6 Months of Reese - Months 4, 5, & 6 - Annapolis, Maryland + Washington DC Wedding Photographer

Dear All My Future Children,

If your sister hasn’t gotten a monthly update in three months, you guys stand no chance.

Sincerely,

Your Busy Mom in Wedding Season

Well friends, it’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write about our girl. This summer has flown by, between life in general and figuring out how to own a business and raise a babe at home, it’s just crazy town. If anyone has any tips for balancing it all, your girl is all ears!!

Not to worry, despite my lack of posting here, I’ve been keeping up with taking her monthly photos and seeing how she’s changing. Somehow our babe is a half a year old.

Fastest six months ever!!

Truth be told, the lack of updates wasn’t entirely accidental. You see, on the eve of Reese’s 4 month appointment I had her photos ready to go and was starting to type things out to post. As per the norm these days, it’s basically impossible to sit down and write a blog post in one sitting. (Though that’s probably for the better, seeing as I never do my best writing the first time around… despite what the procrastinator in me likes to claim ;) ). Well, that meant that my next opportunity to write about Reese and how she was doing was after her doctor’s appointment the next day.

… let’s just say, for this new mama, that appointment didn’t go so well and the last thing I felt like doing was writing a blog update.

At our appointment we learned that Reese wasn’t gaining enough weight, I was going to have to add in extra feeds to make up for it, and basically it sent me into a tailspin of feeling both overwhelmed, and like the worst mom ever. As someone who is exclusively nursing, I left that appointment feeling like the biggest failure.

… but she depends on me for this!!

… I can’t possibly add more into my busy schedule!!

… how am I going to fix this?!

… I literally feel overwhelmed adding in even just one more thing.

I left that appointment and called one of my best friends on the way home saying “TALK ME OFF THE LEDGE!!!” To which she responded, “which ledge are we talking about here!?” ;)

Thankfully after rebuilding my supply a bit (it had dropped during the busyness of June) and adding in an extra feed, our girl was right back on her track.

I would be dishonest to say that the whole thing didn’t leave me feeling a little scarred though… hence why I’m writing this before her appointment tomorrow morning.

Let’s just say I won’t make that mistake again!

But seriously, if there’s something that I’ve learned in motherhood so far, it’s just that every kid is so different and we’re all just trying to do the best that we can. One kid might sleep great, the other might eat great, another might be happy as a clam, and some of our kids, well they’re just hot messes, and we’ll pray that the tables will turn at some point before they hit middle school and things really ramp up.

One of the things that was the hardest for me in what felt like such a vulnerable time, was that lots of people were offering advice. And that’s okay.. it makes sense! We want to help and offer what we know to try and make things better! But we only know how to operate from our own experiences and what works for you, might not be what works best for someone else. What I appreciated most were the friends that just said, “wow, that must be really hard!” and waited for me to ask them for advice.

Needless to say, this has been convicting to me about how I respond to other people. My natural inclination is to want to help or alleviate stress, but I’m realizing more in more that in every facet of life, people just need someone to listen first. If I haven’t done that for you, I want to say I’m sorry!

Motherhood so far has been one of the easiest times for me to start comparing. I have a whole beef with doctors for coming up with a percentile chart in the first place, that measures your kid’s growth up against other kids’. It’s literally teaching us to compare from the very get-go, and in the world we live in, it’s already hard enough not to fall into a comparison trap.

Really I could go on and on, but I’ll spare you the soapbox. Just know, if you’re a new mama, that knowing your kid is the ____ percentile only matters because they want them to stay on their individual growth pattern, not because in order for them to be growing well they have to be in the 90th percentile getting an “A” in school. It just doesn’t work that way!

Anywho, that was a lot of words to say that sometimes mama hood is hard. It’s a balancing act and full with way more emotions than I thought it would be.

It’s also easily the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

I mean, our Reesey girl, is really the cutest babe and only keeps getting cuter!!! How does that happen!!?!

I feel pretty secure about the fact that Reese is actually a cute baby and I’m not just somehow blinded by maternal instincts, because other people offer that information to me without prompting. Tell me otherwise, and maybe we’ll get a peek at what my maternal instincts will have to say about that ;)

Anyways, these last few months and this summer have been so fun with Reese. She’s starting to really interact and Morgan and I joke that we think she’s finally getting smarter, haha ;)

Here are a few things that I don’t want to forget about the last few months:

One of my favorite things about this girl is that she wakes up the happiest. I mean, girlfriend squeals and smiles SO big. If you’re wondering where she gets it from, it certainly isn’t me. Morgan once told me that when I wake up in the morning I look like I’m in pain. (Thanks for that!! *eye roll*)
She is a little rolly-poley!! Right around 4 months she learned how to roll from back to front and then front to back, but now she really puts them together and gets herself moving. While she’s most active in her crib at night, she loves to move all around when you put her on the floor too! She’s not quite crawling yet, though she’s pulled herself into position a few times and I’m waiting on it. I’m convinced though, that she’s the most easily distracted babe and is just so entertained with everything around her that she doesn’t need to move just yet. Let’s just say, I am not mad about it!!
I have been WAITING to get a real laugh out of her for months. Yesterday was the day (!!!!) and I almost cried I was so excited!! (Yes, I’m still sappy and hormonal. It might even be the new me now. Who knows!?! *Insert eye roll again*)
On a less then fun note, I swear this girl has been working on getting teeth for at least a month now. She’s drool-y, randomly grumpy, and it’s basically the pits watching her hold her mouth teary! I equal parts just want one to come in so I don’t feel like a crazy person and also really don’t want her to have any because OUCH.
Reese lovesss her puppies! She gets grumbly if they stop paying attention to her and it’s easily one of the funniest things. They’re so gentle with her and don’t even mind that her “petting” is really just yanking their hair. However, when she reaches out for their faces, heart meltttt.
Last month we started foods with Reese! It’s been hilarious to watch her try new things. It’s meant adding a disturbed face-squint to her repertoire of hilariousness and I die of laughter at her! … she doesn’t find it quite as entertaining though ;) So far she really loves sweet potatoes, carrots, and squash. She tolerates avocado, though you better believe we’ll keep working on that. She despises green beans.
I was looking back at her three-month post and realized I don’t think I mentioned that this girl self-soothes with her thumb. She is intense about it and sticks her thumb so far in her mouth and then wraps her other fingers up and around her nose. So freaking cute.
On the list of things I’m very grateful for, is her ability to sleep like a champ. My SIL, Megan, is a sleep consultant and has graciously shared some tips and tricks with us along the way. I texted her the other day and thanked her, because Lord knows, I would be a DISASTER if I wasn’t sleeping. If you’re not, I will give you her number because you need to hire her ASAP.