6 month "official" stats

Sophia's 6 month pedi appt was on Friday. She weighs 17.1 pounds (75th percentile), is 25 inches long (25th percentile) and her noggin is 44 cms, (90th percentile)! So far, she has Dan's head and my height:)

She got 4 shots, which she didn't handle too well. I dropped Dan and Sophie off at home after the appt, and came back to work. He called to say she had cried her first real tear, so the shots must really have hurt her. Combine that with teething and we had ourselves a cranky-Franky. Speaking of teething, her 2nd tooth came in last week.

Dr. R wants us to start feeding her 2 meals of solid foods per day. Dan will feed her fruit for lunch, and I'll feed her veggies/rice cereal for dinner. She did say we can try oatmeal now, but she seems to be doing ok with the rice cereal, so I'll keep that up a bit longer.

Dr. R also said she weighs enough to be sleeping through the night. That's great, in theory. However, for the past week or so, she's been waking 2 times, once at 1:30 and once at 4:30. I feed her both times, but I'm not sure if she's really hungry or not. What I DO know is that she just fusses until I feed her, so that's my short term solution.

She also has excema, which is no surprise given the allergies/sensative skin that run in my family. I've been directed to slather her with Aveeno after each bath, and keep hydrocortizone on an excessively dry patch on the back of her calf.

ALSO, she is officially sitting up on her own. My big girl is growing up! She can sit up for several minutes, assuming she doesn't try to move too much, lol.



She's a babbling fool lately too. Less drool (now that the teeth have come in), but no less noise. It's adorable, simply adorable. I can't get enough of her.

Torticollis update

arePhew. This has been the week of dr appts. Yesterday was Sophia's PT appt--ok, so not a dr really, but whatever.
Her neck rotation to the right is MUCH improved. Her tilt to the left still needs alot of work, although it's better. PT gave us some alternatives to the excercise that she's been fighting so hopefully that will help. We also have a new excercise called "head righting." Basically, we have to position her on our lap (or excercise ball) and tilt her whole body to the right, which automatically makes her head correct to the left (or "right" itself). We do this 3x per day, 10-15 times each, or until she is obviously tired.

I also mentioned that she seems to use her left hand most of the time. PT said that that is also a sx of torticollis, b/c of the way the head is rotated/tilted. Basically, she SEES her left hand more , and it's easier for her to track her left hand. So, we will start working to encourage her to use her right hand more. This is, thankfully, fairly simple. When we're holding her, we can just hold down/pin (sounds more harsh than it is) her left arm to her side or behind her a bit, which will force her to use her right arm. Also, we have to encourage her to lift her right arm over her head. This is a bit trickier, but can be done with the help of toys. Last night, for example, I held her links above her head, to her right, and held down her left arm. Worked like a charm:)

So, we get to work on these new excercises and go back to PT next Friday. She did mention that we really have to keep at this. She said so many times parents see their child getting "fixed" and start to taper off/completely stop the excercises. She made it clear that what we are fixing CAN be "undone" so we have to keep it up.

I asked about the flat spot on her head and PT said it's better, so I feel good about that. I've done all I can possibly do to get her off of her back. We mentioned that we are about to put her Bumbo away (for size reasons mostly), and PT said "no, she's done with the Bumbo." She was adament. She said that it's only to be used to assist with learning how to sit, and since she can do that now, we don't need nor should we use the Bumbo. Another piece of baby gear bights the dust...

Next stop, 6 month pedi appt today...

6 months!

Our sweet sweet Sophia turned 6 months this past Saturday. It truly does seem like she was just born. Where does the time go? I wish I could slow it down a bit. Her unofficial 6 month stats...

1) Eyes grey-blue

2) Hair still red

3) Makes every indication of being left-handed

4) Ticklish on her collar-bone:)

5) A few 3 month clothes still fit, but she is solidly in 6 months, and some 6-9 month clothes

6) Who needs toys? Her favorite "toy" is the tag/label on her toys,boppy, wubbanub, etc.

7) Size 2 diapers

8) Can finally touch the ground in her excersaucer; can turn herself in her excersaucer

9) Smiles spontaneously when she sees us:)

10) Has one tooth, and I swear the 2nd will be here within days. I can see it in her gums, and it is *this* close to breaking through.

11) Has tried rice cereal, sweet potatos, green beans and carrots

12) Is tripoding and can sit for a few seconds, unassisted.

13) Is rolling from back to belly on her own, within seconds of being layed down.

14) Bouncy seat is a thing of the past

15) Bumbo is almost thing of the past. Her thighs get stuck in it:)

16) First time in high chair last night, and she did fairly well.

17) I swear she gives us hugs.

18) She's become a super cuddle bug over the last few weeks.

19) Loves "the itsy bitsy spider!"

20) She loves to grab her toes:)

Sophia aka snooze button

As I've mentioned, Sophia sleeps in the pack and play next to our bed. This morning, I heard the alarm go off and hit snooze, but in my sleep induced haze I realized that the radio was still playing. I took a second and tried to figure out what was going on, and then I realized. Instead of pushing the snooze button, I had pressed on Sophie's head. Just about the time I realized this, she started waking...so she doesn't do so great as a snooze button:)

"Her hips are perfect."

Orthopedist appt was yesterday. First step was getting the x-ray done, which wasn't a problem. Dr. K was enthralled with Sophia, as usual:) She asked if she slept like a frog, with her legs spread out. I thought it was an odd comment and told her that she is still sleeping with her harness, so of course that is how she looks. She then said "she's done with it. She doesn't need the harness anymore." It caught Dan and I both offguard, because we expected her to "graduate" to a different style of harness. She then said what was music to our ears, "her hips are perfect." I was shocked. YAY Sophie:) She walked through the x-ray with us, and explained that she liked to see a 30 degree angle (of which bones, I've already forgotten), at 12 months, and that Sophie, at 6 months, is already at that 30 degree stage. We go back in 8 months, when she'll be 14 months. Dr. K will follow her until she's 10, so at 14 months, then 2, 3, 5 and 10 years.

I asked why she opted not to move Sophia to the next type of harness and she said that with her mild dysplasia, research shows no difference in long term prognosis, wearing the harness from 6-12 months or not.

Realistic me, who needs to know things upfront, asked what would be "bad" news at the 14 month appt. She said that unless there is a family history, there really shouldn't be bad news. Her hips are "in" at this point, and they won't come "out", the only issue would be a negative change in the degree.

So there you have it. Last night was her first night sleeping without her harness. I would say she's only slept without it maybe 5 times since she was 9 days old. I woke up in the middle of the night to her slamming her legs down in her pack n play. She's obviously not used to the extra freedom:)

sweet potatos, green beans and a TOOTH!!!

It's been awhile. I knew that if I didn't update today, it wouldn't happen this weekend...and then due to next week being absolutely, completely full...it also wouldn't happen next week.

So....Sophie has tried sweet potatos, and loves them:)

Next up was green beans. Not.so.much.

I've been mixing the rice cereal in with the veggie and she is tolerating it more (i.e. not spitting it RIGHT out, lol). Carrots are on the menu for this weekend.

And um, her poops are just obnoxious, since we started solids. Yuck-O. I don't mind the mess so much as the stench. yikes. But, the "good" news is she is going much more than once a week now (as she did before the solids started).

The BIG news is that 2 nights ago her first tooth broke through:) I was holding her,away from me (her back was to my chest) and I was blindly trying to put her pacifier in her mouth. My knuckle went in instead and she bit down. Um, ok, there is something in there. I was so busy at the time, so didn't think much about it. Later that night, I wrestled her down (b/c who really likes to have someone else's fingers stuffed into their mouth?) and sure enough, I saw one teeny tiny little white triangle popping up. I'm trying to see "signs" of teething, so we'll know when the next one pops. The only thing I can really pinpoint is that she was pulling on her ear, and for several days before the tooth popped, she wasn't eating as much. She was eating as often, but not nearly as much. I had written that off to the introduction of solids, or maybe it is a combo of the two...??? And now that I think about it, maybe the tooth was partly to blame for the nasty poops (I've heard that teething causes diarhea)??

Developmentally, she's picking up speed also. She is in the early stages of "tripod-ing" and can sit unassisted for a few seconds at a time. SHe does really well...and then slowly starts to fall over:) When in her carseat, swing or bouncy chair, she is constantly trying to sit up. Yesterday afternoon, she napped in her crib, on her back. When I heard her starting to stir, I went in and she was on her tummy, neck up and just looking around. This is HUGE, especially in regards to the torticollis. She didn't know I was in the room, so I left her alone to do her own PT, which lasted about 10 minutes. Go Sophie!!!

Speaking of PT, she's been really resistant to one of her neck excercises, but we keep trying. I don't think she is in pain, I think she just doesn't like being forced to do something that doesn't really feel natural. Otherwise, we're doing ok. I'm holding her in the right positions, bfing in the right positions and trying to encourage her to look the right way, by holding toys just out of her gaze so she really has to move her neck to see them. It's hard though, and takes some time and patience.

In fun news, she.loves.bubbles. Dan ran into the grocery last week, so I hopped in the backseat to hang out with her. I started blowing bubbles and she was just shrieking with happiness. I couldn't blow them fast enough. I have to get a video of this, OMG it was the best thing ever. After the bubble would pop, she would just look at me like "ok mom, do it again."

Next week she has 3 appts. Ortho on Monday, PT on Thur, and pedi (6 month appt) on Fri. Plus, our kitchen rehad is underway (must post pics), and are cabinets are getting installed on Tues).

For fun...

her first time in the grass:)