Six Months Old!

Happy Half Birthday to our dear Margaret Rose!  Yes, six months has passed, and oh so quickly.  Margaret continues to be such a joy for all of us and brings more smiles and laughter every day.  She is getting VERY busy and can't wait to crawl -- currently she loves to get up on all fours and rock, rock, rock.  She's also working on sitting up unaided and has two adorable bottom teeth.  She's babbling all the time, smiling a ton, and loves to laugh (especially at her silly sisters!).  Her sweet and easy-going personality certainly fits in well with this crowd!  She's recently started solid foods and is already a pro, having mastered cereal, bananas, and sweet potatoes.  I've been holding out hope that stuffing her belly full of solids will help her sleep improve, but so far no such luck...

So speaking of sleep...  zzzzz...  Yes, I'm about to fall asleep on this keyboard if I'm not careful.  Margaret could easily win a prize for World's Easiest Baby if she didn't already hold the title for World's Worst Sleeper.  She still rarely goes beyond 3 hours of sleep at a time, and usually it's more like 1.5 - 2.5 hours between wakings.  I could probably count the number of times she's slept longer than 3 hours on one hand.  A few weeks ago she went through a stretch when she was waking about every hour...  It was BAD.  I decided then that I needed to focus more on her napping and eating schedule during the day as well as let her settle herself to sleep at night (I'd been nursing her to sleep up to that point).  While her sleep has improved a tiny bit since then, it's obviously still less than stellar.  Honestly, I realize that I'm probably somewhat to blame, as it's much easier and more enjoyable to snuggle my baby back to sleep in the middle of the night rather than listen to her cry.  I'm trying to soak up every little moment of her babyhood as I know that she won't be this way for long!  Losing some sleep seems a small price to pay for those precious moments when the rest of the house is quiet and I can focus on my sweet baby girl.  We'll all be sleeping through the night eventually, right?

Margaret, we love you so much and are so thankful that you have blessed our lives!  Happy six months, little one.