Harris Heart-to-Hearts: Harper

Harper Madden is 6 months as of yesterday!! I’m so excited to see her grow, but a part of me is sad that she is ~~probably~~ my last baby. It’s hard for me to admit that still! Lately especially.

Harper is so happy – smiles all the time! She loves pretty much everyone, but really loves when her sisters are around. She will finally laugh for us, but Hadleigh still gets her to laugh so much more! Harper loves to be around people, so I think she’s going to be our little social butterfly. She’s happiest when in company.

Harper rolls from stomach to back and back to stomach all the time. She is sitting up great with support. She can almost sit up by herself, but she still falls over or leans forward way too much. It definitely won’t be long though! She wants to crawl so badly, but hasn't figured it all out yet. Because she’s so social and sees her sisters walking around, you can tell she just wants to be up and at it with them. Although I don’t want to rush it, I really do think she will be even happier when she gains that independence of being mobile. Right now she gets bored and frustrated easily with being on her belly/being in the jumper/being in her kickin’ coaster.

Harper is still nursing and getting breast milk in bottles during the day while I’m at work. She does awesome with both, so I’m going to keep going until she starts showing signs of wanting to wean or she starts beating on my chest like Hayden started doing. That’s when I know it’s time to stop nursing! J Harper is getting cereal once a day, and then a fruit & vegetable once a day. Although I will admit that sometimes she just nurses because things get so busy. She is 100% happy with nursing and doesn't miss the food on the days I don’t offer it to her, so I don’t sweat it.

She was sleeping through the night, but now I’ll admit that is not the case anymore. I thought it was just a fluke, but after a few weeks…not so much a fluke anymore! Ha. She goes to bed around 8pm every night. I nurse and rock her to sleep and then put her in her crib. She goes until about 1:30-2am, and then she’s awake babbling in her crib. So, I get up to nurse her and put her back to sleep. Then she’s up again between 4-5am to nurse again. Sometimes she wakes up at 6am, but then goes back to sleep around 7:30am. Other days she is asleep after that 4-5am feeding until about 8am. Days when her sisters are home, she takes more cat naps and then one decent hour nap. She catches up on her sleep the days when both Hadleigh & Hayden are in school. I think she’s going to be like her sister Hadleigh and if any stimulation is around, she’s up!