Today Grace is 6 months old! I can’t believe how much she has changed in just the last couple of weeks. We have to keep everything out of her reach because she is grabbing and swatting everything! She can roll from back to tummy and tummy to back and travels great distances in this way. I’m constantly reminding Eden and Andy not to leave anything small on the floor because it’s no longer out of Gracie’s reach. Sitting is old hat now, and the new challenge is pulling her knees up under her. Fortunately, she still doesn’t have the arm strength to support herself in a crawling position, but I know it won’t be long.

At her check up yesterday, Grace weighed 14 lbs, 4 oz and was 26 1/4 inches long. She dropped off her curve a little bit on weight, but she grew 2 1/4 inches in the past two months. She loves eating baby food and eats rice cereal for breakfast and baby food for lunch and dinner every day, on top of nursing. We’re using up the last of our 1st foods and are anxious for her to try the food blends in 2nd foods.

Grace goes to bed at 8pm, wakes up around 5:45 to eat and then goes back to sleep until around 7:30. Occasionally, she wakes up during the night for her paci. Normally she’s laying on top of it and just can’t find it herself. During the day she sleeps from 9-11, 1-3 and 5-6:30. We do our best to keep her on a schedule because it makes her much more pleasant!

Today, we went to the park and Gracie sat in a swing by herself for the first time. She’s still way to small to swing, but it gave me a chance to push Eden and Andy and she seemed quite happy to be doing what the big kids were doing. She spent most of her time watching them and laughing.

Well, I’m sure it’s hard to believe, but things aren’t slowing down at all around here! Grace is starting to sit up and is desperate to crawl. She pushes herself (face first) across the floor which has resulted in some bright red spots on her cheeks and forehead. She really wants to be involved in whatever Eden and Andy are doing and hates to be by herself for even a few minutes.

Gracie is doing really well with her baby food. She’s had peas, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, peaches, apples and pears and continues with the baby cereal for breakfast. She’s not a huge fan of the green beans, but seems to do alright with everything else. It is sometimes a little bit hard to feed her because she wants to pay attention to everything at the table EXCEPT her food.

We’ve regressed back to swaddling at nighttime. Now that Grace can roll over onto her stomach, she can’t sleep without the miracle blanket because she rolls onto her belly. The problem is that she hasn’t quite figured out how to turn her head to the side yet. She ends up with her face buried in the mattress, screaming, until someone comes to roll her over. Obviously, it’s much easier to just swaddle her and avoid this drama, so for now, she’s back under wraps.

Grace has been a good sport about all of our travels recently, although she doesn’t do very well sleeping in the same room as me. Fortunately, she likes her car seat and does great eating and sleeping in it while we drive.

Below is a picture I took and happened to catch her sitting up! She fell over after the flash, but looks very grown up in the picture. 🙂

Gracie is now 4 months old and she is so much fun! She loves to smile and squeal and demands your attention when she feels ignored. She is getting very good at sitting in her bumbo and recently started standing in her exersaucer. She’s just barely tall enough so she can’t stay in it for very long, but it is nice to have another place to put her during the day. Gracie had her four month check up last Wednesday. She weighs 12 lbs, 14 oz (she’s already doubled her birth weight!) and is 24 inches long. She got 4 shots and an oral vaccine and she barely cried after the shots, but the rest of the day was pretty rough. I was rewarded for putting up with her crankiness during the day though, because that night she slept 11 hours straight! It was a nice reminder of what the future will hold.

Grace had cereal for the first time last week and seemed to hate it the first couple of times, but is getting into the groove now. She is doing great in her own room and tonight she is sleeping without being swaddled for the first time.

Grace is now three months old and she is getting more fun every day. She likes to sit in her swing and go for rides in the stroller. She sleeps eight hours and then four hours at night and soon we will move her to her own room. She wakes up in the morning with lots of smiles and likes to join us at the table for breakfast.

Grace was a wonderful baby in Florida. She slept through the flights to Florida and was very patient about spending so much time in her car seat during our time at Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. She didn’t seem bothered by the heat and was able to go on a couple of rides at the Magic Kingdom. Gracie liked to sit by the pool and even got in a couple of times.

There are lots of coos and giggles coming from Grace these days. She gets excited and gasps occasionally and really likes to have “conversations” with us. I’m afraid that we might have another chatter-box on our hands. We were pardoned from our 3 month check-up with the doctor because we’re “experienced” parents so there isn’t a weight update, but Miss Grace is definitely getting heavy and has developed some chunky cheeks, as you can see below.

Grace is now 2 months old and is doing really well! She has pretty much recovered from the RSV and just has an occasional cough and nighttime stuffiness now. She still has the best nights when we steam her in the shower before bed. We are getting Grace into a good routine, which is good for all of us. She gets a bottle and goes to bed at 8 then eats before I go to bed, then she sleeps until 5am, then until 8am. We all feel better now that we’re getting more sleep.

Grace is awake a lot more during the day and smiles often. She looks for Ben when she hears his voice after work and when she saw him walk into the room today at the doctor’s office she gave him a HUGE smile! She loves to sit with Eden and listen to Eden tell her stories and she often “talks” back to Eden.

We had Gracie’s two month checkup today and she weighs 9 lbs, 10 oz and is 22 inches long as of today! She looks so big, but she is almost the exact same size that Andy was at 2 weeks. 🙂