Surviving Months 3-6

I originally started this post in April 2019 but haven't had time to finish it till now. Life is so busy and its hard to keep up but the time is flying by so quickly that I want to make sure that I post about these months before they are a distant memory. Kenna is growing so fast and learning so quickly I want to make sure I remember these moments and be able to share them with our friends, family, and other moms out there that are following our story.

SLEEPING:
Kenna stayed in her bassinet/co-sleeper in our bedroom till she was 4 months, which is right around the time she started to roll over onto her stomach and was getting too long for the bassinet. I felt this was a good time to move her into the crib which this is also where we transitioned her to the sleep sack instead of swaddling her. Kenna’s nursery was barely used in the first 3 months, it was more for diaper storage and where we stored her clothes. The transition from bassinet to crib overall was very easy, I don’t think the baby even noticed, which I was a bit sad about. Thankfully, we were blessed with a baby that LOVES to sleep, but we have also kept her on a routine that she is familiar with and she would go to sleep at 6pm like it was clockwork. Kenna would only have 2 naps during the day, roughly an hour for each, once around 10am and her second nap around 1pm. Kenna started sleeping 10+ hour stretches at 6 months and it was bliss! 6pm - 6am was her schedule and very rarely would she wake in the middle of the night. However, Kenna didn’t start sleeping through the night (6+ hours or more) without a feeding till she was 6 months. I didn’t try to drop the nightly feeding because my milk supply wasn’t producing as much as I would like to. Our nightly routine started at 5:30pm, we would start with a bath, we would read a book, and then I would put her in the sleep sack. I would turn on lullaby radio on Alexa as well as turn on her white noise machine and I would nurse her on the Boppy and shortly after she would fall asleep and I would transition her to the crib. We have black out film on the windows so even at 5:30pm there is no light that could peek through the windows. I never had to sleep train Kenna, however, it's now biting us in the butt now with month 9. Instead of turning the heat on for our entire house we invested in a Dyson air purifier that has a heating and cooling feature too. I love it because I can set the temperature automatically and it will turn on and off as needed, you are also able to control the unit with the app that also monitors the humidity in the room. We live next to the ocean so we don't have a problem with the air being too dry so I hardly ever used her humidifier. 

FEEDING:
My goal is to breastfeed for 1 year and I honestly didn’t know how rewarding as well as demanding it was going to be. My supply isn't consistent, but Kenna is happy and healthy and that is all that really matters but I constantly worry about my supply of milk and if she is getting enough. The maximum I can pump in the evenings is 4.5 oz. but that was only on a good day, and before bed I usually pumped 3-4oz. I didn't pump in the middle of the night which is why I probably struggled with my breast milk supply but thankfully I never felt the need to supplement. When Kenna turned 10 months I had to switch her to formula, I just wasn't making enough milk and started to mix breast milk in with the formula to get her used to the taste. Kenna started with eating rice cereal with pumped breast milk and purees around 4.5 months. With the rice cereal I would mix in the Ready Set Foods powder that consists of Milk, Egg, and Peanut to reduce the allergies. For purees I started off with veggies such as spinach, baby kale, sweet potato, butternut squash, and artichoke that I would steam and puree for her. After a few weeks of veggies I then introduced fruits like banana, apples, and pears. Feeding Kenna with the spoon was very messy, after some research I then discovered the sippy tops with the twist pouches I use for breast milk which was genius because Kenna started to feed herself. If I didn't use homemade purees I really like the brand HappyBaby, EarthsBest, and Once Upon A Farm for food pouches. 

PLAYING:
I signed up for LoveEvery, they have such wonderful kits based on Montessori methods of child development on what they should be learning and focusing on. Each kit is based on 1-2 months of development. The Jolly Jumper was gifted to us and it kept everyone entertained for at least 10-15 minutes.  Overall Kenna is a happy baby and its been a joy watching her grow. 

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