Life on Perry street has developed into a routine dictated by a 16 lb 11 oz almost 6 month old. This is totally fine with us as her presence in our lives is wonderful. I was talking to a colleague this week about her and I realized how excited I got talking about her and how every molecule in my body just seemed to become weightless. What I have come to know is that having a child is a natural upper! Even on the days when she's a bit fussy as the little hidden chompers debate whether or not they'll be maing an appearane this month, the days when her poopy diapers are so stinky you have to hold your breath, and on the days when she refuses to eat her bottle and instead sings you a little song with her new ability to make gurgling noises, she is a natural upper and it's impossible to be in a bad mood when she's around.
These days she loves green beans, squash and sweet potatoes. Fruit doesn't seem to be a favorite as she scarfs down the veggies and scrunches up her face when offered apple sauce and peaches. She seems to know when it's dinner time and gets excited flailing her arms and legs when you sit her in her high chair. We've also started giving her rice and a veggie in the mornings and she chows this down at daycare also.
She has yet to roll over and doesn't seem terribly interested in doing so. She pushes her upper body up when laying on her tummy and has pushed her bottom up in the air in a crawl like motion but hasn't made any further progress. After watching the mobile babies cruise around daycare getting into anything and everything, we're okay with the fact that she's taking her time. She is getting very good at sitting up on her own and just needs a few pillows around her for those times that she loses her balance and tips over. She's really started noticing Lucy, our yellow lab, and now smiles and laughs when she sees her.
We continue with the struggle to get her to take a bottle, regardless of whether it is breastmilk or formula, and took her back to the doctor a week ago to check her weight and have him look inside her mouth. She continues to gain weight and move up on the growth chart which is amazing to us because she was only eating between 3-4 ounces every 5-6 hours (generally, a baby her age should be eating 7-8 ounces ever 4-5 hours). Dr. Mullen checked out her mouth, looked at her weight growth chart and decided that she more than likely has reflux in her lower esophagus again and told us to start giving her the liquid Zantac (aka: dr. magilicuddy's) again.
We started giving it to her again and within days she has been much better with taking bottles. It's much easier to give it to her this time and one usually finds a situation that goes like this: One of us puts the syringe in her mouth towards the very back while the other one starts singing yum, yum, yummy,yum, yum, yummy. Apparently we are very convincing because it seems to work and she doesn't gag or cry like she used to. :-)
On the sleeping front she's fabulous. She goes to bed for the night around 6:30-7pm and sleeps until 6:30-7am. We're all feeling so much better as the days of little to no sleep are behind us.
Well, that's the great one week shy of 6 months update. It's spring break on campus and Deb is in Eagle River, WI visiting her parents for a couple of days. Addie and I are holding down the fort at home and hoping to get a shopping day in this weekend. The little weed is growing out of her clothes again and we certainly need to shop for summer clothes!
