Saturday, March 19, 2005

6 MONTH DOCTOR CHECKUP

Yesterday you had your 6 month well-baby checkup. The worst thing about these visits are the crazy amount of immunizations that doctors now give babies. Normally you would be getting 5 shots at each baby visit (2, 4, and 6 months) but we decided against giving you the Hepatitis B vacciation, so you get 4 each time. Each time you've progressively been better about the pokes in your legs. Yesterday you turned beet red when the nurse did the shots, and screamed for about a minute. Then I picked you up and you complained for another minute, but then were fine. You even smiled at the nurse on the way out the door! She was shocked! You've slept a lot today -- all those injections take a lot out of a baby, I bet.

You are now 29 1/3 inches long (off the chart) and 19 lbs. 8 oz. (85th percentile). I found Tony's baby records and I have mine, so here's a sort of interesting comparison:

WEIGHT
Thor Tony Ashley
birth 8 lb 14 oz 8 lb 1 oz 8 lb 4 oz
2 mo 12 lb 10 oz 13 lb 14 oz 13 lb 4 oz
4 mo 16 lb 4 oz 17 lb 13 oz 16 lb 8 oz
6 mo 19 lb 8 oz no record 19 lb 7 oz

HEIGHT
Thor Tony Ashley
birth 23" 21" 19 1/2"
2 mo 26" 24 1/2" no record
4 mo 27 1/2" 27 1/2 27 1/2"
6 mo 29 1/3" no record 28 3/4"


The strangest thing? We were all exactly the same height at 4 months! I guess it goes to show that baby height doesn't predict future height. Our doctor said that at age 2 you can predict much better.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

6 MONTHS

Six months -- hard to believe. As always, you change very quickly. You've really started to have seperation anxiety, which normally starts around 4-5 months when babies can really recognize people. You do this thing now where you'll be in your jumper or on the floor and you start staring at me. You don't really smile, you just stare. Then all of a sudden you burst into sobs. No warning, nothing, except maybe a frown. When I come close and pick you up you stop immediately. It's like your little brain thinks: "Wait. Mom is there and I'm way over here. Why is she so far away? Waaaaah!!" Supposedly this round of seperation anxiety is fairly short, and then it starts again when you start crawling very well, then walking. Then you realize you can move away from me, instead of me moving away from you.

The one thing that hasn't been changing very much, and that I've been observing you and considering since you were born, really, is that you seem to be a highly sensitive baby, with high needs. I'm not sure if everyone thinks this about their baby, since babies are in general demanding, but Dr. Sears (the pediatrician and baby-expert I trust the most) lists qualities of "high need" babies in his book, and you seem to fit all of them. I keep thinking maybe you'll change, but so far you haven't -- I think it's the way you are and will always be. Some of the qualities are: supersensitive (easily bothered by changes in their secure environment), "Just can't be put down," "not a self soother," "intense," "wants to nurse all the time," "awakens frequently," "unsatisfied, unpredictable," "draining," and "demanding." Dr. Sears also says that these children often become "bright," "sensitive," "capable of develping deep and intimate attachments," "interesting" and "challenging" as they grow, as long as their needs are "accurately read and appropriately responded to." These babies, he says, have the potential to exceed in people-places such as school or daycare and develop multiple interests and talents later in life, though meeting their needs in the early years can be difficult and sometimes tiring.

Mulling this over in my mind helps when you wake every couple hours at night, protest when I put you down or stop rocking, awaken instantly when I try to lie you in your crib for a nap, squirm about when you're in my arms or when I change your diaper, and want/need to nurse for 45 minutes to go to sleep. You are not a "mellow" baby, that's for sure! You're intense and active, curious, highly alert, sweet, squirmy (you're about to crawl and sit up at once), and vocal -- although you don't cry much at all any more unless you are left alone (which is understandable!).


We've started feeding you some solid foods, although you aren't overly interested yet. Grandma Janis has had the best luck feeding you pears and rice cereal, but today Dad fed you some green beans that you ate as well. You usually spit most of the food out, but sometimes take good bites. You're still much more intersted in nursing than eating food -- fine with me. It's a sweet time together.

More to come!

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

5 1/2 Months

Back from Maui. The trip went by really fast. The most amazing thing, I think, was that you were absolutely fabulous on the airplane trips. We flew out of Portland and the flight there (including a stopover in Honolulu) was about 7 hours. You didn't cry once. Not even a whimper! I couldn't believe it. Then on the flight back which was only about 5 hours, you whimpered a couple times but never cried. There was even a screaming 2 year old a couple rows ahead of us. Normally that sets you off -- you don't like to hear other babies cry -- but you only frowned a couple times. You nursed, played, smiled at everyone, jumped on dad's lap, slept. Angelic.

On the trip we went to the beach almost every day, but kept you in the shade. Dad and I took turns snorkeling and saw lots of fish. You felt the sand with your toes and dad took you in the water once or twice. You weren't too sure about that, since it's kind of cold. You spent lots of time with dad in your Snugli. He took you on lots of walks -- you never get tired of that, it seems. The third night we were there you had a fever of 103. It's your first one -- you felt so hot, but you were still in a good mood, just sleepy. The next day you were fine. You never got sick, you haven't yet (yay!), so I don't know what caused the fever. Maybe you fought whatever it was off.

Yesterday an amazing thing happened -- you fell asleep on your own. I was really tired, laying in bed, and dad brought you to me because he thought you were tired too. I tried to nurse you but you weren't really hungry. So you grabbed the sheets and started chewing on them, making cooing noises at the ceiling. I started to doze off. Then about 10 minutes later I looked over at you and you were completely asleep! Yay! I knew it would happen eventually.... normally you have to be rocked, nursed, walked, or in the car to sleep. You must be maturing... I don't mind if you stay a baby a little longer, though. :)

What else... you've really become fascinated with our cat, Winston, lately. You watch him walk around, you turn your head when he meows, you even smile and squeal at him. Last night you petted him lots while he was sitting next to you purring. I think you like the way his fur feels.

You're growing like crazy. You wear 6-9 month clothes now, and are growing out of those at an amazing rate. You're the size of a 10 month old baby, it seems!!

Speaking of growing, it's almost time to start feeding you solid food -- 6 months they say is the best time to start with simple foods like rice cereals, bananas, squash, avocado, pear. You don't seem really interested, though. You reach for water glasses and like to take sips of water, but when we've tried to give you banana or applesauce you spit it right out. Sometimes it takes a while I guess. In a couple weeks we'll start trying more. You'll be 6 months on March 14th. Amazing!