So much fun with family!

I had not seen my sister in about two years so it was wonderful to get to spend time with her. It wasn't a very long visit but it was fun catching up a bit.

And of course, Nana was in Heaven! Jonathan and I even got to go on our first date since delivery without MadeLynn (we got our hair cut and ate lunch at Chick-fil-a). Nana watched her for us.

Aunt Megan got MadeLynn her first tutu and boy did that look adorable!

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In Kansas City, MadeLynn rolled over for the first time (belly to back). She also slept through the night the entire time we were there.

But once we got home, it was a whole other story! MadeLynn was going through a growth spurt and excited about rolling over so she never slept! She was waking up every one to two hours at night. July was a rough month. But the good part about it was that she was becoming a whole new baby! She could roll on her own, play with toys and her absolute favorite...she found her hands! She loves to stick her fingers in her mouth.

Now that she's always putting things in her mouth she is constantly drooling. She must always have a bib on in order to save her outfits. 

Not only do we need bibs for drool, we also need it for spit up.

We can finally use all of MadeLynn's fun toys. She loves her exersaucer and jolly jumper.
She also really started to enjoy tummy time!

 

Jonathan is currently is summer school so MadeLynn and I spend a lot of time as just the two of us. We go on lots of walks. She loves to be in the Moby wrap still...we use it everyday.

MadeLynn can now entertain herself more so we actually get to go out on dates. It's fun when Mommy gets to glam up and go out.

Also, my wedding ring now fits!!

July was a special month because Nana and Papa got to see MadeLynn twice!! My father had business in Chicago so they made it a special trip to come see us as well.

It was such a fun visit. I got to sleep in every day while Nana got some quality time with MadeLynn and my parents helped to clean, organize and get things fixed around the apartment. I feel so blessed that my parents were able to come and spend some special time with MadeLynn.

We also got to take some really amazing pictures of MadeLynn. I can't believe how quickly she's growing! I feel like I need to take pictures everyday because she changes a little each day.

I also try to get a family shot every month. It's so important for me to document life though pictures.

  Well now, here's the fun part...the growth!

 

Height/Weight: She is 14 lbs 11 oz and 25.25 in long

Routine: She wakes up between 5am-7am. I usually feed her and see if she might go back to sleep. If she doesn't then we head to mommy and daddy's bed to wake up daddy and get some cuddle time in before he has to go to school. Once cuddles are out, we head out to the living room where MadeLynn gets to play in her swing and Mommy get's her coffee and news time. She then takes one hour to two hour morning nap. To get her to fall asleep, we usually take a walk to kind of relax her and get some fresh air. She loves being in her Moby wrap during that time. After she wakes up, we get dressed and she plays. She is a rolling machine now so she's always on the floor trying new things and exploring her world. After all that playing, she will then take a hour to two hour afternoon. Then Daddy comes home and they have a blast playing! She usually strikes up quite the conversation with Daddy and tells her all about her day. Bath time is between 7pm-8pm and she LOVES the water. Then she get fed and goes to sleep between 8pm-9pm.

Sleeping: She has one 2 hour morning nap and one 2 hour afternoon nap. Some times she breaks those apart and has 4 one hour naps. At night, she has one long stretch of sleep any where between 5-9 hours (I count anything over 6 hours as sleeping through the night) and then she eats and usually goes right back to sleep for an hour to two hours.

Eating/Feeding: Nowadays she eats about every three hours.

Sizes: Size 3 diapers and 6-9 month clothes. But 6 month clothes fit her the best.

Milestones: She can carry on babbling conversations. Roll from belly to back and back to belly. She can sit up with help, she can scoot and she is always giggling! She is always so happy!

I cannot believe all the new things she has learned this month. She is really reaching out and grabbing things. All things end up in her mouth but it is so cool to see her explore.

She's even starting to try to crawl. She'll pull up her knee's like this and then throw herself forward.

So, what about me 4 months postpartum?

I am feeling great! I am finally back down to my pre-pregnancy weight but since I was over weight before I got pregant, I still have a long ways to go before I am where I really want to be.

I am making sure I get out everyday to go on a walk with MadeLynn and I think that helped get the last 10lbs of pregnancy weight off.

In other news, I started my period June 27. I thought it would be months and months before I would see that stupid cycle...but no, I am not like most women, I get to see Aunt Flow early...boo hoo.

Motherhood is amazing! I tell MadeLynn everyday that I can't believe I get to keep her forever. She is just such a precious gift to me. I love every day, even the hard ones.