Lilly's 6 month wellness checkup

Head size

Height vs Age

Height: 26.25 inches (74%ile)

Weight: 14.88 pounds (32%ile)

Head Circumference: 16.75 inches (67%ile)

Temperature: 96.7°F

Pulse Rate: 116 beats/minute

Respiration Rate: 26 breaths/minute

Milestones

Lilly can roll from her back to her front & from her front to her back. (She's not mobile yet, but soon!) She reaches / rakes for things she wants, moves things from one hand to the other, and brings things (EVERYTHING) to her mouth. 

Lilly smiles and laughs and even "talks" and "sings." (When she's trying to go to sleep, she often sings or hums herself a lullaby until she drifts off!) She is drooling a LOT and showing possible early signs of teething.

Lilly's pretty interested in food. She loves oatmeal and sucking on apples and peaches the most.

Lilly loves to stand and bounce.

She tracks with her eyes & moves her head up /down / left / right to follow an object. 

She enjoys playing peek-a-boo, "hole in the road," laying down and watching a parachute or blankets go up / down / spin over her, looking in mirrors, and grabbing at bubbles.

Since she's beginning to sit unassisted, we can start introducing meat and small bits of table food (start to move away from purees). Dr. Lin also suggested introducing a sippy cup of water.

No dairy or honey, but other allergen foods are ok to try now. (They no longer recommend holding off on the common allergy foods as long as they did when Shawn was at this stage.)

We are slowly working on baby signs, when we remember to use them! Lilly gets very excited when we show her "all done" after meals, but she hasn't produced any signs of her own yet (that we've recognized).

She's developed small, spotty red marks on the back of her neck / base of her head. Sometimes they are bright, while other times they've practically vanished. Dr. Lin said they're just "Stork bites" and they're birthmarks that'll go away on their own. (I didn't realize children could develop birthmarks months AFTER birth!)

Lilly's sleeping approximately a total of 16 hrs a day including 1-3 naps. She still wakes to nurse at night, but goes back to sleep easily. I co-sleep with her, so neither of us need to wake fully in the night. Many times, I'm able to spend the first part of the night in my own bed and go to hers for the last few hours. It works so well for the whole family! I don't feel like the walking zombie I was when Shawn was little!

Lilly has an internal clock that Raj has, but Shawn & I do not. It's amazing how much easier life is with this ingrained!  In spite of my lifelong struggles with time management, she has a very predictable schedule. In general, she wakes around 8 am, naps around 10 am... hungry at 5:00 pm, sleep around 7 pm. It has a little variation and she adapts well when things throw off her routine. I carry a Moby Wrap baby carrier with us wherever we go. If she needs to nap, she snuggles in the wrap and there's no need to rush back home.

She is nursing well, on demand

Vaccines

Pediarix (DTaP-HepB-IPV)

HEMOPHILUS INFLUENZA B (she has to go back in 1 month for a 2nd dose) PNEUMOCOCCAL CONJ VACCINE (PREVNAR) ROTAVIRUS VACCINE (oral drops)

Lilly loved the oral vaccine (she was pretty hungry during her appointment), but her face turned bright red as she cried and screamed about the shots. She recovered almost immediately when I nursed her. She even drifted off to sleep for a few minutes, but boy, was she chatty on the drive home!

Luckily, she didn't seem to be bothered by the shots, longer than their initial pokes. Perhaps she was a little tired from crying, but her legs didn't seem sore like they were after her 4 month vaccines. She didn't show a fever, cold symptoms, irritability, or any of the other typical side effects of shots. Phew!

Later that evening, the kids and I had an early dinner and went to the Wood Dale Public Library for a Halloween Harvest Magic Show.

"Get your little ghosts and goblins laughing and applauding with a magic show created especially to help celebrate Halloween at library family events. You will enjoy cool Halloween magic tricks, hilarious comedy and spooktacular audience participation."

The magician was fun and silly. Shawn was really disappointed that he wasn't chosen to assist in any of the tricks, but he understood that not everyone got a turn this time and that his luck may be different next time.

I'm ready for bed!