6 Months Old!

This was originally written on Tuesday, October 21, 2008:

Another good appointment for Logan! I still get nervous before his check-ups with the pediatrician after his first two months. But that's probably good--I'm sure the day I finally stop is the next day we find out bad news. :p

His weight came in at 20 lbs and 6 1/4 oz which kept him consistant in the 90th percentile. Both his head and height increased! His head went up from the 10th percentile to the 30th, as it measures 17 circumferance now, and his height which had always been in the 50th percentile is now in the 75th with 27 inches!

He received the same three shots that he had at his 2 and 4 month appointments (Hib, PC, or Rotavirus). We're still holding off on the DTaP, hep b, and polio for now. Also our pediatrician said it was fine to not give him the flu shot (which they usually do at this point) since he's not in daycare and still breastfeeding. (I explained why we're separating/delaying vaccinations on my post Four Months Old.)

So the only other part of the appointment was talking to our pediatrician about Logan's relapse in sleep (for the past month waking up 1-2 times a night for 5 minutes each when he had been sleeping up to 12 consecutive hours prior). He said that all babies go through this phase at around 9 months old, so it's actually good we get to nip it in the bud now because hopefully it won't be hard for us later on. He said that babies do start waking up again in the night (for no reason) when they figure out that if they cry you will come. So, as I explained in my Logan's Fifth Month post since Joe and I are not on board with the method of leaving him to cry it out, our doctor recommends soothing him and then increasing the waiting period from 5, 10, 20 minutes. . .until Logan remembers on his own that he can continuously sleep through the night. Here's what babycenter.com said about this (Ferber method):

Parents are instructed to pat and comfort their baby after each predetermined period of time, but not to pick up or feed their baby. This routine is called "progressive waiting."

After a few days to a week of gradually increasing the waiting time, the theory goes, most babies learn to fall asleep on their own.

This approach allows you to gradually limit the time you spend in your child's room while providing regular comfort and reassurance — as well as reassuring yourself that he's okay.

I've been aware I've been taking the easy way out for myself the past month. Getting up with Logan to nurse for only 5 minutes is easiest for me because that's all of the sleep I miss during the night: 5 minutes (or ten if he gets me up twice). Whereas, doing the above approach is going to mean standing around Logan's room, as well as walking and talking. . .which means I need to plan on having a bad, sleepless week! However, I know in the long run it will be better for all of us. Otherwise, if I don't do this, it's going to get worse before it gets better. Babies don't outgrow this naturally until they're two years old. I've seen enough horror stories on TV shows to know that's true and it does seem easier to train a six month old in a week rather than to continue this past month's pattern for two more years!

On the bright side, getting him to sleep on his own in his crib went way easier than I'd expected. Within five days of no more carseat, he acted as if he'd been putting himself to sleep in his crib all along! There are still times every now & then when it takes 15 minutes to get him to nap or go to bed for the night (where I have to nurse, put him down, nurse, put him down), but 95% of the time he does it on his own! I've been so impressed the past week-and-a-half! When he starts to rub his eyes and give a cranky cry, I put him on his back in his crib or pack n play, then he flips over (I've stopped flipping him back because it does no good--he'll be back on his tummy within seconds. Our pediatrician said babies past six months old aren't at high risk for SIDS, so chances are he'll be fine now), and so then I turn on his music box and rub his back for 90 seconds and he's sound asleep! It's so cute, sometimes he immediately puts his hand in his mouth when I put him down and says "a goo" like he knows it's sleeptime. So, teaching him to relax himself was not at all the hard task I thought it'd be. I hope I'm surprised with the middle-of-the-night stuff, too. :/

This past Saturday, though (his half birthday!) was our hardest time getting him to nap/sleep because he was cranky ALL DAY. It was not a good start to his sixth month. Since the last crying day (the teething/Tylenol/no nursing episode) was the last week of his fourth month, he went his entire fifth month without any fussy days. He was off & on that way on Sunday, and then on Monday & today acted like there'd never been a problem--he was super happy just sitting around doing nothing! We have no idea why he was so crabby over the weekend. He was pooping normally so he wasn't constipated, he wasn't showing any teething signs, and didn't seem sick (didn't have a temp or anything else).

Our pediatrician said he could have been going through a growth spurt and was hungry, as now we've come to the point when my breastmilk will not be enough to sustain him. We are to start feeding him three solids a day plus 32 oz. of breastmilk. By seven months old this should be an every day occurrance (since he turned five months old we've only been doing this 3-4 days a week). Logan has gone through cereal, carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes, so next is peas and beans, then we'll move on to fruit and meat. (Sweet potatoes are his fav so far, that's why we haven't done fruit yet because some babies never go back to veggies after that.)

The growth spurt makes sense since his pattern has been to have a couple of days like this one week each month. It would seem that once a month his body might require more from him than usual, and combined with teething discomforts it may put him in a bad mood. Hopefully we got this month's over with already.

Or, maybe he was just upset that ISU (where Joe & I went to college) lost to the Huskers, lol :p We went over to Lisa's that afternoon and ate good food and watched the game with half on each side. We weren't the happy side.

Otherwise, not much else has happened since my long post last Monday. My mom came Tues thru Thurs which helped me out, although it's still amazing that I can't get as much done with help with a baby as I could with no help before having a baby. Besides my massage, I went to JCPenney and bought myself a few fall/winter clothes, including a shirt for our family Christmas portrait that we're getting taken on November 7th.

Today after Logan's appt. Joe and I went to Younkers and bought Logan an outfit for the picture as well. Joe showed me a 6 month coat that was $130!!!! That's ridiculous.

To pick up where I left off in Logan's Fifth Month post, here are some random things. . .

It occured to me recently that I'm probably living the best time of my life! If I live to be 100 years old and I look back, I bet the time my children are young is what is going to be my favorite/most special. I never thought anything could trump college--but being a mom has! Fortunately I have 17 more years before Logan leaves home!

Nobody told me that once I started feeding Logan veggies, his poop was going to become them! The first time he pooped after carrots it was a dark orange! As if it wasn't gross before, Joe also says it stinks nowadays. The good news, as I said in Logan's Fifth Month post, is that he rarely has blow-outs anymore so it's been a long time since I've had to put a lap pad over my pants. He also hasn't spit up in about a month (he must know how to hold it down when he burps now) and has only peed once without a diaper since June.

A few weeks ago Joe & I rented Baby Mama which was hilarious. I remember I wanted to see it when it came out in theaters, but I looked at the release date and know why I didn't make it: April 25th (one week after Logan was born). My favorite part was when the woman was pushing--you know how in most movies when they give the "big push" there's a baby? Well this time she did that and the doctor shouted, "nothing!" I could so relate, haha!!! I did that "big push" for 4 hours and kept thinking, Are you kidding me? Still no baby?!

For some reason I'm really confident that's not going to be my experience next time. I don't know if it's because I'm just so much more educated now on how to prevent a face-up baby or what, but I have a strong/comforting feeling that my next labor is going to be fast again--only the pushing phase will be shorter than the dilation phase!

Maybe it's also because I've learned that studies show fast labor may be genetic--there appears to be a link between women and their mothers and grandmothers when it comes to labors only if they are fast. I definitely have a pattern in my family--as I've mentioned here before both my mom and her mom's were fast (except my grandma's firstborn because she had the pelvis issue, too). A cousin on my dad's side didn't tell me her total time, but said it was super fast, as well as her sister and her mom (my dad's sister). However, the same studies point out that complications (as well as interventions these days like the epidural, pitocin, c-sections, etc.) make it hard for this to be guaranteed--so if next time there's a different issue for me instead of having a posterior baby, then this won't apply. . .I guess we'll see in a few years!

I'm not planning on getting pregnant anytime soon (my ideal is when Logan is in pre-school so that I can have a couple of days a week where it's just the new baby & me--that sounds easier, plus that way baby #2 won't get jipped from this special time that Logan and I have right now)--but I do have to say it was sad when I left my doctor's after my annual exam last month knowing that I won't be back for another year. All of the nurses waved as I left and called out "goodbye, Andrea, have a great year!" After having a baby it seems like too important of a place in my life for me to not go back for so long. It's crazy to me since that was the last place I ever wanted to go prior to last year!!! But, I admit, there was some sadness. And, on Saturday at Lisa's I talked to a girl who happens to go to my same doctor (she's due in January) and I felt jealous that she gets to go back this week! Fortuantely, whenever I feel like this I just remember how much I hated being pregnant and how three years will come soon enough (when we plan to have baby #2)! It seems like after my next pregnancy it will make more sense if I'm sad since I will know it will definitely be my last time.

I don't have a gut feeling about how breastfeeding will go next time, yet. (By the way, this past month has been a record--the longest time my milk supply has remained up! It hasn't gone down since mid-September!) Lately I've been falling asleep while nursing Logan (since for the past couple of months I can lay down and nurse him). I never thought I'd ever be able to sleep while nursing. Although it's much more comfortable when I'm tired, it scares me because I've always made a point not to co-sleep because there have been several cases in Omaha recently where babies have smothered and I don't want to take any chances. Plus, I often slept with my mom when I was little and it was really hard when she married my stepdad when I was 8 years old to suddenly give that up. It was so traumatizing to me that I actually remember thinking that when I had kids I wasn't even going to let them know it was a possibility (kind of like the whole Santa Claus thing--I was so devastated to learn he wasn't real that I made the decision at the young age of 7 years old that I'm going to be honest with my children right from the start).

Ever since the incident with my neighbor and the pool (which I posted about on Logan's Fifth Month), I have been really wanting to take a CPR and heimlich class. All I know is from TV--which does not make me confident enough to save Logan's life. So I'm going to be looking into that.

Yesterday Logan fell into his farm set and it left a dent in his head! Fortunately it's gone now; my mom said I had a dent when I fell as a baby, too. I guess since their skulls are still soft it doesn't take much! Poor guy has already hit his head a few times. One day he was rolling so fast to the other end of the room that he made it to his bouncer before I had a chance to move it out of the way and his head dropped onto the ceramic bottom.

I had another scary experience in the pack n play, even though I don't let him play with blankets anymore (I wrote about my first scare with him on my post titled Returning to Normal (Is It A Good Thing?). He was kicking the sides and somehow got the pack n play material loose and it fell over his head! This wasn't long after the Labor Day experience and so I was more mad than sad this time, just because he had to feel that emotion again so soon after the last. It was apparent he remembered because, like, when his clothes get stuck on his head he over-reacts (screams like someone is murdering him)--he really, really, really doesn't like anything covering his face!

It's amazing how much more scared to die I am now that I have a baby. Honestly, I never feared death before, but I know that if I died, Logan wouldn't have a mom. . .and that's so sad!!!!

Until this past week, Logan's toes always curled under him when he stood. Our pediatrician said that's normal at this stage; this week he has been more flat-footed.

Speaking of feet, recently I noticed that I may have passed on a weird genetic trait to him! Until high school my feet peeled every winter. We never learned why (it doesn't fall under the category of typical skin problems like eczema, etc.), my mom took me to the doctor a few times throughout those 13 or 14 years, and no lotion helped. I just got used to having to peel the skin off the bottoms of my feet and throw it in the trash. Gross, I know. It never hurt, it never itched, it was never red--it was just an annoyance and then after puberty abruptly stopped! Well a month ago I noticed the TOPS of Logan's toes peeling! I think I inherited it from my dad (he said his hands peeled) so just like Joe's family with the brachial cleft, this must be a strange dominant trait. I forgot to mention it to our pediatrician today because it went away after about a week, but I know that if it's my same problem then it will return this winter.

As for me, did you know that after pregnancy your hair falls out?! I forgot that my stylist warned me of that last year--she'd told me that she had several bald spots after she had her son 4 years ago and she'd been embarrassed until she realized that all of her clients who had babies had the same thing. The last time I got my hair highlighted she said she wasn't going to touch up my roots because--and then she showed me--I have all of these spots where my hair is trying to grow back! (It's especially bad in my bang area.) I realize now that I have noticed a lot of hair in my combs and brushes over the past months. When Stacy (Jaxson's mom) was here on the 11th (she's a hair stylist, too) she mentioned that hers has been falling out and she heard it typically continues for another six months! I'm glad I'm not alone--it's just another hormonal thing. Here's what About.com says:

Postpartum moms are often shocked to find that a few months after giving birth, they start to lose their hair. You might run your fingers through your hair and big clumps come out at once or you may notice that your shower drain or hairbrush are filling up much faster than before. So why does this happen?

Normally, your hair is in a cycle of growing, resting and shedding. At any given time, you could be losing as many as 200 hairs per day. This is not a problem when you consider that there could be 100,000 or more hairs actively growing. When you are pregnant, however, estrogen prolongs growth and those 200 hairs you'd be losing are put into the growth phase and very little hair is resting or shedding. This is why so many women who are pregnant have that thick, gorgeous mane.

After giving birth, your estrogen levels start to return to normal and so you start losing hair again. All that "extra" hair that was growing goes into the resting phase for a few months and then suddenly you are shedding all those hairs.

So, it's not that you are losing more hair than normal, it means that you haven't been losing hair like this for a year, and when it comes on again, it feels like you might go bald if it doesn't stop soon. Don't fear, it will by the time your baby is a year old. If not, consult your doctor.

Needless to say, I'm getting (temporary) hair extensions on November 7th :p I figured the day of our family pic next month would be a good day to get them and put in by my stylist. Hopefully I'll like them.

Logan is fascinated when I do my hair and brush my teeth. In the beginning I thought getting ready in the mornings with a baby would be a chore, but it has turned out to be entertaining to him and so he does really well when I take a shower (we play peek-a-poo which he LOVES) and he just sits in his bumbo or on our bed and stares at me while I do everything else!

Something funny he has been doing the past several weeks is clearing his throat and fake coughing. Stacy's son, Jaxson, does the cough, too, so it must be that they're figuring out the different sounds they can make. It makes me laugh every time I walk into a room and he's sitting there clearing his throat over and over!

Also, he thinks the TV remote is a riot. Joe & I have no idea why, but whenever he sees it in our hand he starts laughing. So then we'll hold it up to him and he cracks up!

Recent milestones include reaching for me now, and he can sit himself halfway up when he's laying down (he does, like, an ab exercise, haha). Today at his doctor's appointment he kept doing that when the nurse was getting ready to give him his shots, which was funny. He also kept playing with the paper that was on the table--we couldn't distract him with a toy or anything, he was bound and determined to rip it all up! Fortunately he only cried for two seconds after the shots and then was all smiley and happy. So far, so good, and no reactions again.

Lately he's been playing with his tractors that his aunt Desiree (Joe's oldest sister) gave him and I was shocked the first time I gave them to him and he rolled them around like little boys do! It must be an instinctual thing, I never would have expected a six month old to know how to play with tractors!

Well, I'm ready to call it a night. . .so goodnight! P.S. I finally can't see "the line" anymore--the linea nigra was completely gone by six months post partum.