6 Month Stats

Today Shasta had her 6 month check up and shots. Poor girl; first her ears pierced then three shots in her legs and a nasty syrup to drink. Lucky for her this week won't get any worse! Her doctor is really pleased with her progress, as usual. She's under weight in comparison to other 6 month old kids so he showed us the average weight for 4 month old kids and she's just barely under that average which is between 13 1/2 to 14 pounds. He said her development is at about a 5 month level as far as holding things and wanting to stand goes. I told him we've been working on sitting for over a month and she just doesn't seem to get it. She always straightens her legs and stiffens her body so she's forced to stand or lay down. He said most babies by 6 months old can hold themselves up for a few seconds before falling over and since she's (finally) doing that then she's technically ahead of the game for being a premie. He told us we can start giving her other baby foods (so not just rice cereal anymore) and dissolvable solids. She's growing up way too fast!

There are lots of fun things to share this month and fun pictures to go along. By 6 months:

Weight: 13lbs 1oz (5th percentile)
Height: 25 inches (23rd percentile)
Head: 16.9 inches (64th percentile) (Everyone always says their baby has a BIG head. My theory is babies heads need to grow faster than the rest of their body to get rid of their soft spots so their brains can be protected)

• Sleeps on her belly. I put her on her back and this is how I always find her when I check on her. And once I found her with her face in the mattress which was pretty funny, but made me nervous too. Good thing I could hear her breathing!

• She sure loves to stand. Especially when I try to put her in the bath. She straightens her legs and won't bend them for anything. She still loves her baths, she just loves to stand too!
  

  

  • Had her wiggly piggies painted for the second time.

•  Coos and coos and coos. If I coo at her she'll coo back, but so far that's the only copying she does.

• We've been practicing sitting up, but she is completely oblivious to it. I'm beginning to think she's never going to sit up and she's always going to have a bald spot!
  

• Fit into her first pair of store-bought shoes.

•  No clothing or diaper size changes this month. Still wears 0-3 months and size 1 diapers.

• Here's one you're dying to know...! It used to be that every diaper I changed was filled with poop. Now we're down to every third it seems and sometimes just once a day. Also, she goes to bed with a fresh diaper on and wakes up with a pretty fresh diaper on. Sometimes she's a little wet, but most mornings she wakes up dry. Hopefully that'll be the case when it comes time to potty train!
  

• Still loves her fingers and smiles more and more!

•  Holds onto toys for long periods of time, but once they fall they're out of site out of mind.

• She spits up a lot less, but still a lot more than I would like. It's less predictable now too which makes it hard. It used to be EVERY time she burped, but now it's more when she's laying on her tummy or just being held. And sometimes it's just a little and other times she's like a little milk fountain. Sigh. Someday my clothes won't be covered in baby spit.

  

  • I LOVE this picture! They're both looking right at the camera! She rolls to her belly EVERY time she's on the floor. For a while she couldn't remember how to flip back over to her back, but she pretty much has it mastered now. She struggles to get her arm out from under her, but I have a feeling before I know it she'll be crawling! PS. I love her little feet in the air. Super cute!

• Watches Wedge, tries to grab his tail, when she gets a hold of him she tries to bring him to her mouth (as if he were one of her toys), and has laughed at him a few times! Funny story: one night she was laying on the floor in front of me and he was sniffing around her face. She grabbed hold of his ear and he tried to get away only to find she had a death grip on him and the more he tried to run the more his ear got tugged on. (He's really sensitive about his ears). It resulted in him yelping "in pain" right by her face since he couldn't get away, her having no idea there was a problem, making the saddest face, and then bursting into tears. I couldn't stop laughing and it was sad that nobody could share in the humor with me. Retelling it is never as good as actually witnessing it.

• Got a new toy (but her feet don't reach the floor yet). Also wore tights to church for the first time and they were pretty much huge. Supposedly they're for 0-6 months.

•  Started getting tears when she cries. :(

• I've noticed she's quite the talker when we're at home, but once we're somewhere else she's pretty quiet. We were at a friends house almost the whole day one Saturday and she hardly made a peep. Same when we're at Nick's parents house. I guess she prefers to make noise when it's quiet so she can hear herself and when it's just her, Wedge, and me at home it's pretty quiet.
  

• Had gel put in her hair instead of baby lotion to style it.

•  Everything she holds goes straight to her mouth.

• She goes down for naps really well; doesn't cry and talks to herself (makes her tired noises) until she falls asleep. Unfortunately, going to bed for the night isn't as smooth. Our bedtime routine is rice cereal, bath, nurse, sing I am a Child of God, pray, and lay her down. Most nights she falls asleep while nursing, but some nights she's awake through the whole routine and then cries and cries once I lay her down. Sometimes I can get her to take a pacifier, but she spits it out within 20 seconds and then cries again. I don't have the heart to let her cry it out, I think she's too little for that. If I nurse her again she'll go back to sleep, but it's definitely not the same as nap time where she'll just go to sleep on her own. We have a night light in her room, but I wonder if the difference is she's afraid of the dark.

• Tried rice cereal for the first time.

• Makes tired noises and if I put her down for a nap before she's fallen asleep she'll lay in bed and make those noises until she's asleep.

• She growls a lot. She growls while I feed her rice cereal, while she gets her diaper changed, while she's laying on the floor, while she's in the car, while I change her clothes, and with pretty much anything she doesn't like.

• Had her first side pony tail

• Loves her toys

• Has developed a new obsession with my hair. Every time I carry her down the stairs especially she puts her hand on the back of my head and more or less pets me. It's super cute! But then again everything she does is super cute!

• Slept through the night for the first time and so far has been sleeping at least 6 hours every night since. Don't worry though, she doesn't usually sleep in my bed. This was after she got up way too early and went back to sleep. I just thought it was cute that all three of them were sleeping together.

• Has reverse old man hair. She has a lot of hair on top, but due to her bald spot and her hair thinning there's almost nothing on the sides. She looks like she's wearing a toupee.

• Got her ears pierced