Even though my last post was only a few days ago, there's a lot of news. For starters, we had our 6 month checkup on Thursday. Daniel's up to 15lb 8oz and 26.5in long, still long and lean and a healthy boy. He had his first runny nose this week but no other symptoms so the doctor's guess is allergies or teething rather than a cold. He was very smiley and giggly at his appointment and grabbed the stethoscope from the doctor's neck so he could play with it and inspect it further. Our next checkup is in 2 more months and I wonder what new tricks he'll learn by then.
The big change for us in the past month is that Kevin returned to work and Daniel goes to my mother-in-law's house during the day. We've all had to adjust a little to that change but all in all, it's going well. Daniel seems to be happy there during the day and generally naps and eats well. He has always thrived on a routine of play, eat, sleep (we tried switching the first 2 but it just works better this way), and we try to have him back down for a nap within 2 hours of waking. My MIL is trying to stick to this routine with him as well and I think that predictability helps him to feel secure even though it's not home and not Mommy and Daddy. Grandma is relishing the opportunity to spend time with him and her house is close enough to my office that I can go over to visit at lunchtime. It's about as close to an ideal situation as you can have short of working at home.
Here's a look at where we are this month:
Sleeping: His nighttime sleep is down a bit during the day because he doesn't get to go back to sleep for long after our first feeding of the day. He still eats around 5:45-6, but whereas before I would put him back down and he'd wake up again after 8, now we leave for Grandma's by 7:15 so he's up for the day by then. The good news is he seems to be compensating for that by napping longer during the day. 2 and 3 hour naps are not uncommon. He's had a harder time getting down for the night for the past few weeks with teething but most nights it's still not too bad.
Eating: Until tonight, Daniel was still an exclusively breastfed baby. He's a good eater and if tonight's experience (below) is any indication I think he'll be a good solid food eater too.
On a side note, the fact that I exclusively breastfed for 6 months, as the AAP recommends, makes me a member of an exclusive club. Only 13% of mothers still exclusively breastfeed at 6 months and less than half are still nursing at all. I know some women aren't able to nurse or can't fully provide that way, but given all the benefits nursing provides mom and baby it's a shame that so many women don't get the support they need at home or work to enable them to continue for the whole first year. I was happy to see the Surgeon General's call to action to support breastfeeding this week bring awareness to the issue.
Activities: The ExerSaucer has been a big hit this month. He loves playing in it and it's been fun to watch him discover new toys on it. In fact, he loves it so much we decided to get another for Grandma's house. He still enjoys his activity mat too and is starting to work on creeping. If we put a toy he wants a few inches away from his hands, he can scoot himself there, though not yet gracefully. He has figured out how to lift his butt up and down and tries to generate momentum that way but not always successfully. Sometimes he'll use his head to scoot forward too. He lifts all the way up on his arms too and he's starting to put weight on his knees. While he may not be able to put the movements together smoothly during the day he's quite proficient at moving all around his crib at night. It's not uncommon to find him all the way across the crib from where we put him, turned 180 degrees to face the opposite direction!
Here's his 6 month carseat picture:
Since that doesn't show his length well, here's a picture of him lying by our cat Todd.
For the first few months Todd seemed indifferent toward Daniel but lately they seem to be growing fond of each other. Daniel watches Todd from across the room and Todd lets Daniel pet him, grab his fur and, as we saw today, even roll over onto him, and he was still purring. Besides our other cat Tim, Daniel has another feline friend in Grandma's cat Marty, who stands guard outside the bedroom door while Daniel naps during the day.
Who likes sweet potatoes?
We decided early on that we would wait until Daniel was 6 months old to introduce solids, or at least as long as we could. So as the half-year mark drew closer we made preparations, setting up the high chair, researching which foods to give, and last week, I bought little bowls, spoons, and sippy cups. It felt surreal to look at them and realize my baby would be eating big boy food soon. It reminds of how it felt in the final months of pregnancy looking in his closet and realizing that a little baby was coming soon to wear them.
After much consideration we decided Daniel's first solid food would be sweet potatoes. So today Daniel and I went shopping and bought a fresh yam. I baked it, scooped it out of the peel, pureed it, and mixed in some breastmilk to thin it out, then let it cool.
On the advice of some mommy friends we stripped him down to his diaper and a bib (so as not to have messy clothes) and strapped him into his high chair.
Once we got him settled in it was time to eat!
Here's his first bite:
We quickly discovered though that he ate better if we put a dab of puree on our finger and fed him that way. After he got tired of his high chair we even fed him some more in the bathtub and he kept eating. All told, our first foray into the land of big boy food went pretty well. After a few days assuming no adverse reaction from the sweet potato, we'll try another new food, this time something green.
One side effect I'm not looking forward to: stinky solid-food diapers. That's one "change" I can't believe in!
