6 Months and Solids

Carys turned 6 months on Dec. 3rd. She's such a big girl! I don't have any 6 month pictures because we had them taken...perhaps I'll scan them one of these days and post them. She bit her lower lip and ate her feet through the entire photo shoot. She was a lot more work trying to get a smile than Caedmon, but we did get smiles and they were big! Their 6 month photos truly show their personalities! Caedmon's smiles are easy and laid back; Carys' are huge and all energy!:)

On Friday, Dec. 4th, we started solids. She made some faces, but on the whole I think she liked it and has continued to like cereal. I need to start veggies soon! I figured she'd take to solids pretty well since she wants to be a big girl so badly!

Saturday evening I texted Corey with the exciting news that she had crawled. Not on her hands and knees, but more of the army crawl. Still, she was getting where she wanted to go without rolling! He informed me she's done this the night before, but since it wasn't truly crawling, he didn't know it was exciting! Goodness! So at 6 months she has accomplished something Caedmon didn't do till he was 10 months. The differences between children are so interesting! Glad I had the slow one first or I might have worried!

She continues to be somewhat cranky, but on the whole, her mood is improving. I find out yesterday when I took only her shopping with me that she seems calmer when it's just her. We got home and I heard fussing for the first time that day - Caedmon gets in her space and annoys her! Watch out Caedmon, 'cause soon enough she'll be doing the annoying!:)

She wants everything we have - forget all those baby toys! We wonder sometimes why we even have them. The TV remote control is a whole lot more fun!

She's still spitting, but I suppose it's about average - not too bad for her anyway. More than she had been doing in the last month, but not intolerable.

We go to the doctor on the 22nd, but she was weighed and measured on the 8th - 16lbs. and 26 1/4 inches. She was last weighed and measured at the end of Oct. She didn't gain a whole lot and didn't appear to grow at all and she was at about the 50% on the charts and there was some question about her growth, but the nurse seemed confused by it all since she was in the 95% the last time for her height...so I'm just waiting to see what the doctor says. 'Cause she certainly seems to be growing just fine!

She cries to be fed, so I better end this post - I think she's saying 'enough about me already!' :)

6 Month Portraits

I got my pictures back last Friday! I spent too much money, but decided it was worth every penny! I had so much fun with the whole experience! Caedmon was quite the poser and was adored by all the photographers!:) The lady showing me his pictures to pick out did not do a very good job of helping me narrow the pickings down!

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure...

Yes, he did this pose all by himself!

Angel???
(Was not planning on any angel pics, but this one I couldn't resist!:))

I bought one sheet of each of these pictures! I know, I know, but how could I resist?!

6 Month Well Child

We went to the doctor on Thursday. I played hookie from school so I could take Caedmon myself.

His off the chart measurements are 23lbs.2oz. and 30 inches long! Wherever I take him, people are always in disbelief of his size!
I found out that I have a form of tendinitis in both hands and he is definitely not helping the healing process!:/

Doctor says he's more off the charts for his height than his weight, so he's nicely balanced and his baby fat is nothing to worry about. I've never worried - aren't babies supposed to be fat?! They're definitely cutest that way!

Unfortunately, it was another check-up with vaccines included. I usually end up feeding him in the office while waiting for the doctor or nurse, and I did so again this time before the nurse came back to give him his shots. Little did I know, this wasn't a good idea.

She started out with the rotavirus, which is a liquid taken by mouth. Now that he's started eating solids, he's figured out how to close his mouth to something distasteful. Needless to say, he was not digging the medicine! He started coughing and choking and then projectile vomited EVERYTHING he'd just eaten. He was soaked, I was soaked from picking him up to comfort him and the nurse said in all her 16 years, she's never experienced the like! Well Bravo Caedmon! Not really. I felt horrible. He was quite upset and hadn't even gotten poked with a needle yet. And this time, I had to hold his legs down.:( Thank goodness they didn't make him take the liquid all over again. They couldn't be sure whether he got it or not, although we're pretty sure he didn't. The vaccine was for the stomach flu, which hopefully we're at the tail end of the season for that anyway.

Once again, I'm not sure how I feel about the vaccine thing. Working in special education, I am continually hearing about adverse affects vaccines have on children.

But once he was done being poked and mommy comforted him for a few minutes, he was fine, and you never would have known the rest of the night that he'd even received shots that day!

We don't have to go back till he's one year old because the doctor has no concerns with his growth!:)

Six Months and Solids!

Yaahhh, Caedmon's 6 months old as of Friday, March 28th and can now begin the next phase of food - solids! My doctor told me that babies need nothing more than breast milk till they're 6 months. Sounds good to me - it's so easy to let him be in charge of his food intake - eating when hungry and eating until he's full, not having to think about what to feed him or how much. Except this one little problem: this past week, all week, he was up two and three times a night and yes, he wanted to eat. So, Friday could not come fast enough! I talked with a friend who is very health conscious and natural and she told me how to make whole grain rice cereal myself. We attempted it and in the end, the consistency wasn't much different than my milk (which is what we added, and lots of it). It was kind of a pain and I'm trying to figure out how we can minimize the work involved. I'd like to feed him whole grains, so I might see if the local health food store sells it, or I'll keep attempting to make my own.

So, his first experience with "solids" was fairly uneventful. He didn't really make any faces and seemed pretty indifferent to it all. And unfortunately, it didn't help him sleep through the night any better. We fed him again last night, but the same thing. He didn't want too much, but then scarfed up my milk when I nursed him again.:( Not sure if he doesn't like it, it wasn't good leftover, or it's just going to take some getting used to..? Lots of questions.

Anyway, here are a few pics.

My Little Model

Caedmon turned 6 months yesterday, and I finally decided to go ahead and take him to a studio to get pictures. I kept telling myself we really didn't need to go to a studio; his 6 week pictures were just fine and I took them myself. But, I guess I wanted the experience and the professional pictures at least once!

So we went to JC Penneys today and Caedmon had his picture taken...a few times!

It was great fun, he did wonderfully and the pictures...well, it was terribly difficult to decide which ones to buy! And the lady helping me wasn't any help in the decision process. She couldn't bare to delete any of them.

I spent too much money and decided it was worth every penny!

I'm hoping I'll be able to post some of them because I bought the "smile by wire" package in which they e-mail you everything and you can use it for screen savers, download them as a slide show, e-mail them to friends and family. So I'm thinking I'll be able to upload them. I can't wait!

Everyone thought he was adorable!:)