Ben- Six Months

6 MONTH STATS

Height:  27in (1.5in increase in 2 months) 60th percentile

Weight: 14.4lb (2.3lb increase in 2 months) 5th percentile- He's a string bean skinny boy

Head Circ:  17.1in (.9in increase in 2 months) ? th percentile

(They forgot to give us the second print out with the head circ. percentile)


Nick names for Benjamin: Ben, Benny, Benny Boy, Ben Boy, Benna (McKenna came up with this one), Benny boo, Benhamin, Bug, Bug-a-boo, Buddy Boy. Nothing too out of the ordinary.  :)  

Other development in the past two months:

• Took his first road trip to CA to visit my parents Memorial Day weekend.  It was a l o n g drive!
• The night after we got back from our road trip, he ROLLED OVER (back to tummy)!  He could already roll the other way.  (I don't think McKenna rolled over until she was 9 months, most likely because her helmet held her back.) 

• Loves looking at himself in the mirror.
• Lots more smiling and interacting with McKenna (which she loves!).
• I noticed he's kind of a tense baby.  He clenches his fists even while he's nursing.  Possibly out of fear of being smacked around by his big sister (but she's getting much better at NOT hitting when she wants attention).
• Loved his toes for about a month and half.
• Loves his exersaucer.

• He's happiest at night after his last feeding (nursing and formula bottle as a supplement).  Maybe it's because he's so full. :) 

• Had his first trip to the Zoo.  He slept a lot. 
• Went to his first rodeo.
• Enjoyed his first fireworks show.  Probably because he was so sleepy during them.
• We still swaddled him up until about a week ago (Aug. 4th).
• Loves his baths and believe it or not, he loves getting his ears Q-tipped. 
• After tons of extra pumping, nursing, and herbal supplements, my breast milk supply did increase!  I think it almost doubled!  Hooray! I still give him one formula bottle at the last feeding before bed.  I think he got used to it while my supply was low and I don't know that I'll ever produce enough to fill him like the bottle does.   
• Ben is loving big boy food!  Our pediatrician is very pro table food early on.  He supports a study that says the sooner you introduce different kinds of foods to babies, the LESS likely they are to develop allergies to them because they won't develop an intolerance to them later on.  Therefore, I've lost track of all the new foods he's tried.  Here are just a few: carrots, applesauce, sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, bread, corn bread, tortilla, cheerios, chicken, green beans-from a can (he hates the baby food kind), yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, crackers, tatertots, rice, eggs, oatmeal...

• Pretty good at sitting up on his own.
• Since I'm behind in blogging and he's 7 months old now, he got his first TOOTH (Aug. 3rd), bottom left.
• We went through a sleeping rough patch for a few weeks: only 40 minute naps, stopped being able to put himself to sleep at bed time, and was waking up about an hour and half before he "normally" did in the morning.  I don't know if it was a growth spurt, upset tummy from all the new foods he'd been trying, being over tired or not tired enough.  I hate the guessing game with babies.  I finally decided to buck up and let him do some serious "crying it out."  I would still rock him almost all the way to sleep for naps, but then if he woke too early I'd let him cry.  And at bedtime, we let him cry himself to sleep so he could relearn how to fall asleep on his own.  It only took about three nights.  Two nights of crying for 1.5 and 2 hours, and the third night he cried for 5 mins!  Now, he hardly squawks at all. :)   
• His right ear can do a cute little trick too.  We can make it stick out. :)  It will stay like that until it gets bumped.
• Normal 

Sticking out

And then here are some adorable pictures for your viewing pleasure!

McKenna gave him a red marker to play with.  The lid was off and of course everything he grabs goes straight to his mouth.  She said, "Uh-oh mama, he's red."  I looked and thought it might have been blood since he had just been chewing on the metal handle of one of his baby spoons.