Half a year ago today, I was having a party in my L&D room as I cruised through contractions (thank you, epidural, courtesy of Dr. Hunk!) and because every party has a pooper — in this case, the guest of honor — the party was cut short as our baby decided that nope, she was only going to make an entrance on an operating table instead! So at 10:25 p.m., after 14 hours of pitocin-induced labor because, again, she had no plans of leaving her little warm and snuggly home, we had a baby.

Half a year ago. HALF. A whole year. Cut in half. And that’s today.

The Divine Miss M, Madelyn Shana, is six months old today and I can’t believe the time has gone so quickly. She delights us every day and we are constantly in awe of how much she grows and changes. Six months ago, I could have never predicted what our baby would look and act like in February, so when I think about what the next six months will bring, I think our August will be filled with many lovely surprises.

This month, Madelyn:

• Is rolling around like Princeton does when he finds a nice patch of mysterious-but-yummy-to-him patch of grass. We’ll set her down on her play mat, turn around real quick, and come back to find her on a completely different part of the room and not at all on the play mat. Don’t worry, the play mat is not elevated. However, the changing table is the new Olympic venue for gymnastics. Madelyn now makes diaper changes an athletic event with lots of rolls and squirms on the contoured pad. Changing a diaper is exhausting and challenging, but I’ve learned that as long as I keep a toy on hand, she can be distracted into staying still.
• Holds her bottle all by herself! Part of me is sad because she doesn’t need me at mealtimes anymore, but the other part of me is throwing a flippin’ party that I can give her the bottle, keep her happy (and quiet), and go on my merry way through the market, Target, and Nordstrom. Drink up, little darlin’! Mama is going shopping and actually getting to browse!
• Makes this fantastic sound when she’s super excited or happy. It’s kind of like a backwards laugh with a screech and as horrific as this sounds in print, it’s actually really cute to hear. When she makes this noise, her eyes light up real big and her cheeks look like they’re going to get stuck inside her ears. This is usually followed by a series of giggles which, forget about it, kill me into mush.
• Began eating cereal. We started her on baby oatmeal mixed with formula and at first, she was not that impressed. I think it was more about the inability to swallow and use her mouth properly. But later in her fifth month, we gave it another try, and she totally gets eating. Thank goodness, too, because if she had decided that food didn’t interest her, she would have had to find a new family. Friedmans are eaters. She sits in her Bumbo on the table and we sing the “Sittin’ In My High Chair” song (I know, we’re liars. She’s actually in her Bumbo. One day she’ll read this and be ruined.). She ends up in a big mess and it’s all so deliciously cute. We get through about five or six spoonfuls before she’s all done, but it’s still a good amount that helps her practice and get ready for the more exciting foods that are about to start for her (pureed peas, anyone?).
• Understands when it’s time to come out of her car seat. When I start to unbuckle her, Madelyn lifts up her arms as if to say, “Come get me!” and then smiles real big as she comes up toward us. It’s amazing how babies soak up routines. And then, to top it off, she wraps her arms around our necks and lays her head on our shoulders. It’s a major case of warm fuzzies.

Every month, I am wowed by the growth of this super little girl. I don’t have her exact measurements and we’ll get the official stats when we go to the doctor for her six-month check up in February, but Madelyn is almost 14 pounds and probably a little more than 25 inches long. The real growth — the fun growth — is in her personality! It’s shining through now and she is so much fun to play with and watch as she explores.

This month, Madelyn has…

• Started the motions to sit up. She can’t fully sit up on her own yet, but she keeps doing what looks like tummy crunches and is on the verge of getting herself up in a sitting position, but! Oohhhhh crash. I’m thinking by six months, she’ll be sitting up to do most of her playing.
• Gone on her first trip to the snow… even though there was no snow. We went to Tahoe in December and had a blast with our friends. She got to wear adorable clothes that bundled her up for warmth and she did a great job sleeping in a new place/mansion.
• Taken a great interest in her big brother, Princeton. She follows him with her eyes everywhere he goes! She’s absolutely fascinated by him. She’s also gotten curious and wanted to pet him, which is fine and dandy until her Wonder Woman Mega Grip crumples his fur into her hand and he looks at me like, “Um? Excuse me? You’re going to let her do this to me?” If he gets annoyed, he never takes it out on Madelyn. He just removes himself from the situation and Madelyn finds something else to explore. I couldn’t be happier about my kids’ relationship with each other. Tee hee!
• Started to teethe a little bit. There is a tiny white dot on her lower gum that gives her some trouble here and there. It’s slowed up a bit, but she was showing more signs of teething in December when her entire fist was in her mouth and the drooling was flowing like the Mississippi. So far, though, nothing has cut through so she still has that cute gummy smile.
• Tried solids for the first time! The doctor said to give it a whirl, and we did, but she didn’t much care either way for the oatmeal cereal. More on that later, but we haven’t continued because it may still be too soon. But it was definitely cute to feed her with a spoon and watch her discover the cereal in her mouth in confusion!
• Been rolling over non stop! This is Madelyn’s preferred method of movement. She’s discovering new things on her playmat now that she can look at it from above. Sometimes, though, she rolls over in her sleep, wakes up, and is not happy about the position so she lets us know. Boy, does she let us know!
• Begun to grab for everything! Toys she used to not even care about are suddenly in her hands. She also likes to grab our food when we eat so we have to be careful when she’s on our laps at restaurants that she doesn’t get spicy sauces on her hands or get close to the water glasses. It could be disastrous. And of course whatever goes in her hands, goes in her mouth! Thank goodness for the Babyganics cleaners and wipes!
• Attended her first University of Arizona basketball game! This future Wildcat joined us and some of her favorite friends to watch the Cats beat the Trojans at USC. We had a great time and she was an amazing sports fan! She sat on my lap and was mesmerized by the action and movement on the court and on the big screen. Perhaps we have a future basketball star? Probably, more likely, a future cheerleader. Or, actually, if she gets her mama’s thighs, not a cheerleader. How about mascot instead?

Bloopers from our 5-month photo shoot:

I seriously can’t even believe we’re 1/3 of the way through Madelyn’s first year. Wow. December 9th marked four months of Madelyn! We are constantly blown away by what a little person she is! Every day is better than the next and it’s really a fun age! Her personality is shining through, she expresses wants, needs, and even her opinion, and I am even finding that over this time, I am able to read her better.

Before having a baby, I never believed that a mom could really know her baby’s different cries. And… now I do! It feels like such an accomplishment. I can tell when she’s hungry. I can tell when she’s sleepy. I can tell when she has a diaper that is anything but empty. This method of communication blows my mind, and I’m so glad to be involved in Madelyn’s little language.

At four months, Madelyn has…

• rolled over! She is such a rolie-polie! From her back to her tummy, she uses her hips to flop her to her side and then enlists her arm muscles to push her past her side to her chest. She doesn’t really LOOOOOVE being on her chest for very long, but she definitely gives herself a mental high-5 when she arrives on her tummy.
• started to giggle. Be still. Thump thump. My heart. Thump thump. With each giggle, I become a bigger puddle than Frosty the Snowman in a latke skillet. I mean, seriously? It’s not fair how cute baby giggles are. I can’t get anything done because all I want to do is just play with Madelyn for an end result of a giggle. It starts as a deep, below-the-belt gurgle and then she gasps for air. It ends with a higher pitched squeal and the whole thing starts over and blends together. It seriously makes my day, my hour, my minute. Madelyn better keep this up when she’s a teenager and wants to get her way. It will probably work with me.
• made babble sounds! I read in a geeky book somewhere that four-month-old babies know all the sounds of their native language and will now begin to experiment with saying them. Look, my kid’s not reciting the Gettysburg Address, but she’s pretty damn close. Basically, she’s saying “Four score and seven years ago…” like “aaa aaaa aa-aaa-aaa aaaaaa aaa-aa-aaaa.” But she is talking in her own way! And she even makes little facial expressions with the vowel sounds. Warm fuzzies all around.
• really been enjoying bath time! So do I! She splashes so much now that she enjoys it. The whole bathroom counter and floor are flooded with her bathwater and I sodon’tevencare about the watery mess. It’s just too cute. We usually play music and sing songs in the tub. She makes all kinds of fun, playful noises — including those heart-melting giggles! — and she looks so damn happy when I sprinkle warm water over her head and down her back.
• the ability to reach and grab items now. The thumbs don’t really work to their potential just yet, but Madelyn can pretty much grab at anything that fits in her hand and hold it for a while. Including my hair. This part does not make me happy so much. Her grip hurts!! But I need to remember to put my hair back when we cuddle so she can reach and grab at me all she wants without making me go bald.
• lots of drool! This month, Madelyn’s mouth became a faucet. Not that cute, but I guess it’s all part of the growth and development and when it’s your own kid… eh… the drool isn’t that disgusting. I need to remember to carry extra burp cloths with me and bring bibs along. I always thought bibs were for food, so I figured we had a while before using them since she’s not eating solids yet. But, now I understand why babies Madelyn’s age need them! She drools and then adds to the gush when she puts her hand in her mouth! That’s right. Her hand. The whole thing. Madelyn has discovered her hands and they are constantly in her mouth.
• found her feet! Along with discovering her hands, her new favorite toys are attached to her — her left and right foot! She discovered them just a couple weeks ago while walking through Home Goods. She grabbed them and I swear I saw a lightbulb go off in her head! She kept pulling on them and then bringing them closer. She can almost make her feet meet her mouth (hello, Cirque du Soleil. Meet Madelyn, your newest cast member!), and she’s fascinated by these perfectly soft new toys that fit like a puzzle piece in her hands. She is very pleased with her feet. Good thing they’re cute (unlike her mommy’s).
• started the loooooong process of teething! I can’t believe how soon she’s getting teeth. You can’t really see them yet, but this definitely explains the drooling and some out-of-character irritability that comes at random times. I can see two white dots on her lower gums and the doctor says those are the start of teeth that will begin to poke through. I don’t think I’m ready for my baby to have teeth! She’s definitely growing up.
• adapted well to her new schedule. Bryan and I are doing our best to keep her on a pattern of a schedule with wake time not exceeding two hours. We can usually follow this in the mornings, but the afternoons are tricky unless we’re home already. Bedtime is about 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. and she does a pretty good job of falling asleep after her diaper change and night time bottle. She sometimes sleeps throughout the night, but it’s not consistent. Per our doctor’s suggestion, we are now going to try to teach her to self-soothe in the evening since she doesn’t need a bottle every three hours around the clock. So if she wakes up and cries at 3:30 a.m. we — don’t throw tomatoes! — allow her to fall back to sleep without our help. The timing of the cries is decreasing, so we know we are doing the right thing and she’s learning to become independent at night. A baby’s nighttime independence is a mommy and daddy’s happiness. Madelyn has become attached to her “lovey,” a little pink poodle or lamb (depends on who you ask. It could be either thanks to the curly, furry head), and this helps her fall asleep in her crib, as well.

At her four-month check-up, Madelyn weighed 13 pounds, 4 ounces and measured 25 inches long. She’s doing great and right on track. The doctor likes her schedule, and says she’s meeting all the developmental milestones perfectly. You can call us proud parents. Sure, why not?

And just like that, we are a quarter of the way through Madelyn’s first year. Holy, dirty diapers, the time has fah-lown by! And my, has she changed! November 9th marked Madelyn’s third month of pure deliciousness.

At three months old, Madelyn now…

• holds up her head like there’s candy on the ceiling! Her neck control has always been good, but she is fully holding her head up now.
• is eating about 5 ounces per bottle. And usually she needs a top off to seal the deal of fullness. She is a little piggy and we love feeding her.
• costs us more money that we thought she would. Let me explain. She’s eating tons of formula (yay!) but it’s the most expensive formula on the market (boo!). Madelyn has a milk protein allergy (not a huge deal in the longrun, so no worries), and it requires her to be on the most sensitive formula available. It can only be special ordered through a mom-and-pop pharmacy and a 19.1 oz can costs — are you ready?? — $54! She goes through about two cans per week. Yeah. Ouch. Baby girl better get a scholarship to college!
• has a beautiful, crystal clear tushie! Remember that awful diaper rash? She had it on her bum for about ten weeks! YES! Ten weeks! We tried everything! And nothing made it disappear. It was the most frustrating and heartbreaking sight to see. Finally, the pediatrician decided to try her on the super-expensive-but-super-important formula and by golly, it did the job! Because her tummy was working so hard to break down the old formula, it was overproducing acid to break down her food and then she’d have acidic poop and well, you know where the acid-poop sits. It was eroding at her skin! So sad. Within 48 hours of switching to the super-expensive-but-super-important formula, her rash went away, the skin healed, and now it’s the most beautiful bottom I’ve ever seen. Whew!
• is sleeping better and better! Just before she turned three months, her long through-the-night stretches of sleep got a little wonky. I was panicking that she was not making progress and our once-awesome sleeper was waking up two to three times per night. Unfun. But we are reading a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth, and we have learned that at three or so months, the baby becomes more aware and social of her surroundings and wants to participate instead of sleep. I can’t really blame her. So instead, we are making sleep a positive thing for her! And now she is back to sleeping nine to twelve hours per night! She goes to sleep around 6:30 p.m. and we start our day around 8:00 a.m. She has two hours of awake time before going down for a nap. She doesn’t fight her sleep now and is rarely overtired so she gets a good night’s rest. Happy baby, happy parents!
• can hold objects! She isn’t necessarily reaching and grabbing yet, but if I put a toy in her hand, she’ll grip it strongly and fling it around. She used to have no interest at all in objects around her, but now she seems to be aware of colors and textures. It’s very cool to watch her explore.
• can turn over! On the monitor, we watched her squirm around like a rolie polie all night, and by the time we woke up in the morning, Madelyn was on her tummy! It’s only happened once, but we no longer swaddle her just in case she turns over again. I was nervous about how she’d adjust to being freeeeee, but the unswaddled bebe seems to be just fine!
• smiles ALL. THE. TIME. Somebody get a mop, because I am such a puddle! When she smiles her cute gummy smile and raises her eyebrows with delight, I seriously melt. It is probably the best thing my big brown eyes have ever seen and I spend my days doing the most ridiculous things trying to make her smile again and again.

Love our little Madelyn! Happy 3 months, babygirl!

As of October 9th, Madelyn is now two months old and we are driving a pretty steady pace on the parenting highway with only a couple stop lights or lane changes here and there. I’d say we’re doing okay! Now that I’m much more healed, we are taking turns meeting all of Madelyn’s eating, sleeping, and diaper changing needs. Dare I say it? She’s a pretty easy baby with a lovely little personality. She’s not too demanding and we absolutely love being with her and staring at her every molecule.

This month, Madelyn…

• started to smile! Be still, my heart! It’s the most marvelous thing my two brown eyes have ever seen!
• began to coo! She makes these adorable little sounds and whether they’re intentional or not, I don’t care. They are freakin’ adorable and I swear we have coherent conversations and banter.
• lost a lot of her monkey hair. She is less of an ape and more of a human being which is good for her future boyfriends. She was born with a lot of lanugo still on her shoulders, but it’s almost all gone now.
• improved her tummy time game face by lifting her head at a 45 degree angle. She’s got strong head and neck muscles, that’s for sure. She doesn’t completely hate tummy time as long as we catch her in a good mood. We love when Princeton comes to lay with her on the tummy time blanket.
• battled diaper rash! And it’s still going strong. We’ve tried zillions of products and executed all the methods. Her pediatrician now thinks the diaper rash is caused by her poops thanks to a change of formula. I tell ya, it’s always something in this household. So, we changed to “hippie diapers.” I call them hippie diapers because they’re all natural and free and clear of pretty much anything man-made. The worst part is that there’s no wetness indicator so we actually have to [gasp!] physically check to see if it’s a dirty diaper. But the best part is that these new hippie diapers are helping and hopefully the rash goes away and stays away thanks to going a naturale and changing her formula to accommodate her milk protein allergy.
• went to her first services at temple. She enjoyed all the music during High Holy Day services and was less fidgety than most adults in there. Actually, she wasn’t fidgety at all. She just sat in her stroller and looked around or snoozed. Everyone remarked how good she was and we’re glad to know we can bring her to more services in the future. She’s basically a rabbi already.
• grew some cheeks and chins. She’s looking a little more cherubic now and has these adorable cheeks that look chipmunk-ish. I swear she’s storing nuts in them for winter. It’s because of these cheeks and chins — yes, plural chin — that she might look a little more like me. Thankfully, she still has Bryan’s long and lean body and what nice Jewish girl doesn’t want legs and arms like that?
• became a TV star. Well, she’s not getting her star on Hollywood Boulevard just yet, but the series finale of “All My Children” aired on September 23rd on which she played Erica Kane as an infant. There she was, her face at the very beginning of the show. She had 12 seconds of 100% close-up and looked great on television. It was really a hoot to see our kid on a TV show playing the baby version of the most famous soap opera diva. Insane!

At two months, Madelyn weighed 10 pounds and 4 ounces (haha 10-4, over and out, Roger) and measured 23 inches long. She’s on track developmentally and her doctor is happy with her overall health. And we’re just happy with her. Overall!

Happy 2 months, Madelyn!