Six Months

Connor turned six months old this last week. Has it really been half a year since he came into our lives? We seriously can't get enough of this kid, which I guess is part of the reason time seems to pass so quickly. He continues to be such a happy little boy, and delights us almost constantly with smiles and giggles. Oh how we love him!

     

     

We started him on baby food just after he turned 5 months old, first giving him a taste of applesauce. He wasn't quite sure about it. It may have been a little tart for him, because he pulled the funniest faces after taking his first bite. He would only eat two or three bites, but by the third day of feeding it to him, he decided he liked it. 

Since then, we've introduced squash, pears, prunes, peaches, peas, and baby oatmeal. He has loved all of these foods from the start...except peaches. He'll still eat peaches, but not as voraciously as the others. We were surprised when he gobbled down his prunes. He is such a good eater when it comes to baby food. He's started making "ummm" sounds each times he takes a bite, and eagerly opens his mouth waiting for the next spoonful. It's so adorable. He always starts to cry when I finish feeding him his baby food, wanting more. He knows that when I start to wipe his face off that we're done and it's time to finish the meal off with a bottle. I swear, he'd skip the bottle and just eat all baby food if he could! We just bought him a high chair (well, a booster seat with a tray) so that he doesn't have to sit in his bouncer anymore while we feed him.

Connor has still been a finicky eater when it comes to breast milk/formula. He will still go through periods where he won't eat hardly any at all, but that has seemed to change in the last week. He's starting to consistently eat 6 ounces every 3 to 4 hours, and a couple times he's even eaten 7 ounces. I'm hoping that this continues and that the days of fighting to get him to eat are at an end. My milk supply is dwindling, so he mostly gets formula at this point. 

           

Our daily schedule has become more consistent over the last few weeks, which I really appreciate. Connor eats around six times a day, and he gets baby food with two of those feedings. He takes 2-3 naps each day, one mid morning and one early to mid afternoon. Sometimes, if he's super tired, he'll go down again in the early evening. I lay him on his back in his crib, but he immediately turns over onto his stomach. His favorite sleeping position is on his stomach with his legs pulled up underneath him and his bum in the air. It's so adorable.

He drinks his last bottle around 9 and I give him some oatmeal then to try and fill his stomach more in hopes of getting him to sleep through the night. So far that hasn't worked. He still wakes up once at night, anywhere from 2 to 4 am. It's not ideal, but it's not too bad either. He usually stays half asleep, crying until I get his bottle ready and start feeding him. After finishing his bottle, he drops off to sleep again, and I'll burp him, quickly change his diaper, and put him back down in his crib. The whole process takes at most 30 minutes. Then he'll sleep until 7 or 8 am.

Connor has the cutest little voice. He's actually been experimenting lately, and will make little raspy "ahhh" sounds as he tries out his voice in different pitches. He makes a sing-songy high pitched ahhhh that is so cute. He has a favorite little game that Grandma Westover taught him. We pat his mouth with our fingers or palm when he's talking and gibbering, causing him to make an ow-ow-ow sound. Sometimes we will just start patting his mouth and then he'll start making noises because he likes it so much. 

     

He's started sucking on his bottom lip, and he loves chewing on his fingers. He loves sucking/chewing on anything and everything really. He drools constantly, but shows no signs of teething yet. 

     

Our little bug is still constantly on the go. Occasionally, when he wants to be held, he'll sit still and cuddle, but most of the time he's trying to climb over my shoulder or out of my arms. He hates to sit still, and is so determined to explore, touch, and taste everything he sees. I love it, although it does get exhausting. It makes containing him during church a bit of a struggle. Letting him play on the floor seems to help his restlessness a bit.

He still hasn't figured out the official form of crawling yet, although he does get up on his arms and legs at the same time now. He walks forward with his knees while pulling himself with his arms, and kind of flops forward. It reminds me of a baby sea turtle scooting towards the ocean.

He is drawn to objects that he isn't allowed to play with. When there is a cup, napkin, cord, computer, phone, paper, or plastic bag of diapers on the floor he immediately discards his toys and makes a bee line for the forbidden object. I think it's the fact that he can't have it that he wants it. I gave him an empty plastic cup the other day to play with, and he didn't want anything to do with it. He only wanted to get at my glass of ice water. Silly kid. He also loves anything with buttons...especially our t.v. remote and wireless keyboard. We let him play with the keyboard the first time he noticed it, and when we took it away he threw a fit. Another first for him.

Connor has begun climbing up on objects and crawling over things. He started by getting up on a bag of diapers, but now he crawls over our legs and up into our laps or on our chests if we're laying on the floor. He doesn't pull himself up into an upright standing position yet, because he can't stand on his own, but he'll stand on his feet with his arms up on his bag of diapers or wipes box in a plank-like position. The other day, he turned on our Wii, which we have on the second highest shelf of our t.v. stand. He's learning quickly.

He's getting better at sitting up on his own, but will only stay upright for a few seconds. Most often, he tips to the side or forward reaching for his toes. He can sit up by himself if he's leaning his back against something, but he's often wiggling too much to stay in that position for long. I sat him on the couch to take his six month pictures, and he kept turning and crawling up on its arm. 

Speaking of standing, he loves it when we hold him in a standing position on our laps or on the floor next to the couch. He loves standing up against our glass door and looking outside at the trees. If we stand him up in the corner of our sectional couch, he can lean against the back cushions and stay up by himself. He had fun playing peek-a-boo with dad the other night while in that position.

     

I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day this last month. Oh how I love this little guy, who has made me a Mom and brought so much light and joy into my life. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful son.

As I mentioned before, Connor loves to smile and laugh. He laughs so much throughout the day, and sometimes he'll even give us a forced laugh, signalling to us that we should do something funny to give him a reason to really giggle. It's so fun when he gets in these silly moods...he'll laugh at almost anything.

He is such a loving little boy, and so friendly. He's always smiling at others when we're at church or in a store. He loves to snuggle against us and put his face next to ours when we're laying with him, trying to get him to sleep. When Brian or I am playing with him, he'll often grab our face/hair and pull us in for a hug and kiss. His open-mouthed, big, slobbery kisses are the best things in life.

     

Connor and I both enjoy his stroller. We love taking walks together, and he loves looking around at the trees, buildings, fences, and signs that we pass. We love going on walks in the evening when Brian is home to come with us.

Also this last month, Brian went on a work trip to NYC. As of two weeks ago, he no longer works for Top Ten Reviews, but instead is now an Editor for Laptop Mag. Both TTR and Laptop are owned by Purch Media, so he still works for the same company, just a different publication under that company. He will still be reviewing laptops and various consumer electronics, but it's a better position for him. Laptop is actually based in NYC, but we get to stay here in Ogden as he'll be working in the Purch Labs, located in the same building as TTR. So it all worked out wonderfully. He gets to have a NYC job and we get to live out west...something that we never thought would be possible.

As part of this job change, they flew Brian out to NY to meet the team that works in the Laptop office in Manhattan and give him some training on their testing/review procedures. He was only gone for four days, and Connor and I hung out at home while he was gone. We had a good time together at home, and he helped take my mind off of Brian being gone. Even so, we both missed Brian and were very happy when he came home. 

These two are often matching, and I think it's the cutest thing.

Connor loves to play with Brian's ear...but only his right ear. When he notices it, he gets a look of such concentration on it as he grabs it. Connor will even push Brian's head back to the side if he turns it so that he can keep playing with it. It's pretty hilarious. 

Other Connor Facts:

• He wears size 3 diapers.
• He is still in 3-6 month clothes for the most part, but he's about ready to move into 6-9 months.
• His eyes are more brownish, but they still have a lot of blue in them
• The majority of his hair is still on the top of his head. I can tell it's starting to grow in more on the sides and back, because he's getting little tufts that stick up after a bath or nap.

I took him in for his six-month well-baby checkup on May 30th. He's doing really well overall, with only a couple of issues. He's had a bit of eczema show up on his legs arms and stomach on and off over the last month. We're going to try a new lotion to see if that helps clear that up. Also, he's had issues with pooping since we changed up his formula two or so months ago, and since we've started solid foods. He used to have a dirty diaper once per day, but not long after switching up his formula he stopped being so consistent. For the last couple of weeks he only has a dirty diaper once every 5 to 7 days, and just this last week its been every 3 to 4 days. So his system might be adjusting on its own, but it's taking awhile to do so. He doesn't ever act like his stomach is bothering him or that he is in pain, it's just more of a struggle now to poop. We're going to back off on the rice and oatmeal for now and feed him fruits twice a day to see if that helps a bit. We're also going to switch him back to the formula that he was previously on when he was more regular. Hopefully, one or all of these measures will help his little system.

His six month stats are:

• Weight: 15 lbs 13.5 ounces; 19th percentile
• Height: 27inches; 68th percentile
• Head Circumference: 17 inches/43 cm; 41st percentile

His weight gain looks a lot better and is much more consistent. Brian and I are relieved about that...he had us worried there for awhile. His weight is following the 20th percentile curve on the weight chart now. So even though he's in a much lower percentile than he was during the first few months, he's holding steady. All his other measurements are great as well, and he's meeting or exceeding all the milestones for his age. He only goes in for checkups every three months now, so his next visit to the pediatrician will be at 9 months.