Every Good and Perfect Gift: Hank 6 Months

Oh man - I think this is the latest I've been on a monthly update... between hosting a shower and vacation (pics to come on both of those soon!)I got a little behind. I thought about just combining Hank's 6 and 7 month posts, but that just didn't feel right, so even though Hank is 10 days away from turning 7 months, I am still going to post a 6 month update! Hopefully I'll be more on top of his 7 month update.

STATS:

Weight - 18lbs, 8oz (67%)

Length - 27.8in (90%)

Head - 16.9in (38%)

If I were to give this month a title it would be: SICK... that pretty much sums up how Hank felt most of the month. He went from a growth spurt to a cold to an ear infection to a cold. Luckily it was all cleared up at the end of the month in time for vacation but prior to that Hank was not sleeping well and would sometimes sneak in an extra nursing at around 1-2am because he was so fussy and would not be calmed down any other way! I literally think he was on Tylenol for two weeks straight. His ear infection was minor, but I was so thankful they found something at the med check (I've taken him to the dr. before thinking he had an ear infection, only to find nothing was wrong!) - although he was extremely happy and smiley while at the doctor, I could tell he just wasn't sleeping the same and would always be really cranky while I was trying to rock him... not like Hank at all.

EATING - I think Hank's nursing schedule is about the same... he still eats about every 3.5hours, but crams the last two nursing sessions together before bed time. I played around with the amount of solids this month. Hank went from eating a jar or two of baby food 3 times a day (I think he was in a growth spurt when we first started!) To not wanting to eat anything at 1 meal a day. Towards the end of the month though, Hank was eating a solid "dinner" and would eat a little at breakfast. I couldn't remember how and when to add meals, but our doctor reminded me that you do it once they are really established eating at one meal. She also recommends feeding solids and hour before or after nursing (which I did not do with Lucy bc Babywise doesn't recommend this) so I've been playing with the timing a bit. I usually nurse Hank right when he wakes up (as usual) and then I feed him solids whenever we are all sitting down for a meal. So, If he nurses at 7:30am, I usually feed him breakfast around 8am, when we are all eating and then he nurses around 5/5:30pm and I usually feed him solids around 6/6:30pm or whenever we are eating dinner. He nurses at 7:30am, 11am, 2:30am, 5pm, 7:30pm, and 5am (approximately). So far he has liked most things, or I should say tolerated... he only seems to really like sweet potatoes. We have had to stay away from bananas, apples and rice and I go heavy on the peas and pears as he's not having the easiest time pooping... hoping this passes with age!

On a random side note - we did go through about a week when Hank wouldn't take a bottle, we tried a bunch of random things (changing temperature, changing nipple size, doing it in the middle of the night, etc.) but I think ultimately Hank was just sick and cranky and that's why he wouldn't take one. Once he was feeling better he got right back into the swing of things. One day during his bottle strike I was gone volunteering and Ben ended up making really milky rice cereal and spoon feeding Hank a bunch of milk!

SLEEP - so the sicknesses through off our schedule a lot, typically I would say hank took two 1-2 hour naps a day, and one 45 minute nap, but while sick it was kind of random. I like the longer two naps to be his first two naps because then it lines up that he is sleeping while Lucy is sleeping, but he would often only take 45 minutes for the first and/or second nap and then be super cranky between naps (so I know he wasn't getting enough sleep!) and make up for the lack of sleep during his third nap. Normal nap schedule is 9/9:30am, 12:30pm, 4/5pm... I try to push him for at least 2 hours of wake time, or to stick close to the nap start time, otherwise he was giving me weird cat naps throughout the day. At night he is still going from about 7/8pm - 7/7:30am. He still lays down very easily and rarely fusses when going to sleep (except of course during the ear infection period).

MILESTONES - Hank continues to army crawl. He gets up on all fours, but then I think he realizes that would not be as fast as just going to his belly and crawling, so he goes back to his tried and true method. Part of me wonders if he will regular crawl because he can get places pretty fast doing the army crawl. Towards the end of the month he learned to go from crawling to sitting and has been working really hard on pulling himself up. He can't quite do it, but I can tell all he wants to do is stand. He had not started babbling yet (he started while we are on vacation) but was smiling and laughing way more this month. He is always watching and observing everyone else in our family (especially Lucy) to see what is going on, and loves to be a part of the all the action.

When he isn't sick, Hank continues to be an extremely happy baby. On vacation, my mom and her friend commented all the time on how happy and smiley he was and when we were back the nursery volunteer at Grace said he was one of the happiest babies she has watched (of course he isn't like this all of the time because of sicknesses, teeth, etc... but that's why it is easy to tell when something IS wrong, he's normally not cranky at all). He is almost always smiling. He loves grabbing stuff, and I often find him crawling across the floor after having spotted a crumb or piece of dirt (thanks for the reminder that I need to vacuum buddy!)... he's very determined, much like his sister.

So, pictures were pretty difficult! This guy did not wan to sit still. I think these first couple pictures are the best I got.