6 Month Check-up

Kyle had his 6 month check-up today and he checked out great! He's up to 19 lbs 11 oz and 27.5". All 3 of his percentiles (weight, length and head circumference) were within 1% of each other, around 78th%. So he is very proportionate! He had another round of shots and handled them well...I was doing "car wash" (hanging my hair over his face) and he was smiling/laughing until the needles went in, and then his little lower lip went out and he made the most devastated-sounding cry. But he only cried for about 5 seconds and then resumed his amusement with car wash.

As you can see from the above photo, Kyle loves eating "solids"...the messier the better! We have figured out how to keep things tidier since this photo was taken though. When we first started, he'd whine/fuss a little bit in between bites, like he thought we were taking it away. But he now seems to understand that, unlike Mommy or a bottle, the spoon isn't bottomless and it needs to come out of his mouth frequently to "fill up". It's cute though, instead of fussing, he now anxiously kicks his little feet around when he's waiting for his next bite :) So after a week of enjoying rice "mush", we started him on oatmeal mush yesterday (and the quiet old lady who was whispering hush). He seems to like it just as well. And the pediatrician said we can start the Stage 1 fruits and veggies after a couple days of oatmeal. Since Kyle loves this "wallpaper paste", I bet he's REALLY going to love fruits and veggies, since they'll actually have a taste to them!

And much to my disappointment, the solids haven't helped his sleep at night. He's still waking about every 3 hrs to eat :( The pediatrician asked about his sleep and his response was "well, you could let him cry for a minute or two and see if he'll fall back asleep"...a minute or two?? I let him cry for 5-10 minutes without thinking twice about it! Needless to say, I didn't tell him that we're considering trying one of those "cry it out" methods.

6 MONTHS!!

I have definitely been slacking in the blogging department recently. And I would have felt very guilty if I let Kyle's 6 month birthday pass without a post. So here it is, along with a slideshow of some recent photos. Yes, Kyle turned 6 months today. And to celebrate, we gave him his first taste of solids (instead of a birthday cake). We strapped him into his high chair and spoon-fed him some rice cereal. He seemed to like it, although it was pretty messy and I'm not sure how much he actually ate. But it's a start (and will hopefully be the start of him sleeping through the night!).

He's up to about 19 lbs (on nothing but Mommy's milk). So this means he doubled his birth weight about a week ago (at 18 lbs 10 oz). And sometime in the last couple weeks, he surpassed Benson in the weight department!

Kyle caught his first cold a couple weeks ago and had a stuffy nose for over two weeks. It was a long couple weeks because he had so much trouble nursing (and would get very frustrated), but fortunately his stuffy nose didn't turn into anything worse. I seemed to have dodged the cold but had my first experience as a "sick mommy" last Saturday. And the timing couldn't have been worse...Jared was gone for over 12 hrs at his fantasy baseball draft. I had a fever of almost 102, along with a slightly sore throat. Kyle didn't nap much for me but was a good little boy and entertained himself with his various activities while I laid around moaning/groaning on the couch. My fever was almost gone the next day and might have been caused by a VERY painful clogged milk duct (too much information?). My sore throat has somewhat lingered, especially at night but I'm basically all better.

Kyle has started doing much more babbling this last week and less "dragon sounds". He likes rolling all over the place and props himself up into the crawling position and kicks his legs like he's trying to figure out how to move. He is also very into grabbing his feet, scratching the furniture (just like Benson), and pulling my hair. I think that pretty much sums up the last couple weeks!

Fun Visit!

Kyle was treated to a visit with both his grandmas yesterday...Grammy and Nonnie. Grammy made a delicious soup, and we all had fun playing with Kyle. He still has a stuffy nose (it's been 10 days now!), but it hasn't affected his mood. And he was in the BEST mood today for some reason...extra smiley and giggly. Maybe it was because Daddy assembled his jogging stroller and he's looking forward to cruising around the neighborhood in style!

Bye Bye Mobile

Kyle's rotation of activities has lost one of its original members...his mobile. A couple weeks ago, he figured out that he could lie on his side (to extend his reach) and grab onto the animals. At first, he would only do this every couple days. But it's now at the point where he does it every time! And once he grabs on, he has a death grip and pulls and shakes it as hard as he can (this has caused the mobile to droop). Needless to say, this didn't seem very safe, so we took it down tonight. I am particularly sad about this because the mobile was my friend in the morning...once Kyle would wake up for the day, I would go in and hold him for a couple minutes, and then put him under his mobile. He'd watch it happily for at least a half hour (sometimes 45 minutes!), during which time I'd lie in bed, watch the news and ease into my day. Oh well, on the bright side, he must have really good hand-eye coordination to grab a moving, dangling object that is almost out of his reach!

The above picture was taken after his afternoon nap...after both naps today, he shimmied his way down to the mobile end of the crib and grabbed onto it (in the dark) even though it was turned off. Too bad "grab the mobile" isn't safe...I think it would be Kyle's favorite activity! And he now rolls both ways in his crib...back to tummy to fall asleep, and then tummy to back when he wakes up.

He's now had his cold for 5 days. It seems to be a little better today and I'm happy that it never progressed beyond a stuffy nose (no fever, ear infection, etc...knock on wood!). But that stuffy nose has made nursing VERY difficult! Think about it...when our nose is blocked, we can chew and breath through our mouth. But he must be "suctioned on" to eat so obviously can't breath through his mouth. I tried a bottle to see if that was any easier, but it was about the same. I'm learning that with kids, it's always going to be "something". Amazingly, I didn't catch Jared and Kyle's cold! Must be all that quality sleep I'm getting at night...