Happy 6 Months Emmeline!

My little girl turns 6 months today! I cannot believe it and I am gobsmacked by how quickly time has flown past! It feels like it was only a few weeks ago that I found myself in a taxi at 2:30am on my way to the hospital with my baby still in my belly, and now here she is 6 months old already!

I don’t know why, but I feel a little more relaxed now that she is 6 months, a little like we are heading out of the danger zone! I felt a bit the same when she turned 3 months old as well. A little bit like she is now stronger and bigger and although we are faced with new danger zones, I know now that if she pulls a pillow onto her face, she can push it off herself, or if she falls over onto her tummy, she can rectify herself and hold her head up for long periods of time, therefore removing most of the suffocation fear out of my head. That said, although I feel a little more relaxed danger wise, it doesn’t stop me from going into the room every night and putting my finger under her nose to make sure that she is still breathing (often times waking her in the process by unintentionally tickling her nose!)

I feel like Emmeline is now a real little person and less of a baby. You know, in the beginning, all she did was pretty much just lay there, sleep, poo, occasionally cry, oh and eat A LOT! She still does all these things, but less, except the eating part. She still eats A LOT! But now she does a lot of other things as well! I think that everything changed when she was about 2 ½ - 3 months old. Suddenly my child decided that sleeping during the day was overrated. She still feels the same! If she is sleeping by herself in her crib, she almost never sleeps for longer than 30 minutes. Although if her and I are having an afternoon sleep in bed together, she will go anything from 1 – 2 hours! I think it is because she sleeps with her arm out touching my face, hand or shoulder and so when she wakes up she can still feel me there and she falls back asleep! This is working out fine for the moment, but I wonder what will happen the day I am not there! I wonder if a teddy bear in my place would work. Doubt it! Her sleep during the evening is getting better, but in tiny, tiny steps. She still does not sleep through the night, but before getting sick this week, she was going for 6-8hrs without feeding. She still wakes up various times during the night whimpering, but I am hoping (and praying every day) that this will improve and that one day I will only have to wake up once a night, and maybe even not at all, but I don’t want to get my hopes up too high!

Emmeline also started to try to eat everything. This hasn’t stopped and is now at epic proportions. She is like a little puppy and will often launch herself at her toys to eat them. She tries everyday without fail to eat my phone and the remote controls, often lunges for the camera, the hairdryer and the computer, and can often be found chewing on my chin (used to be my nose, but she has a strong grip so I redirected her to my chin) or the top of Xavi’s head! Absolutely nothing and no-one is safe from my daughter’s mouth!

She is also now managing to sit up all by herself although there is still a fair amount of falling, especially when she decides that it makes more sense to lung with her mouth open at her toys instead of picking them up with her hands! Which is silly because she can now actually pick things up with her hands and can reach out to grab something that she wants, great to grab Rosie her favourite toy, not so great when she tries to grab her nappy full of poo whilst I am in the middle of changing her . . . this coupled with her need to put everything in her mouth means that mommy has to move very quickly quite often to get the nappy out her hands without spilling poo over both of us!

One little habit she has developed with her improved hand control (which is adorable) is her need to reach out and touch everybody’s face! This worked out wonderfully for me the other day when I was at the tax office and just as I was asking the lady for more time to pay, Emmeline reached out and touched her face, ha ha ha! The downside to her cute little gesture is when she then tightly closes those tiny little fists of hers around you cheeks/eyes/mouth/nose, not so cute!

I did think that now that she is older she was over that whole weeing and pooing the minute her nappy was taken off, but she proved my wrong the other day when on one occasion she had a wee all over me as I was taking her to the bath, and another occasion when just as I had taken her nappy off to take her to the bath, she had a poo all over the bed. I am sure you are asking why I don’t just stick her on the changing mat. Because the bedroom is warmer right now and like I said, I wrongly assumed that she was over this! Must not make that mistake again!

She is an amazing little person and I fall in love with her a little more every day. All I need to do is look at her to feel better and she makes me laugh out loud every single day. Even when she is screaming her little lungs out at me because god forbid I should put her down to sleep alone, I am still filled with love as she is my little screaming gremlin. I never thought that this kind of live was possible and you cannot describe it. It is totally different to the love you feel for your family and totally different to the love you feel for your partner. It is pure, unconditional, innocent, exploding love. I cannot imagine my life without her and nor would I want to.

She makes my smile bigger, my day brighter, my life better and I love her to pieces!