7 Months Old!

Hollis Leigh is 7 months old today!(well, on the 24th...I am behind on blogging)
Below is her 6 month summary...

Weight: I'd guess 18.5 lbs We haven't been to the doctor since her 6 month check up
Height:
HC:

Hollis is back on her regular sleep regimen! Woo hoo!!! She is down for the night by 8 and wakes up around 7:15-7:30! The time change had us messed up for a while but we are back on track!

Favorite toys: telephone that MiMi gave her, sophie the giraffe, baby doll, sing along book that Nana gave her, new bouncer chair that paw paw gave her, bath time plastic toys....AND she loves playing with solo cups and wet washcloths! haha

Hollis is now drinking water from a sippy cup during meals. She can also drink out of straw! I always drink out of a Tervis Tumbler cup with a straw, and Hollis is constantly pulling the straw to her mouth. One of the times she pulled it to her mouth, she took a big sip. It surprised her a first but now she does it all the time. PawPaw bought her some straw sippy cups for Christmas!

We introduced Hollis to solid foods last month and she is a fantastic eater! She will eat anything we put in front of her. In the last couple of weeks, she has started chewing her food verses just gumming at it. A few of her favorite foods are: squash, broccoli, sweet potato with cinnamon, Yum Yummy organic cookies, Mum Mums, homemade Spaghetti meat sauce, bananas, and corn on the cob

Hollis now says "DaDa" ALL THE TIME! She says the "F", "P" and "D" consonants.

Those sweet curls are more prominent on the back of her head, especially when she gets out of the bath!

Hollis is sitting up great. She will make her self rock and bounce while she is in a sitting position- like she is dancing. She can also lean over and reach for her toys, and then sit back up.

This past month brought two special holidays (that I will blog about ASAP)- Thanksgiving and Christmas! Having a child makes holidays even MORE exciting. Seeing the joy that Hollis has and brings to others is something special.

Hollis can scoot backwards and pivot around the ground when she is on her belly. She hasn't figured out how to crawl forward yet.

Playdates with her little friends are her FAVORITE! We had playdates with her cousins, Noah, Ella, Allie and Cooper in the last month. She gets so excited when she sees her friends and loves interacting with them. She completely skipped a nap at her playdate with Noah and Ella because she was so wound up. I spent a good 30 minutes trying to get her down for a nap, but she kept talking, kicking and sitting up, so I decided to just bring her back downstairs to let her play for a little bit before our car ride home. Little stinker just wanted to play with her friends!

Hollis met Santa Claus this month (blog post to come)! We took her to Bass Pro Shop to meet Santa! Nana and MiMi joined in on the fun! She wasn't too sure about him, which created a classic Santa picture with full fledged tears! I love it!

This last month has been SO FUN! With the holidays, new skills and quality family time, my heart is so full!

Hollis Eats Solids!

As I mentioned in Hollis' 6 month summary post, we skipped purees and cereals and went straight to solids! This concept is called Baby Led Weaning (BLW) and we absolutely adore it! At Hollis' 4 month appointment our doctor told us it was time to introduce cereals and pureed food. I left that appointment ready to make my own baby food and jump right in. Like always, I went to my sister in law, Katie (whose 4th daughter Julianne is just 3.5 weeks younger than Hollis), for advice. She told me this time around she was skipping cereals and purees and going straight to solids! She sent me some articles she read and I then did my own research. My friend, Emily, did this exact concept with her daughter Britt and had great success! So, I bought the Baby Led Weaning book, read multiple articles and blogs, talked with Ryan and we decided that going straight to solids at 6 months would be perfect for Hollis and our family!

Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is a method of adding foods to a baby's diet of formula or breastmilk. BLW allows babies to control their solid food consumption by "self-feeding" from the very beginning of their experiences with food...there is no spoon feeding by the parents at all. The term weaning doesn't mean giving up formula or breastmilk, but the introduction of foods other than formula or breastmilk. It is recommended to wait until 6 months to try solids in this fashion because by then the baby’s digestive system is mature enough to handle food and the baby is able to sit up properly. We waited for all the appropriate BLW ready cues and decided to start Hollis 5 days before turning 6 months old. Hollis was absolutely ready!

Hollis' first food was avocado and she loved it! After her first big bite and attempt to swallow, she gagged and it scared us! I knew from reading the book that gagging is common (even in spoon feeding). Gagging, as opposed to choking, is actually a safety response to food traveling too far back into the mouth, so when we see Hollis gagging we try not to interfere (although that first time we jumped right up) and let her handle the problem. Here is a video and some pictures of Hollis eating avocado for the very first time!

After eating avocado for 3 days we moved on to broccoli! Hollis gobbled it up and I'm pretty sure that's her favorite! G-Daddy and PawPaw both stopped by to enjoy a bowl of chili and watch Hollis eat! We also introduced a zippy cup of water this night.

After a couple nights of broccoli we did steamed carrots! She didn't seem to like these as much as broccoli and avocado.

We introduce a new food every 3 days to make sure she doesn't have a food allergy to that particular food. This week we plan to introduce roasted peppers, sweet potato (she's had a taste before already), squash and maybe some turkey on Thanksgiving! Watching Hollis explore these foods has been so much fun! I look forward to each meal with her!

6 Months Old!

Hollis Leigh is 6 months old today!
Below is her 5 month summary...

Weight: 17lbs 4oz 73rd Percentile
Height: 26.5" 75th Percentile
HC: 16.75" 52nd Percentile WOO HOO we had some major head growth since her 4 month appointment and all concerns are out the window! What a relief!


This last month has been exhausting and so much fun at the same time!

Hollis is still on a 4 hour schedule and was waking between 7:45-8:00 AM BEFORE the time change. Now, she wakes most days between 6:00-6:30 AM. There have been a couple mornings where she has slept until 7:30, but those 6:00 wake ups are tough! I usually will let her talk and try to get back to sleep for about 15 mins...if that doesn't happen, then I go in and will rock/cuddle her back to sleep until 7:30. This isn't ideal but since she is on a 4 hour schedule, that means if she rises and eats at 6:00 AM then her last feeding of the day/bedtime is 6:00 PM....that is just not conducive to our families schedule (Ryan wouldn't be able to see her after getting home from work). So, we are doing what works for now until we can adjust back to our normal schedule.

Hollis loves her crib and has done AWESOME sleeping in there (minus when she was sick).

This last month was rough for Hollis. Her teeth finally broke through, but right after that she got an ear infection in her right ear and then a cold! After a second trip to the doctor and a change in her medicine, she finally felt better! Sleep was AWFUL (for about 2 weeks) as she fought the ear infection. She was sleeping in 30 min- hour increments and would wake up crying...she wasn't able to get back to sleep unless we were holding her. Ryan and I felt like we had a newborn again! In the attempt for us to ALL get sleep, we would put her in the bed with us around 2AM (something I said I would never do!) and that helped her some. We were so thankful when she got well and was back to her normal sleeping habits!

During her awake time she enjoys playing on her mat and pracicing rolling over and scooting herself around in a circle. She still LOVES her exersaucer too! I love watching her play in the exersaucer because things she couldn't do last month she now can do (push the balls down the roller, grab and bring the teether to her mouth, make the music play, etc.).

Hollis loves being read to and will light up the minute you bring the books out. My Mom brought over ALL of my childhood books (an entire tupperware bin full) and I have had so much fun going through those with Hollis...what a treat!

My last day breastfeeding Hollis was a few days after she turned 5 months (see post here), so Hollis is now getting formula only every 4 hours.

We celebrated Hollis' first "holiday" this past month...Halloween! Hollis was the cutest black cat!

Hollis' favorite toys are her baby doll, foam Fisher Price book, teether keys, rattle ball, mirror snail, and books!

We introduced Hollis to solid foods 4 days before turning 6 months (post to follow). She is doing AWESOME! She has tried avocado, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and sweet potato! Broccoli and avocado seem to be her favorites right now.

Hollis said DaDa!!!!!! She said it several times for us a couple days in a row and then like all new skills she masters, she stopped! She will still talk up a storm but DaDa is hard to catch now. Maybe she is working on saying MaMa! ;)

While I was pregnant with Hollis, I would pray that she would get her Daddy's curls. I ADORE Ryan's curly hair. It seems as if that prayer may be been answered...Hollis' hair in the back is curing on the ends. Her hair is growing like a weed too!

Hollis will mock some noises that we make. She mocked me making a kissing noise and she mocked Daddy when he made a noise with his mouth. She will watch our mouths while me make the noise and try to figure out if she can make it too. So fun to watch her learn!

Hollis has started giving hugs this month. The first person she hugged was PawPaw and I was quite jealous! Now, she will hug just about anyone. Those sweet hugs will melt your heart. She also has been grabbing faces with both of her hands...she loves doing that to men (maybe it's the facial hair?).

Sitting up is another new skill she is working on! She is a little wobbly and will fall down in the attempt to reach for her toys. Each day she is able to sit up a little longer at a time. So fun!

Hollis' personality is really starting to shine through as you can see in some of her monthly photos. She makes Ryan and I laugh every day with her silly noises (roaring like a lion & squeals) and flailing arms. Hollis will throw her arm up and down repeatedly, and often does it when she is trying to fall asleep! It's amazing how fast these past 6 months of gone by. I am soaking in every single moment with this sweet girl!

UGA vs. Auburn Game Party

Each year my Mom and Step-Dad host the Georgia/Auburn game at their house! This game is a big deal in our family! We grew up a house divided...my Mom, Step-Dad and Grandparents are all Auburn fans and my brother, Ryan and I are all Georgia fans. Everyone looks forward to Georgia/Auburn game for Mom and Doug's party. They project the game on the big screen and have a delicious selection of food. There were probably 50+ people at the party! Some of my friends came to enjoy the game and I was so excited they were able to make it! Hollis enjoyed giving Ella and Noah kisses!

Here are some pictures from the party. I missed getting a picture with Jess & Derek and my Mom & Doug ( it must have been the ugly orange and blue they were wearing) ha!

These next few make me laugh. It's HARD getting 3 kids to smile/look at the camera!

Hollis loves her Uncle Shirah!

Hollis started sitting up on her own, too! She is still a little wobbly but we are working on it!