Six Month Check Up
Taisei had his 6 month check up a little early because he won't be available in another week. Today, he had 3 shots - the same as last time minus the polio. Taisei was a good boy for the doctor and nurse. So far, strangers don't scare him or make him cry. In fact, to Taisei, everyone's finger is fair game for sucking. Hopefully he doesn't become too shy in the next few stages of his babyhood.
Stats: 25.75 inches (25%), 14 lbs 9 oz (10%), head circumference 42 cm.
Uh oh! He's shrinking! Dr. Lindsay says there's nothing to worry about because baby growth is not actually a smooth curve and he's probably just at a slow point. I hope that's true! Plus, according to my calculations (as seen on the graph below), he's actually about 38% height . Phew! :D Mental development is right on target. Good thing they don't give you percentages for
that. :)
Here were Wami's questions for the day:
Is he teething? There's a lot of drool and hard biting.
Not necessarily. We thought our son was about to teeth at 6 months because of that same reason and he teethed at 11 months. You think it hurts now? Wait until some teeth come out.
When he teeths, should we give him anything?The teething toys should be helpful enough. If not, you can give him baby tylenol. For my family, baby orajel didn't help that much.
Should we feed him solids?
Yes, it's time to slowly get started. This is my prefered method. Introduce each item slowly and give it to him for three days before you introduce the next. Start with cereal, then veggies, then fruits and lastly meat. It's ok for him to try some of the things you're eating for dinner. Feed him the solids before you breastfeed him. If you breastfeed first, he may not want to eat. Also, due to allergy risks and other things, avoid the following four: peanut butter, milk, honey and egg whites.
He's becoming mobile - what should we do?Here are the four rules for baby proofing the home:
1. Keep poisons and other toxic chemicals high and out of reach
2. Keep small objects that could choke out of reach
3. Prevent shocks and burns by securing electrical outlets and cords
Emotion
In the span of about three weeks, Taisei seems to have taken great strides in development. I haven't been able to quite put my finger on it. I think it's
emotion. When babies are young, you say they are "mad" when they cry really hard. But they are really just crying because they need something - milk or a diaper change. It's nothing cognitive. Just intuitive. But now, when Taisei is happy or mad, he's laughing or he's screaming. When he wants something, he really wants something. Right now, he particularly likes to suck on cold drinks that mommy and daddy are drinking, someone to hold him at all times, and not to be left in the car seat any longer than necessary anymore. Besides mental growth, he's definitely goes after things he wants. He's threatening to crawl any day now. To get places now, he's dragging himself around with just his arms (no legs yet).
Even though he may not remember a thing, we've concentrated the last week just taking Taisei around to places he's never been. Here's a picture of him with Grandpa at the Golden Gate Bridge.
Taisei's first beach trip. This is Sunset Beach - one of our family favorites.
BYU Baby - woohoo! Cool shirt.
(Thanks Kevin & Becky!)
A moment of peace. Mommy and baby looking out the window.
Squirmy Boy
Taisei's has two marked behaviorial developments lately. 1. He grasps anything within reach and sticks it in his mouth. 2. He won't hold still for diaper changes anymore. It used to be that I could hold his two feet up and that would prevent him from flipping over. Now, he starts screaming and grabs onto the edge of the changing table for his dear life. He'll arch his back and twist until he's on his belly. That's ok if I'm still wiping, but I probably have to flip him over about 4 or 5 times to get the diaper properly velcroed. It doesn't make diaper changing very fun. Especially now that his poop is really starting to stink!
Taisei's starting to pay attention to different things. He played with his knee for about 15 minutes one day. He'll sit in an ExerSaucer and watch one episode of Baby Einstein.
(Note: We probably won't let Taisei watch much TV as he gets older, but if we're gonna leave him in the ExerSaucer, we might as well have some mental stimulation for him as well.) We found out he can suck on his toes.
And he can read too. His pronunciation doesn't seem to be that good yet.
Taisei seems to love taking walks in the baby bjorn. When we take him by stroller, he just zones out and doesn't make any sounds or movement. It's kind of weird. But by baby bjorn, he's generally kicking his legs, and flapping his arms with glee.
Finally, a candidate for Taisei's eventual marriage arrangement. (Almost all of Taisei's other buddies are boys.) We're working on the paperwork now. Introducing a 3 week old Virginia Scharkowski and new mother, Amber.
Taisei had his 6 month check up a little early because he won't be available in another week. Today, he had 3 shots - the same as last time minus the polio. Taisei was a good boy for the doctor and nurse. So far, strangers don't scare him or make him cry. In fact, to Taisei, everyone's finger is fair game for sucking. Hopefully he doesn't become too shy in the next few stages of his babyhood.
Uh oh! He's shrinking! Dr. Lindsay says there's nothing to worry about because baby growth is not actually a smooth curve and he's probably just at a slow point. I hope that's true! Plus, according to my calculations (as seen on the graph below), he's actually about 38% height . Phew! :D Mental development is right on target. Good thing they don't give you percentages for that. :)
