It is hard to believe our Hope is 6 months old!  The time has just flown by!  She is a very flexible little girl, who has just rolled with life since the moment she was born!

She spent her first 2 months of life in Hong Kong, the 3rd and 4th months of life in China, and her 5th+ in America.  I have felt bad that I have not been documenting her early days well enough, so allow me to catch up!

Hope is such a joy!  She is very snuggly and will bury her face in your neck.  She will smoosh her cheek against your mouth, waiting for kisses.  She is so patient with the busyness that is our life.  She is a more serious baby, like Nate was.  But she is always quick to share a smile when asked.

Sleeping & eating

Hope started sleeping through the night around 3 months old, and had gotten to going about 9-11 hrs a night without waking.  Then, in December when we had to return to America, she struggled A LOT with jet lag.  She was 4 months old then, and I really thought that as long as I got her back on her same daily schedule, she would adjust.  But she hasn’t.  2 months later she is still not sleeping the same as she was.  She will sleep for 8 hrs most nights, but then every 5 or 6 days she will wake up after 4 hours.  We saw some improvement when we introduced solids a few days ago, but not consistently.

With another baby on the way, Steve and I are eager for her to resume her previous sleep-lover status.

She is still sleeping in our room (which is probably part of the problem), but until she can sleep better at night, we can’t move her in with the kids.

Hope started solids a few days ago, as I stated.  She has eaten mostly orange veggies.  We will start some green veggies in a few weeks.

She is still eating 5 times a day, with the occasional middle of the night feeding.  She is approaching that stage where it is very hard to eat when there are other things going on.  We usually have to leave the room where the kids are playing so she can eat.

Sibling love:

There is some serious love going on between Hope and her older siblings.  I really thought that the newness of Hope would wear off for my 4, 5 & 6 year olds.  But 6 months with Hope and we are going strong.  They wake up asking if she is up yet.  They ask ALL.DAY.LONG if they can hold her, play with her.  I am sorry to say, they also flight over her.

The girls are the first to admit they have a problem with smothering their sister.  They can overdo it at times.  A few too many kisses… if that’s possible.

Because of the love overload, Nate is actually the best one around Hope.  He loves her dearly and would do ‘almost’ anything for her.  But he also can go in for a few kisses and then stop.  He has self control around her.  It is for that reason when we load the kids up in the car, Nate gets the honored seat by Hope.  The girls are in the very back.  He will watch out for her, keep her entertained, but also leave her alone if she is content.

I am so very thankful for how well the adjustment has gone bringing Hope into our family.  She fits in with us all so well and the kids truly do adore her.

Moving:

Hope rolled over a few times as a newborn.  Then stopped.  She started rolling over again, but only once.  And she cried.  And that’s how it went for awhile.  She would roll from her stomach to her back, maybe once a month, (perhaps just accidental) and get upset.  It was not something she enjoyed.

Then one day, just a few days ago, she decided she was ready.  She started rolling both directions, although not quickly.  She will roll once and then after awhile she will roll again.  She hasn’t mastered moving by rolling yet.  Whew.

She is really good at twisting herself around in circles.  I think she found this imperative because there is almost always activity on all sides of her!

Random stuff:

Hope is my biggest baby at 6 months.  I am not exactly sure how much she weighs (I am guessing 17lbs), but I do know that it is much more than her siblings ever weighed at this point.  She is really long, and is ahead in her clothing size (another first for my kids).  She has some seriously cute thighs and everyday when I look at her beautiful chubby self, I can give praise to God who has done that in her!  She went from being my stick baby with the preemie clothes hanging off, to filling out her 6-9 month clothes.  (I am washing the 9-12 stuff now!)

Hope completely LOVES bath time.  I fill up the big tub, just to under her ears and she kicks her legs and splashes her hands for as long as I let her stay in.  The longest I have knelt over the tub watching her splash is about 20 minutes.  She was still going strong, but I was ready to move on! :)

We are so very in love with our girl and simply cannot imagine life without her!

With Hope’s strange sleeping schedule (waking up more than she should), I decided that maybe she was ready to eat.  She was showing some of the signs, but then again I really don’t put too much stock into the sign thing.  Feeding solids is another of those baby things where I just approached it the same way I did with the other 3.  Kind of a ‘if it’s not broke’ mentality.  I usually introduce solids right around 6 months.  And at 6 months they all responded differently.  Elizabeth was tentative, Anna was eager, Nate looked at me like I was trying to poison him, and Hope… she was somewhere between Elizabeth and Nate.  Not exactly thrilled, but willing to swallow.

But she did have the cuteness factor going for her.  Good grief she is adorable!

First bite

First bite again

Still the first bite

And after the 3rd time in, we had a swallow!

Second bite

We did the rice cereal thing for a few days… then we added non-cardboard tasting things, like butternut squash (a favorite of hers), carrots, and sweet potatoes.

I set about making her food the same way I made the other 3 kids… but I sure was missing all my equipment in China.   (my old phillips blender and my tupperware ice cube trays).

I found a small food processor that works great at Wal-Mart here for $13.99 and then found some ice cube trays with lids (important) and we were in business.

She started off with one cube, but has now moved to 2.

She can also eat half an avocado.  I eat the other half.  We make a good pair!

Avocado time.

She is learning, slowly… that she does not get to ‘help me’ hold the spoon.  I forgot how the discipline begins when the eating starts.  Oh boy.

Hope is not an eager eater of food.  She tolerates it, and if there is enough entertainment around (big kids making silly faces) she will open her mouth for the spoon.  But we are getting there.

She does however, really like metal.

So proud of my big girl!!