Travel Often

“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” — Rosalia de Castro

Love Deeply, but Laugh Along the Way

"Happiness is only real when shared." - Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

View Marriage as an Adventure

"Love is a flower which turns into fruit at marriage." ~Finnish Proverb

Fuel your body with GOOD (It's the only one you get)

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything. - Arabian Proverb

Open your Soul to Motherhood

A Grand Adventure is About to Begin - Winnie the Pooh

A New Kind of Love is Born

Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Sixth Month Check Up - 6.5 Months


Jackson’s 6 month visit (even though he’s almost 7 months)

We had to change Jackson’s 6 month appointment because his pediatrician had a conference so now he’s a little off schedule but I’m always OK with delaying shots… hate those things!
Hello friends! I am sitting on my own! I'm 6.5 months old here.
 

As of November 6, 2012, Jackson’s measurements:
Weight: 16.6 pounds – 18 percentile (little peanut!)
Length: 27.5 – 74 percentile
Head: 17.09” – 29 percentile

Tall and skinny man!

I had only been feeding Jackson solids one time a day (dinner time) and had just started feeding him breakfast this past week (bananas). His pediatrician told us we should be feeding him three times now. OOPS!!! I was going off Jackson’s cues and just started to notice he seems to have tons of energy after he eats at night, and seems like he should get more during the day since he’s been working on crawling. Sure enough, he was VERY excited to eat in the morning. So he gets oatmeal and bananas in the morning. A fruit and veggie in the afternoon and a yummy dinner at night. All with breast milk with some breast milk breaks in between meals too. That’s a total of 6 feedings throughout the day. That’s a lot of eating!!! And a lot more food to make. I just want to make sure he’s always getting enough breast milk first though.
Getting ready for my shots!
 

We were also told he could eat meat now. This weekend I’ll be hard at work making all his foods. I’m going to try getting him fish at least once a week (same with us). I always feel so good the day after I eat fish. Weird, I know.   

Jackson tried pears this past week (loves them!) for the first time and tonight he’s going to try winter squash. We were also told we could stop his medication for reflux! So I’m going to add plain Greek Yogurt to his diet to help his tummy. Hopefully there aren’t any dairy allergies! Fingers crossed. I’ll probably have to introduce in the morning and on the weekend so I can watch him and be ready if anything should happen.

After work, I ran to Valley Natural Foods and bought some organic puff cereal. I gave Jackson a few pieces while I was fixing his dinner. Why didn’t I think of this before? This distracts him enough where he’s not getting impatient as I cook everything up. He didn’t know what to do at first but once he got one in his mouth, it was so cute to see his teeth and jaw chew! His face was priceless.
Step one
 

We also give him his sippy cup during his meals. It’s filled with water now until he gets the hang of it. He knows exactly what to do, but we have to work on him throwing his head back to get the water to come out.
Step Two
 

Sleep has been wonderful. Maybe once a week he’ll get up at 2, but most of the time it’s me going into his nursery at 5:30 before work. There might be a 4 am wake-up call in there every now and again too but I am fine with that. He will go back to sleep after...and same with me. I’ll get that workout in at some point… Just love this little man of ours.
Step Three
 

Jackson is able to sit on his own now. Just a little wobbly here and there. He has begun to notice strangers and will cling on to me if something scares him: when we Skype, the garage door opens or closes, someone scares him with a loud voice. He is so great at transferring objects from one hand to the next. The doctor was very impressed. 
Step Four
 

He’ll act like he’s ready to clap and he’ll extend his arms out a little better before when he wants one of us to pick him up. Love that feeling.
Dad? Is that you over there??
 

Changing him has become a crazy challenge. The minute we lay Jackson down, he’ll flip over and want to crawl over to the edge of the crib so he can bite the wood. A friend said they have a special book for their little girl that will distract her. She only gets it when she’s getting changed. So we tried this and it worked!!! For a minute or two, so we have to be FAST.
And back to trying to crawl again...
 

I don’t like that it’s SO dark out now when we get home. It’s very hard to go for a walk now. Not sure what we’re going to do. Next week it’s supposed to be in the low 30s, so I guess it’s about that time to get creative with our fresh air.

We’ve made it to church THREE Sundays in a row!! YAY! Yes, it’s during his nap, but we make it work.

Crawling. Crawling. Crawling. I wonder with him eating more, if he’ll have just enough energy to work harder and before we know it, he’ll be all over the place? Oh boy!!! This is going to get interesting!!

I had my first taste of what it might feel like when I get bit by Jackson. Ohhhhh, man… NOT going to feel good. I think he was testing what my reaction was going to be because he kept looking at me. I put the kibosh on that! Those teeth are SHARP!!

The best is when I pick him up from day care and his face lights up. He smiles, laughs and then we cuddle. Day has been made. Ahhhh.