I am terribly surprised that Cedar turned half a year yesterday. How it flies. So how is she doing?
Health: no sicklies so far. I attribute that, in part, to all her wonderful milk mamas who have passed on their immunities to her.
Hyper: she is a mover and a shaker. Always the flapping of arms, rapid breath, quickening heart. She is desperate to crawl. She does push-ups; lifting all but her hands and toes off the ground. I cannot wear her on my hip because she is a grabber and I quickly learned that a back-carry is a must.
Houdini: she tries to escape from any baby holder in which she is placed. The instant she is put into a bouncy chair, she begins arching her back and inching until she sits on the floor with a grin. Of course, we don’t leave her in a bouncy unstrapped unsupervised. But it is fun to watch this houdini act.
Habit: Much to my surprise, she is content when I take her on consults or even do presentations. She sits happily squealing her dolphin squeaks and flapping those arms. She is decidedly not content for anyone (!!) else to hold her very long. And that is the most difficult part of the Cedar gig. I have a month-long break once my current clients birth and I plan to use it to help her expand her knowledge of the loving folks around her. No idea how. Open to ideas. Please!!
Sleep: The question everyone asks of every new mama: How is she sleeping? Cedar sleeps normally. So many people forget that babies are biologically programmed to sleep in short cycles as a protection against sleeping too deeply. They are born with an immature Circadian rhythm that slowly settles into pattern. Of course, just when the pattern sets–well, then there’s teething, growth spurts, etc. to interrupt sleep. I don’t get too stressed about sleep. She takes 2-3 naps per day and nurses off and on at night. I rarely get out of bed with her; usually we stay put and she nurses while I doze. The “problem,” if there is one, is that she nurses to sleep and it is the only way (other than wearing her in a wrap) she goes to sleep. So if she wakes, we nurse. And this is a problem if I’m gone all night for a birth. Of course, The No-Cry Sleep Solution has some ideas for changing the sleep-suck association but, frankly, it is too easy to nurse her right now. Sorry Scott–you’re on your own if I’m away.
And if anyone would like to see the hyper little babe:
Inexplicable Ways 
She is so cute! It is so nice to hear that another baby has to nurse to sleep. We still do the exact same thing with Preston, mainly because it is so much easier and that is the only way he will go down 🙂 and for us to sleep! Thanks for always sharing your mommy advice, it helps reassure other mothers out there, at least this one! Thank you
You know, the sleep question is the question that I dislike the most. This time around, I plan to just grin and say, he/she sleeps like a baby. Liam slept like any normal baby, in two hour spurts for a very long time and the teething growth spurt thing was the same for him too. I don’t have any need to leave in the middle of the night fortunately so I don’t know what that is like for you or your husband. Liam only stopped nursing to sleep somewhere around 1.5 years. I think that if I had any milk left he would still want to nurse to sleep now but since there isn’t, he just cuddles up against my back. Right now it is just sad because Liam wants to nurse and I let him for a couple of minutes when I get home. I can’t stand to have him do it for very long. I start to get Braxton-Hicks when he nurses for very long. He just bawls when I ask him to stop. I worry about how he will feel when he sees the baby taking “his” milk.
Lucy nurses to sleep as well. I actually love it- and can’t stand it when people harass me about when I’m going to leave her overnight. They are only little for so long, you know?