Six Months!

Hard to believe that LL is already half-a-year old. He had his checkup yesterday with Dr. K. His head size is still right around the 50th percentile, where it's been since he was a month old or so. (It was giant at birth, but he's grown into it since then.) His length had been dropping a bit, but now he's back up just above the 50th percentile, as we suspected; he suddenly started looking really loooong a few weeks ago.

But his weight... try as we might, we just can't seem to make him gain much weight. This kid LOVES food. He slurps happily when he breast feeds. He astounds Natasha and Rosie with how much he eats from bottles during the day. He still wakes up 1-2 times each night to eat, and he tends to eat a LOT during those feedings as well. We resolved his GI problems more than a month ago, and he's been eating even more ever since. Yet despite starting life around the 85th percentile for weight, he's been dropping ever since then. At his 4-month checkup, he was at the 25th percentile, and he's looking a lot chubbier now than he was then -- he's got the classic baby leg rolls, the chubby cheeks, everything you look for in a healthy baby. But he has now dropped to the 18th percentile. (You would think that at 18% for weight and 55% for length, he'd look thin, but somehow he still looks chubby. All fat no muscle? He really does take after his mommy!)

We had been waiting to start solids, so that we could stuff him with more high-calorie milk instead of nutritionally-empty cereals and watered-down vegetables, but we can't really wait any longer. So, he starts solid food tomorrow (for some loose definition of "solid"). Probably oatmeal and peas.

I am a little worried about him, because he doesn't seem interested in much gross motor development. He loves playing on his back, and is amazingly active, but when you put him on his tummy, he just puts his head down, resting his cheek on the floor. It's very cute, but it's not doing anything to strengthen his arms, neck, and back. He doesn't roll over anymore unless you get him started. He's not interested in sitting -- if you try to put him in a sitting position, he straightens his back and wiggles until he's flat again. He's also not interested in standing -- if you try to stand him up, he bends his knees and refuses to support any weight. I know that he CAN bring his chest off the floor on his tummy, and he CAN roll over, and he CAN sit, and he CAN support himself on his legs, because he'll do all these things when he feels like it. But most of the time, he doesn't want to be bothered. He'll just lie on his back and chew on his toys, thank-you-very-much. Laziest baby ever. I'm trying hard not to stress about it.... I always swore that I would never get worked up over these milestones, and I know that boys often do all of these things later than girls, but it's hard. Especially when he just doesn't seem interested in any of it.

His top front teeth still aren't in, and the teething sucks. He's drooling and chewing like a mad man (including several downright vicious bites to my nipple), he's in too much pain to nurse on many evenings, and he's starting to refuse to take his afternoon nap, which only makes him crabbier. And he is still waking up several times a night -- once or twice to eat, and anywhere from zero to six times for soothing. Every time I think we're past the night wakings, the teething gets worse and it starts up again. We're not having much fun lately.

Anyway, I'm hoping that solid food might just help to fill him up a little more, so that at least he'll sleep better. And we persevere with the tummy time and free play on the ground, including a LOT of dragging him into a sitting position as much as possible, to try to strengthen him up, even if it's against his will. And with the exception of the late afternoons when he's in pain from the teething, he is always always always in an awesome mood, smiling and giggling and laughing and babbling. So really, how bad could it be?

I keep going back and forth about buying him a jumperoo... will it encourage him to jump and strengthen his legs and back? Or will it just be another thing for him to sit in and be lazy, in which case he's better off on the ground?

Oh, and he had a lovely little stomach bug Monday and Tuesday. He recovered very very quickly, which makes me think that it may have just been the teething, but on top of everything else, it's made for a tough week. TGIF.