Dear Lola- 6 Months

Dear Lola,

Six months already! You are growing so fast, little cutie. Suddenly you are doing all sorts of big baby things like napping less and sitting up all on your own! The day we got home from vacation I noticed you were doing two things I hadn't noticed before: chewing your toes and pushing up with your feet to get your tummy off the ground. I know you have big ideas about crawling. For now though you can get just about anywhere you want by rolling and scooting. It's just not nearly fast enough for you! The last few days you have gotten up on your hands and knees. I guess we will have to wait and see how long it takes for you to get moving :) You also do this funny thing where you balance on your head and your feet in a bridge pose. You are a little gymnast! You've tried lots of vegetables now and seem to like them all. I'm on the lookout for teeth but you haven't sprouted any yet. It's funny though because I have dreams about them all the time. Once I dreamed that I looked in your mouth and counted 40 teeth. All in one day, wow! :) Another time I dreamed that I looked and saw a bunch of teeth but they were all big and strange looking. You then popped out a pair of dentures and I said, "Lola, whose teeth did you steal?!" Lol. At your 6 month appointment we found out that you weigh 18 lbs 2 oz (87%) and are 27 inches long (90%)! Keep growing big and strong, baby girl.

Love you lots,
Mom

Lola Fern at 5 days old

My baby will be 6 months old in a few days. It's been a crazy half of a year. It's insane how much a baby changes in that short amount of time. And me? I'm different too. I'm learning to love being at home. I try to find joy everyday in doing the things that seem mundane. Being with this little angel everyday is priceless.

A few things I hope I never forget about Lola as a newborn:
She loved to be held and cuddled close. A few nights she even slept on daddy's chest.
She was born with perfect, unbelievably soft skin. In fact only the first picture is edited.
She was so sleepy and content. I don't remember hearing her cry once while we were in the hospital. Maybe a whimper if she was hungry. Phil bragged to my grandparents that she was the best baby that NEVER cries. Of course she eventually learned how to use her lungs to full capacity, but usually only if she was really hungry. And she sure loved to eat!
See her legs in the last picture? I know she must have done that a lot in the womb too. The labor & delivery nurse commented about her foot being bent from doing it. (It quickly straightened out.)
We loved bringing her home. I felt like I just knew how to take care of her, although I'm not saying those early weeks were easy. While pregnant I was constantly reading to know what was going on, but with a new baby I didn't feel panicked that I didn't know the perfect way to bathe her etc. like some books had me imagine I would.
It was such a surreal feeling to meet her and think "So here you are! You're the one who was in there." Yet, she seemed familiar too. It still amazes me that she grew inside of me. In fact it gets crazier as time goes by to imagine her in my belly!

These pictures were taken by my sister Kate just a couple of days after we got home from the hospital. Thanks Kate! She had never done newborn pictures before. Lola may look peaceful in these pictures, and she did sleep almost the whole time (when was she not sleeping back them?) but it was a lot of work! I was hovering over her the whole time in a robe holding a heater. Getting a sleeping baby into cute positions is difficult, all the while trying to keeping her little bum covered. Speaking of which she may have peed and pooped on every one of those cute blankets.