Yesterday was Alethea’s six month birthday. Happy birthday Baby!
Today we went to the doctor for her six month well baby check up. Her doctor said she looks wonderful and was impressed with both how happy and how strong Alethea is. Of course, they checked her height/weight/head size and Alethea’s current stats are as follows: Height – 26 inches, Weight – 18 lbs 11oz, Head Circumference – 44 cm. That means Alethea is in the 60th percentile for height and 90th for weight and head.
My poor girl got stuck four times today, since in addition to her regular vaccines, she got her first dose of the flu vaccine (the seasonal one, not H1N1, because Alethea’s doctor’s office doesn’t have that one yet). Alethea took the first shot with only a surprised expression, the second one she let out a couple of yelps, the third one she started crying and by the fourth, she absolutely let loose. Then when it was over I picked her up and she stopped crying right away. The nurse looked at her, smiled and said, “What a tough little girl!” What did Alethea do? She looked right at the nurse, said “Humpf!” and then showed the nurse the back of her head. I have no idea if she did it on purpose or not, but it was soooo funny!
This month’s big first for Alethea was her first airplane ride to Philly. We didn’t have any other major “firsts” this month but have continued to build on her other skills. Alethea is a real pro at sitting up now. She rarely falls over unless she wants to get down on her stomach. She is trying really hard to crawl and can do a four-point-stand on her hands and toes for several seconds. Occasionally she’ll go from the stand and fall onto her hands and knees, but she doesn’t seem to know what to do once she gets there and then ends up either on her stomach or back in the four-point-stand.
She doesn’t seem to be teething yet, but that hasn’t stopped her from enjoying her solid foods. We’ve finally managed to find some things that don’t make her gassy, so her diet now includes pears, sweet potatoes and squash. Her pediatrician suggested moving to three meals a day now and including some more chunky things, so I think we’ll try that.
Sleeping is slowly improving, although we experienced a not entirely unexpected set back as a result of our trip to Philly. At night, as long as it has been less than 3 hours since her last meal, if Alethea wakes up, she usually can put herself back to sleep without any intervention from Peter or me. The problem is that if it has been more than 3 hours, things get more dicey and if it has been more than 4 hours, you can forget any thoughts of Alethea putting herself back to sleep. I think this clearly indicates that she isn’t eating enough during the day to get her through the night, but I’m really at a loss as to how to get more food into her, other than I think we’ll keep pushing the solids. Still, this is an improvement over last month when she rarely put herself back to sleep at any point, so I will continue to hold out hope that my first good night’s sleep in about nine months is coming soon.
Alethea’s social and verbal skills are expanding. She is always trying out new sounds and her babble is sounding more and more like speech each day. This month she started holding out her arms to me and Peter when she wants to be picked up. She will also reach out and try to grab other children if they come close enough.
I have to say that while it was fun to have a tiny little brand new baby, I am feeling more and more “normal” with each passing month and am looking forward to the coming weeks with much anticipation, even though they will bring me a crawler who will be into everything.