Half Birthday! (warning...loads of pictures)

Holy Cow!! I cannot believe I already have a six month old. It's amazing how time flies by once you have kids. He is getting so big, and we're enjoying every day with him. Zach turned six months old on May 23, and we had his 6 month well-child check today. He's weighing in at 13 pounds 2 ounces (less than 3rd percentile), is 25 inches long (10th percentile), and his head circumference is 16.7 inches (25th percentile). So basically, he's tall and skinny with a big head! :) I was worried this visit because he didn't do so well gaining weight over this past month. He only gained a pound and that put him at around 13 grams per day. I spoke with his dietician on the phone (since we don't have a nephrology appointment this month) and she didn't seem to be too concerned about it. She has still recommended, however, that we add some extra calories to his formula. There's a powder you can buy called polycose that will do this. We'll start trying it out this weekend and see if it helps him gain weight better.

We're also concerned that his poor weight gain could be related to all his spitting up. He never spit up until about a month and half ago when it got really bad, but then it was starting to ease up. Over the past couple days it's gotten bad again. The prevacid didn't seem to be helping, so we're back to putting rice cereal in his formula, and we're hoping it'll slow down and hopefully stop soon. Not sure if he has a stomach bug, if he's got reflux that's acting up, or maybe he's been teething for the past month and a half and that's why he's spitty. All I know is my loads of laundry have been crazy, and I feel bad every time the poor kid spits up because he gags like crazy. Oh, the joys of parenthood. I think if our next child doesn't have bartter's syndrome, we're going to find ourselves extremely bored (knock on wood).

Moving on, here's the many things we love about this amazing child at 6 months old.

-Loves to roll over onto his side. He's never tolerated tummy time, so he learned to roll from his back to his tummy long before he ever learned to roll tummy to back. He started out just going to his left side, and then figured out how to get all the way over. He still has a hard time getting his fists free once he makes it to his tummy, but he's learning. Now he can also roll onto his right side, and will roll back and forth all day long. He continues to pivot on his back, and we make jokes about how many laps he's going to accomplish any given day. Has also taken to sleeping on his side a majority of the time. Whatever helps him sleep!

-Still working on his talking, but has sort of slacked off a little bit since he's been trying to learn to roll over and lift his head up on his stomach.

-Can now lift his head up 90 degrees on his stomach and support himself with his forearms. Will only tolerate this position when he decides he wants to and will scream if mom tries to make him do tummy time. He hadn't really done much rolling from tummy to back, but decided to show off to his pediatrician at his appointment. Was rolling onto his back like he's a pro. He just likes to do things on his own time. Whatever makes the kid happy.

-Is improving on his supported sitting and hopefully we can get him sitting up on his own in the near future. Doesn't like to put any weight on his legs yet though, especially since the carpet tickles his feet. Curls his toes anytime anything touches his feet.

-Started laughing and giggling in response to mom and dad and we just love to hear it. He has such a fun giggle, and will laugh at just about anything, especially mom's poor attempts at sound effects.

-Definitely at the stage where EVERYTHING goes in his mouth; toys, blankets, burp clothes, his own thumb, dad's thumb, and sometimes it's all at once. Still will not take a pacifier, but loves to chew on his thumb, much to mom's dismay. I guess I just have to start accepting it.

-Definitely loves his mom and dad and is starting to get a little bit of stranger anxiety. Didn't like waking up to someone else after his nap, but warmed up quickly.

Here's a few pictures at six months old.


May 19, 2010


Hangin' out with Nana on his half birthday. Gotta love the spiky hair!


So sad after shots...but I got my dad!!


Like I said...long and skinny!



Loves bath time. Can't wait to take him swimming.


This is the look he gave me after I asked him if he was poopy!

It is amazing all the face this kid loves to make. He can completely change his expression just by moving his eyebrows. His eyebrows tell the whole story. His labs looked great this month, and we'll just keep doing what we're doing!