Emilia is 6 months old, adjusted

Emilia is 6 months old, adjusted, today. In chronological age, she is a little bit over 9 months. Yesterday I took her to work to say hi to all my colleagues and oh yeah, I had fun explaining her age every time somebody popped the question "how old is she?". When strangers ask, I always answer she is 6 months old because to me, that is what she is. However her pediatrician, of all people, goes by her actual age. I guess because immunization has to go by chronological age.

I think she just went through a growth spurt this past month. I had to empty her wardrobe and fill it with bigger clothes. When I first received clothes gifts from family and friends, I wondered if Emilia would ever grow big enough to fit into those clothes, but oh boy, babies do grow fast. Accoding to her ped doctor, Emilia has caught up with babies her actual age and we don't need to adjust her age on the growth chart any more.

So, some of her stats:
Weight: 8.16kg (almost 18 pounds)
Length: 67cm (26.3 inches)
Head Circumference: 44cm (17.3 inches)

Developmentally, she might not be exactly at where she is supposed to be but she's now rolling over effortlessly (but still only from back to tummy) and she is sitting up for few minutes at a time. She clasps her hands, grabs at things, babbles, laughs and smiles. Eventually things will come along and hopefully there won't be a need to adjust her age any more... I know that's still far far away - they say usually after age 2, their age won't need to be adjusted.

Here are some photos I took of her for her 6 month milestone:

Emilia is sitting!

Emilia has been sitting for about 20-30 seconds at a time, but today she sat for good 3-4 minutes and played with her toy. Three days ago when her physiotherapist visited, he told me our goal for the next two weeks was 1 minute of sitting but she's already surpassed that! I hope this was not a one-off thing though. We are also working on kneeling and weight-bearing on two hands in the next two weeks to get her ready for crawling.

Before and After

I am thinking of doing some before & after photos. It's amazing how much Emilia has grown when I look at the photos from the NICU days.

Before (Aug 31, 2011)

After (Mar 5, 2012)

Emilia's strange preference when falling asleep

Since Emilia was 4 months old (adjusted), we have had to carry, rock, nurse, push the stroller, and even drive around the neighbourhood to help her fall asleep. We were planning to move her crib out of our master bedroom at 6 months but during the time she was sick, we had further sleep regression: she has been sleeping in our bed because it is easy for us to watch her and soothe her when she wakes up in the middle of the night because of her coughs.

But co-sleeping also gave me a chance to observe and discover how she acts during the time she is falling asleep or is in light sleep state. She wants her head to be nested around by pillows and rubs her cheeks against the pillows. She repeatedly turns her head from one side to the other until she finally falls asleep (which we knew she did in the crib even without any pillows surrounding her head). So last two days I put her down in our bed and put a pillow on each side of her head. Of courae this poses a risk of suffocation/SIDS and therefore I had to stay next to her until she fell asleep to transfer her to her crib. On one side it was nice that I didn't need to push the stroller for 40 minutes in our livingroom but it still meant she had to fall asleep somewhere else other than her crib since her crib doesn't have enough room for two pillows around her head. Today I tried placing the nursing pillow in her crib... and it helped her sleep. Of course I had to sneak in to remove it as soon as she fell asleep. Just looking at the picture, it makes me look like a horrible parent who puts her baby in a hazardous sleeping environment.

Any way this whole head nest thing makes me wonder why she prefers this way. I know back in her NICU days she always slept in a small nest the nurses made in order to make her feel contained and secure. Does she really remember that? Has she become accustomed to resting her head in a nest? I don't know. Whatever the reason, I hope I truly have found her preference and habit. If this turns out to be just another gimmikery that is going to wear off its effect in a week then I really don't know how else to sleep-train this baby.