AJH: 6 Months Old!

On Saturday Xander turned six months. Half a year. It seems so short and so long at the same time. Xander is changing day by day and I hope the next six months leading up to his first birthday don’t go as fast as these first six months. We’re trying to soak up every change, every laugh, every little moment that Xander is a baby.

This past month has had so many developments. He now:

• Sits on his own and will play with a toy at the same time
• Laughs so much more
• Reaches for mommy and daddy
• Explores textures with his fingers
• Likes to hold onto hair
• Plays copycat when blowing raspberries or sticking out tongues

With a new month comes new stats.

• Weight: 16 pounds 13 ounces (50th percentile)
• Height: 26 inches (closer to 25th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 50th percentile
• Diaper Size: 3
• Clothing SIze: depends on the brand – his clothing ranges from 3-9 months

This month’s well-baby appointment went so much better than his 4 month visit. He took the oral vaccine and his shots like a champ. We tried a new method of administering the shots and it worked perfectly. I’m so thankful that we didn’t have the same traumatizing experience.

He isn’t thrilled about food but so far we’ve exposed (if we can even call it that) him to oatmeal, banana, avocado, and strawberries (pedi has told us to hold off on the strawberries going forward). We’ve tried different ways of introduction as well: on a spoon, on our fingers, on his fingers, in the mesh feeder, and cut into pieces. He basically just plays with the food and we’re glad he’s getting some texture exploration. We’re not concerned AT ALL that he isn’t eating yet; he just turned 6 months after all and I’m proud he’s been exclusively breast fed!

Speaking of breast feeding, it’s going super! Neither of us miss the nipple shield and I couldn’t even tell you where it is at this moment. I’m so thankful to be completely done with that thing! I hypothesize that Xander may not be super interested in food because he’s still relatively new to breast feeding without a silicone barrier, so he’s just totally into the boob right now.

We think he had his 6 month growth spurt 1-2 weeks ago. He tends to have his growth spurts a little early and he had a full week of increased feeds, slightly abnormal sleep pattern, and I was super hungry. Since the spurt, Xander has started to sleep much better. He started to go 5-7 hours without eating overnight too — yay for more sleep for all us!

We love our little baby so much and are excited to keep watching him grow and develop over the next 6 months. Also, do you like the pictures in this post? John and I are getting much better at our photography and did a formalish photo shoot with X on Saturday. It was so fun!

For all of Xander’s updates, please visit his baby page.