24 February 2012, by Tan Yi Lin
Six Months!
I can hardly believe it:
WE HAVE BEEN PARENTS FOR HALF A YEAR!
Coco turned six months old on 22 February. We took a quick walk down memory lane (or rather, a quick scroll through iPhoto) to recap how our little family of three has been doing for the past six months.
At the Beginning
Coco entered our world. And turned it upside down.
Day 0: Just a few hours old
1 Month
Every day felt longer than 24 hours but somehow, we made it through the longest month EVER.
Coco finally turned one month old!
Little Dannie with a pink hair accessory
2 Months
Coco really packed on the kilos and soon, I found myself storing away the newborn clothes that she had outgrown.
Outgrowing her PJs and suffering a bad bout of milk rash
3 Months
Coco hit a growth spurt and turned into a milk monster. She started sleeping through the night somewhere during her third month (hooray!) Unfortunately, this blissful period didn’t last very long before she hit her next growth spurt and started waking up for late night feeds again.
Looking all grown-up with her new bolsters
4 Months
All that feeding made her nice and strong and soon, she was enjoying looking at life from a different angle.
Heads up!
She also got the hang of sitting up with some assistance from the Bumbo and celebrated her first Christmas too!
Sitting pretty for her first Christmas picture
5 Months
In her fifth month, this little Miss was getting quite bossy and showed a strong preference for wanting things her way. Like lounging on OUR bed and staying up late beyond her 9.30pm bedtime.
Celebrating turning 5 months with a late-night episode of The Clone Wars
6 Months
The sixth month was pretty amazing. Coco suddenly gained a lot more control over her body and physical movements and could do a lot more fun stuff with us.
Check out all the new things we did during this month!
We went swimming in the big pool at the club. We were worried that she wouldn’t be used to the colder-than-usual temperatures (unlike the warm water tubs at Babyspa) and would bawl her head off in the pool.
But she didn’t! We were surprised, amazed, relieved and glad that our little girl loved one of our favourite leisure activities – swimming, right down to being hosed down in the shower stall (instead of being bathed in her usual baby bath tub.) We’ve got another water baby in da’ house!
So, Coco, when do you want to start scuba diving? Hmmm?
The start of a weekend routine
Water baby in da'pool! Fast turning into a brown little Coco bean under the sun.
Reeeeelaaaaax!
Just this week, Coco mastered the art of balancing and holding herself upright while sitting. It’s a lot easier to play with her when you don’t have one hand glued to her all the time to support her and when she’s not toppling over onto her side! When she flaps her hands around excitedly, she reminds me of a baby bird learning how to fly. Cute.
Good morning world!
My little fledgling going hands-free!
She has also graduated from having her meals in the Bumbo to eating with everybody else at the dining table in her new IKEA high chair.
In addition to baby cereal, she has shown a great interest in the food that WE eat and has gotten her little gums on a rather wide repertoire of food even before turning six months old: carrot (from MY soup, mashed with a fork), potato (again from MY soup, also mashed with a fork), tofu (from MY dinner plate), the bun from MY McChicken burger and two licks of DAN’s soft serve ice-cream.
We have also given her fruit pieces to gnaw on, including apple, pear, cherry and even longan (the latter held firmly in my fingers while she sucked the juice from it.) The only food that she has shown a distinct dislike for are bananas. Twice. (Who doesn’t like bananas?!)
Check out those sausage links... on her arm!
Ummmm!
She is now part of the evening gang at the neighbourhood playground. Apparently the other kids announce her arrival with “Baby lai le! Baby lai le!” (“Baby’s here!” in Mandarin) They laugh and say that she’s “So small! So cute!”, “Smaller than the basketball!”. She’s thinks she’s one of them though and signals to us to swish her down the slide and push her on the swing.
Every evening as we drive into the estate, we look out for her at the playground and join her for an evening play session.
Ok, I'll admit it. I love the swing as much as she does. Maybe more.
Shopping is really fun now because we can wheel her around in the shopping cart.
Shopping hand in hand at IKEA
She also commanded her first digital battle on the PS3…. KIDDING!
Father & Daughter. Same same.
And outgrew even more clothes.
For now, too-low pants are still amusing. For now.
Unfortunately, life isn’t always a party and Coco experienced some not-too-fun stuff too in her sixth month: getting jabbed simultaneously on each thigh. Once for pneumococcal and another for the 6-in-1 vaccine. But she was quickly appeased when offered baby biscuit, which she sulkily accepted and gnawed on angrily.
"And they think that a lousy biscuit will make up for two jabs in the thigh. They didn't even give me the whole thing. Pffft."
Oh and she has started sleeping through the night again *cross fingers*
We have come a long way from those early days when we were at our wits end, fumbling with diapers, not knowing how to bathe a fragile newborn and fretting over gas problems. At that time, it was hard to believe people when they said that things would get easier – and better. But they did.
We are a picture of confidence now when we bring our daughter out on the MRT, to the pool, to dine in restaurant, etc. Of course, there are still the crying episodes and fussy behaviour to handle, but we know that we can handle them without having to rely on the more experienced hands of our parents to soothe her (and are even better than our parents at times because Coco wants us! *beam*)
Happy Six Months, Coco Monster! We love you LOTS!
9 Comments
Yi Lin
May 8th, 2012 at 6:46 am
Hi Angela,
Thanks for leaving a note.
You know what’s the best thing about motherhood? How it erases your memory of all things bad and gives you selective amnesia – or mumnesia.
The tiring nightfeeding routine seems like a huge blur now. Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately), I can’t remember exactly when Coco started sleeping through the night again after the 3rd month growth spurt. It definitely took a few nights – maybe a couple of weeks. I remember that I had returned to work by then (after 3 months) and I couldn’t spare the energy to rock her to sleep, so I would just cave in and feed her, so that we could all go back to sleep.
But the good thing about Coco is that she readily accepts the pacifier, so if she falls back asleep with it, then I know she didn’t wake due to hunger. But if the pacifier didn’t work, then I would have to feed her.
I know this nightfeeding phase may seem endless for now, but the end IS in sight. The best advice I can give is to be patient and ride it out – your baby will adjust in time to sleeping through the night again. A few months down the road, you won’t even be able to remember what nightfeeds feel like!
What time is your baby’s last feed? Up to the time before we started evening solids at about 5 months plus, we fed Coco at 8pm before she slept. Then again at 12 midnight. And that helped her sleep through till about 7am.
Once she started with cereal/porridge for dinner at 6.30pm, we stretched her last milk feed to 9pm just before bedtime. And no more feeds till 7am the next morning.
Good luck!
Angela
May 8th, 2012 at 3:21 am
Hi there interesting blog. You mentioned that your baby gal slept through the night in her third month but the growth spurt affected the sleep through. After the growth spurt stage, did she sleep through the night again? My three month old baby boy slept through the night for a week but when he hit the three month growth spurt mark, he woke up for night feeds again..
Celine
March 7th, 2012 at 10:49 pm
What an amazing six months you and Dan have gone through 😉 You have taken parenthood to a whole new level. I can’t wait to read your next six!
Yi Lin
March 5th, 2012 at 3:02 pm
Hey Jolene! Thank you! I just caught up on your latest posts and Scarlett looks messily cute… or cutely messy with all that orange pumpkin goo around her mouth. Hah. Glad she’s taking well to solids and that you’re taking well to being back at work 🙂 Well done!
Jolene
March 3rd, 2012 at 3:35 am
Happy 6 months Coco!!!!!! Wow look how she’s grown! The hair!! My oh my! Scarlett is still quite botak! Its great seeing them change isn’t it? Well done mummy Y for coming so far! Coco looks absolutely adorable!! 🙂
Yi Lin
March 2nd, 2012 at 3:15 am
Hey rach,
Thanks for highlighting the safety concerns re the IKEA high chair. Yes, I saw the newspaper informing customers of the recall of affected ANTILOP high chairs and have checked the production date and batch number for Coco’s. Thankfully, it’s not within the affected batch. I’ve also checked the belt buckle and it’s really tight and secure.
Thank you for alerting us nevertheless 🙂 Much appreciated!
Yi Lin
February 27th, 2012 at 2:56 pm
Haha, Alex – got my face shape means her face is ROUND lah! Cute huh. Yups, that’s the best swing in the neighbourhood – lie on it like a hammock and look up at the trees. Coco loves it. Just hope the birds don’t poop on her – which they already did.
rach
February 27th, 2012 at 5:44 am
hey, u might want to chk the ikea high chair. i rem seeing that it is being recalled for safety reasons, not sure abt the exact model (is there more than 1 model of that white high chair?) though.
Alex
February 27th, 2012 at 12:35 am
Oh, Coco looks so cute! got your face shape! That swing in your neighbourhood playground’s cool.