Six months later!

Today, February 5th, marks Evan's 6-month birthday!  Of course, it's hard for me to believe he's already half a year old.  On Thursday we took him to his 6-month check up with his doctor.  At this appointment he got the typical rundown of measurements and general health checks (look in ears, eyes, mouth, etc), and then more shots!  This time he didn't cry for very long after the shot was over, but later in the day he spiked a 100 deg F fever and was very cranky.  Every time John or I would pick him up he would just cry, so we knew he was achy and in pain.  A bit of children's tylenol and he soon felt good enough to take a short nap and the fever had gone away.  We also put him to bed early (around 7pm) for the night and he ended up sleeping so long that we woke him around 4am to feed him and make sure he was doing alright.  He was, and luckily the next day he was feeling much better.

Before his appointment John and I placed our usual "bets" on what he was going to weigh.  John guessed 17 lbs 3 oz, and I placed my wager on 17 lbs 7 oz.  As soon as I placed Evan on the scale at the appointment and I saw his weight hovering around my guess, I couldn't help but start to gloat!   He weighed in exactly at 17lbs 7 oz, which is perfectly the 50th percentile for weight for a 6-month old.  His height was 26.5 inches (46th %) and his head circumferences was 42.5 cm (26th %).  His percentile went up in all measurements, except his head.  This worried me a bit, but the nurse was not concerned as she said his growth curve is still within the range of normal.  Nonetheless, I want my boy to have a big brain and thus would like to see his head growing as fast as everything else!  Yet, at the same time I kind of like the proportion of his head to his body, so as long as he's within a healthy range, I guess it'll be fine. :)

The doctor encouraged us to stop having him nap in his swing, which is probably a good thing as he's starting to really get too big for it!  However, I've tried a few times now putting him down in his crib or the playpen and he just won't sleep.  I've been compromising by having him nap in his infant-to-toddler rocker for now (as it can lay nearly flat and doesn't rock like the swing), but it does have a vibration that may help soothe him to sleep a bit.  Nonetheless, I often have to go over and rock the chair a bit to calm him to sleep still, whereas in his swing he always put himself to sleep.  Oh well, we'll get there eventually...in baby steps!

Look at my boy...so big in his swing!

We are also supposed to start transitioning him to three meals a day and start using sippy cup for water.  We'd already started him on some solid foods, so we'll work on increasing that and making them a normal part of his daily diet in the coming weeks.  More on that in my next post...

Evan's just about to outgrow most all of his size 6 month clothes, and we've already entrained his 9 month sized clothes into his wardrobe.  I also realized yesterday just how chubby his tummy is!  For the most part he's been outgrowing things in length (especially torso length), but I put on his bum genius diaper yesterday for the first time in awhile (we had been using disposables as we tried to get him over a bad case of diaper rash) and I was shocked to see how big his belly was!  I didn't have to secure the diaper as tight as I used to!  He's definitely in that chubby, chunky baby phase, and I love it!

"I love grabbing my toes during changes!"

Could this boy look any more innocent?

Overall, Evan checked out great.  He's still working on his rolling over skills and on sitting up unsupported (still can only do this in the tripod at the moment).  He has started spending more time in tummy time (5-7 minutes each time these past few days), and I think that as he learns he has more control on when to flip over and on how to possibly move around in tummy time, he may learn to like it more.  He does seem to trying moving around while on his tummy, but gets easily frustrated by the negligible distance he achieves.  Every day is something new though, and I can't wait to see what all Evan learns in this next month!

Evan showing off how he's mastered the tripod.

One last shot to show off by 6-month-old boy: Evan's wearing his new souvenir from Australia and his fleece-lined track suit.  [This was from a recent sunny  and relatively warm winter day in which we attempted to take a walk, but it ended up being too breezy, but I had to get a picture of Evan all bundled up!]