6 Months

Norah month by month since birth:



Norah turned 6 months last Wednesday. Seth's 6-month baby notes from his mom say:

"At 6 months Seth can sit without support for about 10 minutes and when on his stomach, gets up on all fours and rocks. He can wiggle a short distance for a toy he wants. He likes to play peek-a-boo. He got his 2 bottom teeth at 5 ½ months. He weighs 18-9 and is 27 inches."

Norah, on the other hand, weights just 13-7 and is only 24 1/4 inches long. Both measurements put her in the 10% percentile. She dropped in weight from teh 15th to 10th percentile, but when Seth and I asked a few questions about that our pediatrician's answer was, "To be honest we've spent too much time talking about it already. It's really not something to be concerned about." We did decide to increase the amount she is getting per feeding at daycare. She is still only getting 4 ounces in each bottle, but has seemed satisfied with that amount. Just this past week for the first time her teacher suggested adding a little more.

Norah received a positive report from the pediatrician overall. We are really happy with him - he has a laid back style and I feel supported and reassured every time we leave the office.

Sleep was one topic of discussion. Norah is typically in bed from 7pm to 7am, and gets up once between 2 and 3am to eat. I asked whether she will cut out that last feeding on her own, or if that is something we will need to train her to do. He said she can go 12 hours at this point without eating, and if we want we could try to cut it out. He suggested that we try to let her go if she is just fussing a bit, but that if she really starts crying I go ahead and feed her, and try again in a few weeks. We are really only interested in trying this on the weekend since if she is up fussing I'm also awake (Seth typically sleeps through it all). So, we (I) tried to let her go last night. She cried on and off for 45 minutes, and although sometimes she was quiet for 10-15 minutes at a time I ended up feeding her.

I don't really mind the feedings - she is very efficient and goes right back to sleep. The only issue is that sometimes I have difficulty going back to sleep. Plus, I have to be in bed for longer to make up for the time I am awake (I have always needed my sleep). So if the feeding is eliminated I'll literally have an extra hour in my day. Ahhh...the things I could accomplish with an extra hour.

We also discussed starting solids. Our pediatrician feels that developmentally, around 6 months is typically a good time to get babies used to eating with a spoon. He also feels the extra iron they get from rice cereal is beneficial. As usual, he was sort of nonchalant about it, although he did suggest trying a few tablespoons once a day to start out, gradually increasing that amount and adding in fruits and veggies.

Part of the reason I think we like him is that our parenting style fits his. I'm not stressed about solids, and really haven't done all that much reading yet. But I think we'll start giving Norah some practice just with rice cereal on the weekends for the next several weeks and see how it goes. We gave her more last night and this morning and she does get it down, but it doesn't appear to be extremely natural, nor does she especially enjoy the experience. So, we're not going to push it. We may get more serious about it if she does drop her last night feeding since we'll have to make up for those lost calories during the day. But otherwise, we'll just keep practicing and watch her cues.

Oh, one other bit of news - he thinks there is a good chance her eyes will stay the bright blue that they currently are. Yipee!

As for other things Norah is doing, she has definitley mastered rolling over and is sitting up more and more with less support. Even just two weeks ago the first thing she did when we sat her up was take a nose dive. But now we put the bobby pillow around her and she sits for quite a while - 15-20 minutes. She is clearly working on her stomach muscles, and I don't think it will be long before she can completely sit on her own. Her teachers at daycare said they have seen her get up on her knees a few times when laying on her stomach, but we haven't seen that yet so it doesn't count. Norah is very busy with her hands, grabbing everything in sight, playing with toys, and passing them back and forth between hands. And unlike her dad, no sign of teeth!