Levi's Six-Month Check-Up and Birth Announcement

Age of Baby: 6 months

Size of Baby:

• Weight: 17 lbs 14 oz (down to the 56th percentile), + 11 oz from last month
• Length: 27 inches (up to the 64th percentile), + 1 inch from last month
• Head circumference: 17 inches (down to the 50th percentile), +0.5 inches from his 4-month check-up

Levi is wearing a size 3 diaper. He was mostly wearing 3-6 month clothes this past month, but 6-9 month clothes fit a bit better! ;)

Immunizations:

• DTaP (diptheria, tetanus, pertussis)
• Hib
• Hepatitis B
• PCV13
• Polio
• Rotavirus

Doctor's Visit Summary:

Levi's visit went very well today. He is still right on par, or even a bit ahead, developmentally. His fine motor and gross motor skills are great and he's starting to vocalize (quite loudly, in fact), too. His weight gain has started to slow a bit, but that is probably thanks to his newfound love of moving! His eczema is definitely starting to clear up now. I've pretty much eliminated all dairy except cheese and the occasional yogurt from my diet though. I've also been using the lotion religiously on him. Another round of vaccines, but now he's done for awhile. #vaccinessavebro We'll go back in three months for his 9-month check-up!

Picture of Baby:

Here is Levi's 6-month picture in the 12-month onesie. His eyes are still quite blue in better lighting (I think they will be sticking!) and his hair is getting longer on top of his head! :) He didn't want to straighten out for me this month as he loves playing with those piggies any chance he can get! He refuses to keep socks on, always removing the right one and often the left, too. Chewing on those is one of his favorite things to do. Eww.

And here is a comparison of all four of the boys at six months, just for fun. Levi continues to take the prize for heaviest of the four, and is now tied for 2nd for height. Ethan was 27.75 inches long and weighed 16 lbs 6 oz. Noah was 27 inches long and weighed 17 lbs 1 oz. And tiny little Amos was 26.75 inches long and weighed just 14 lbs 13 oz. Levi definitely continues to have his own look, but I still think he favors Noah (and Mommy) the most.

Accomplishments this Month:

• Rolling over...and over...and over
• Inching around as much as he can
• Solid food!
• First preschool story time at the library for big brother's field trip
• Puts in paci himself
• Starting to vocalize - maybe a "dada"??

Literally the day after he turned five months old, he finally rolled from his tummy to his back. That was quickly followed by rolling from his back to his tummy. Now I can't get him to stay on his back at all! He loves sleeping on his belly and when I put him in his crib, he instantly rolls to his belly to sleep.

He's also started to want to get to things that are out of his reach, so he's moving his body as much as he can on his belly (without actually crawling). If you put him in one spot, you are guaranteed he will be in a completely different one moments later. Yikes! Time to baby-proof this house that we've never had to baby-proof until now!

We decided to try some solid food when he turned 5 months, to see if that would help in the sleep department. We went ahead with rice cereal since it is easy to thin down with breastmilk. He did great with it for several days before deciding he wasn't a fan anymore. Sigh. So, I decided to give veggies a try. I steamed and pureed some sweet peas and he was gobbling those down as fast as we could spoon them to him (and even grabbing the spoon to shovel them in by himself!). Then after a few days, he decided he wasn't a fan. Ugh. So I moved on to green beans. Those were a no go from the start. Then I tried carrots. Not really a fan of those either. So, I thought maybe texture was an issue. I couldn't blame him if it was since it affects me, too! Pureeing the frozen, then steamed, veggies still gave it more texture than baby food from a jar, so I bought a few jars of pumpkin to give that a try. He's been eating that for several days now pretty well, so hopefully that's the trick! I am still going to continue to try pushing my homemade purees on him because they're so much cheaper (!!), but we'll have the jars for backup if needed. Next up, tonight, will be roasted butternut squash. We're having it for dinner, so he's going to try it, too! The solid food is coming only at dinner time for now, but once I introduce fruits, we'll probably do that in the mornings or at lunchtime.

We made it to our first preschool story time at the local library (#thirdandfourthchildproblems) thanks to a field trip with Amos's preschool. They both seemed to enjoy it so we may have to find our way there again soon! Levi does really love it when big brother Noah "reads" him books at home, but then he loves everything Noah does with him. ;) They are the sweetest together.

Another rough month in the sleep department. Halfway through he had some nice 8-hour stretch nights, but then he got in the habit of waking again around 12:30 and 4:30 at night for a couple weeks; sometimes more, sometimes less. He goes to bed between 8 and 9 pm and sleeps until 8 or 9 am, sometimes later on the days we don't need to be anywhere. I often run errands in the mornings, so he still normally gets a bit of a cat nap in his carseat while I'm out, but he's also taking an afternoon nap of about 2-3 hours in his crib. Yay!! Sometimes he'll take a little cat nap before dinner, too. I've continued to nurse him every 2-3 hours during the daytime for 15-25 minutes. He eats about 6-8 times in a 24-hr period.

Levi has finally figured out how to get his paci back in his mouth by himself, but he'd actually prefer to chew on his fingers or the leg of one of the WubbaNub animals instead. Sigh. I have a feeling his bottom two teeth will be making an appearance before next month's update. They're looking pretty close now! Given the amount of drool this boy has been producing, I sure hope so.

Instead of just crying and cooing, Levi has started to vocalize now! We swear we've heard him say "dada" several times now, both in response to our prompting and when he sees him, but perhaps it's just luck. We'll see if he keeps it up. Not that I'm jealous that he isn't saying "mama," too!

So I've found that taking care of 4 kids + a PTA position (producing the monthly newsletter and designing + keeping the PTA website updated) + my graphic design business has kept me all kinds of busy this past 6 months. Granted I designed Levi's birth announcement and had prints made before Christmas (a Christmas miracle, I'm sure), I still hadn't managed to actually mail them out...until the day he turned six months old. Ha! So, without further adieu...here is his birth announcement. :) Better late than never, right?!? ;) Still working on those thank you notes to all the wonderful friends and family who sent gifts or brought us meals in the fall. Everything was greatly appreciated!!

 Until next month!! Look at me actually writing this in a timely manner this month! Ha!