Hey Baby! Since you had your official 6 Month check up yesterday, I have a few more things to document at this half-year mark. You are “very cute,” “developing well,” and a “petite little girl” in the words of Dr. Bruch (sounds like “brew”), your new pediatrician for the last 3 visits. He was actually the very first Doctor you saw outside the hospital when you were only 4 days old. We like him much better than the other Doctor-who-shall-not-be-named. He is very supportive of all our efforts to stay on top of your vaccinations, even with our crazy custom schedule and he gives very straight-forward answers when I ask him questions. And he treats us like intelligent human being capable of making decisions about your healthcare.

You are moving right along in terms of all your milestones. You have been very textbook in terms of when you meet your developmental markers so I was curious what he thought about you not having rolled over from back to front. He said not to worry that a lot of babies just don’t care to roll that way and that as long as you are able to sit unsupported for a few seconds at a time, you’re right on track. I guess maybe you’re making up for having rolled over front to back 3 or 4 months early by taking your time with back to front.  I also asked about crawling and was informed that some babies don’t ever crawl, they just one day stand up. I have a feeling that might be you. You dislike sitting in general much preferring to be supported on your wobbly little legs. Anyway, you have a couple months to accomplish that one “on time.”

We also discovered that all the food we’ve been feeding you has paid off. You now weigh 14.75 pounds. Even though I was worried you have been eating too much, it turns out that your weight and your height are perfectly proportioned. The same can not be said of your head. You have a noggin on you sweetie. At your 4 month visit, you were in approximately the 34th percentile all around. Now, you’re in the 20th percentile for height and weight and 70th percentile for head size! HAHA. All those brains have to go somewhere I suppose. All those peas and prunes have gone straight to your head. 🙂

We also talked about your sleeping and nursing habits. I’m sorry to inform you that he agrees with me that you don’t need to be eating every 2 hours and waking up every 3 hours at night. Doctor’s orders are to stretch your daytime feeding to at least 3 hours, if not 4, to teach you to eat a full meal in a sitting. He says you’ll learn fast when you get those grumblies in your tummy that you need to polish off your meals to avoid future discomfort. So, we’re going to try a less on-demand approach.

Four to 5 hour stretches are what the Doc claims we should be getting from you at night now. I wish that were true. Oh how nice it would be and how much less racoonish I would look if we could get there! I’m hoping that training you to go longer between feedings during the day will translate into longer sleep stretches at night. The “experts” claim it won’t. But I’m hopeful. You still love to sleep. Getting you to sleep is not the problem. But you’re a snacker. You want to eat all night long. In terms of night weaning, he told us we could start, but also hinted that it might be best to leave things be until 9 months at which point he encouraged no more night feeding. Without my prompting, he advocated a kind of baby-whisperer-like approach of comforting without feeding. I’m going to see if I can make it to the 9 month mark so that I can night wean you without guilt or doubts about whether I’m depriving your aching belly. It’s only another 2 and half months, right? I can do it! Plus you take a binky instead of a feeding about half the time now. It’s been a little more tolerable since I can nudge your father out of bed to and save myself that long walk to your bedroom when it’s a matter of replacing the plug rather than filling the tank.

In terms of what you’re allowed to eat. I think we’ve been a little liberal since you’re gotten many “stage twos” already, but you seem to be coping just fine. You get a combo of homemade and store-bought, mostly organic, baby food. Your favorite food so far seems to be prunes. Bleck. But whatever floats your boat. You reeeally enjoy them.  We’re working on introducing a new food every three days. The exceptions will be meat which you won’t get until at least 8 months and all the possible allergen no-nos like eggs and strawberries until 1 year. You don’t care for tart fruits yet. You will eat them, but it takes effort. You prefer pears, bananas, apples, and veggies like sweat potatoes, yams and peas over things like raspberry (mixed with pear) and peaches. They make you pucker a little bit and you don’t really know what to think about it yet.

And for just for funsies…You seem to be developing a lot of quirks in the last month. Here’s a breakdown of the silly things you do that make me smile and/or scratch my head.

• You have had a single-side preference for a couple months now, but lately when I put you on the left one you go at it like you’re bobbing for apples. Your preference for right-boob flavor has grown extremely marked. I’m growing concerned that I’m going to end up with a grapefruit and a cantaloupe in response to your focused demand.
• Of all the bazillions of toys you have, your favorite pastime is sucking on washcloths. You will stay content with a damp rag for days. But you do enjoy other playthings as well. Granny and Grandpa recently got you a classic ring tower. Notice your do-rag and what your shirt says (“I Roll With Jesus” hehe, thanks Aunt Kelly!). You are able to sit resting your weight on your arms for a significant amount of time (until you get irritated and demand to have your position changed since you’re not capable of changing positions on your own yet). Even more impressive, you’re also able to sit with arms free to grab and play for a few second before you get overly-excited and topple over.

• You require being held A LOT these days. You are no longer content in your baby gym without company unless I can get you in there without you seeing me walk away. We’re working on it. I don’t mind, but I don’t want you to be spoiled. I mean, I know I’m fun to hang out with, but you have to learn to play by yourself sometimes. I’m getting less and less of “me” time every day.
• You continue to have a fear of clothes going on over your head. You’ve been this way since your first weeks of life. I figured you’d outgrow it eventually, but you still give me the lip almost every time I pull a shirt over your head regardless of how quickly I do it and how many encouraging words I use to get you through it. You just do not like that moment of disappearing from the world.
• You’re also now afraid of my phone. Every time it rings you give me the lip until I comfort you. That one is just weird. My ringtone hasn’t changed. I’m not sure why the sudden phone fear, but it’s pretty funny.
• Mima started helping you make “Indian” sounds by tapping her hands on your lips while you’re talking. Since then, you open your mouth at her when she’s around, seemingly waiting for her to do it again. Trouble is, you only sometimes figure out that you’re the one who has to make the sound to get it to work. So cute!

 

And lastly a couple new skills…

• You raspberried a few months ago once or twice and then you forgot how to do it until a couple days ago. And you are loving the “thhhhh” and “vvvvvv” sounds, made with as much spit as possible of course. No more “mamas” yet, but you’re working on “bbbb.”
• You are getting good at taking steps, one foot in front of the other, (with someone holding your hands for balance) if we coax you.

• And one more. We took the insert out of your baby bathtub since you can now sit up *almost* unassisted.  You do very well holding onto the edges of the tub to balance yourself until you get distracted by your washcloth at which point you must grab it and topple over into my waiting arms.