Hailey is 6 months old

Its been crazy around here, but I am finally getting to my "Hailey is 6 months old" post.  Geesh!

My sweet baby girl went in for her check up on the 19th and she no longer has her ear infections at that point, right on schedule.  She weighs 14 pounds, 9.5 ounces (25th percentile - I need to get her to eat more I think since she was at the 50th percentile until now).  She is 26inches (50th - 75th percentile). Her head is 17.25 inches (75-90th percentile). 

She got 4 shots and an oral vaccine that day and was amazing - she let out on big cry and then when i picked her up she pretty much calmed right down.  Noah on the other hand had to get one vaccine booster and cried before he even got the shot, in anticipation.  Poor guy!  He didn't cry for too long this time though, but oh I felt so bad for him. 

So Hailey is now getting up on all fours, in crawl position very easily (a skilled she picked up over the weekend before she turned 6 months).  She can sit up by herself, but doesnt maintainherself very upright.  She moves backwards in her attempts to go forward and rolls well.

She started babbling and kinda seemed to be imitating sounds - now, a few weeks later, she babbles for sure.  Her first babble seemed to be Yia Yia.  :)

She laughs when you tickle her, she laughs at Noah, she laughs in delight sometimes just when I talk to her.  She reacts to her name sometimes.  She likes to hold my hand and grab my nose.

Since she right around turning 6 months, she has been waking up crying - for no reason.  Sadly it is happening more and more.  I can calm her very easily by picking her up, daddy cant though - takes him a lot longer.  I also learned that I can even turn her over on her back and hold her hand or rub her belly and that calms her, and sometimes the paci.  I am a little concerned that she needs me though... she doesn't get self-calming at all yet... I have tried waiting her out but she jsut cries and cries.  The doc said at our appointment that it is important for baby to learn to self soothe... but I remember with Noah I couldn't stand 5 ninutes of him crying before I would go in and help him out.  We'll figure it out.  As soon as she figured out how to roll over, she started sleeping on her belly.  Now she will sleep on her belly, side or back.

She mouths everything and seems to be teething (I wonder if that has anything to do with her waking in the middle of the night, too). 

It is time to start her on solids.  I started her on sweet potato after we saw the doc and she likes it.  She had carrots today and also liked those.  It's so fun to watch her figure out how to use her tongue.  She is getting good at it.  I am giving her a sippy cup with each meal to get her going wiht that as well and tried going up to a faster release nipple on her bottle to see if that will help her eat more - seems to be helping, but she is still figuring out how to deal witht he faster flow of milk.  Doc says the goal is no purees by 9 months and to start her on finger foods like cheerioes at 71/2 to 8 months. 

This month, Hailey got her nasty cold with double ear infections.  She went around Green Lake with all the luminaries.  We baked cookies with Wendy.  She met Santa's reindeer and Santa.  We went to the Mill Creek Santa parade.  We picked out our xmas tree and decorated it.  And she celebrated her first Thanksgiving!