LaTour Creations

Wow! Time is sure flying by quickly…I can’t believe Henry is almost six months old! And I have been very neglectful about keeping this journal up in the last couple of months. So, I’ll try to catch up here and hit on all the milestones.

At the last doctor’s visit Henry was 27 and a half inches long and 15 pounds, 2 oz. The doctor said he was in the 95th percentile in height but only the 50th percentile in weight. I got a little worried by his weight and wondered if I should feed him more (as if every two hours wasn’t enough). She said no, he’s been tracking the same since his birth, it’s just the way he’s built. . He is lucky to be built like his Daddy (long and lean).

Of course, being such a tall baby, Henry is about one inch from outgrowing the officially sanctioned height for his car seat. John and I went and bought the next size up (convertible infant to toddler) seat this weekend. We plan on transferring him to it within the next couple of weeks.

This week I’ve also started training Henry to ride in the stroller like a big boy (facing forward in the actually stroller rather than facing backward in the attachable car seat). He seems to like it alright…at least as much as he tolerated it before (about an hour of confinement is all he can stand). The only problem is he’s a bit too short for the canopy to be effective in shielding him from the sun. So we’ve also been wearing his new sunhats (which are still too big and slip down over his eyes causing fussiness) and, today for the first time, some sunscreen.

Henry rolled over (back to front) for the first time on March 25th and, since then has been perfecting his technique. Now he rolls over almost immediately when I place him on his back in his little activity gym. Of course, he still prefers resting on his back rather than his tummy and so, once rolled over, he often grunts and fusses in frustration at being stranded on his tummy. (You’d think he would learn).

On May 14th, Henry rolled from his tummy to his back for the first time. He’s done it a few more times since (like this morning) but he still hasn’t figured out the connection…”oh, if I’m unhappy on my tummy I just have to roll back over.” But he’s getting close.

He’s also much more tolerant of his tummy-time now that he’s learned he can rest his little head on the mat when his “swimming” in place gets too tiring. He is also much better at lifting himself up and looking around. He can really do some major push-ups when he wants to…as well as some “bottoms-up.” He’ll be crawling in no time (or as soon as he can figure out how to get up on his knees).

Henry is also getting really good at sitting. We’ve taken to practicing a couple times a day. He’s been a strong sitter for a while now…he just hasn’t gotten a hang of the whole balance thing yet. Yesterday I sat him up on the floor inside the boppy pillow (to protect his noggin when he inevitably crashes). I sat on the floor facing him and slowly let go of his hand once he had his balance. He seemed to get a kick out of it and even started giggling at me as if to say, “Wow, Mom, look at what I can do.” It was very cute. Later, we went outside and I tried the same thing on the front lawn. This wasn’t as amusing to him. In fact, he doesn’t really like the grass and started crying. Oh, well. I guess he won’t be an outdoorsman.

Speaking of outdoors…we also had another first last Tuesday: our first playgroup. Henry and I met a few of our La Leche League friends at the local park (Pierce Beach) and spent a couple hours nursing, watching the other babies, and practicing tummy-time on our blanket. There wasn’t as much playtime interaction as we would have liked because Henry was suffering from another first: his first cold. So, I kept him sequestered from the other babies.

The first cold wasn’t much fun. Henry had a hard time sleeping with his stuffy nose and he really hated having his nose suctioned. Every time we tried to suction out the mucus he would freak out and start wailing which, of course, produced more tears and mucus. It was a no-win situation. But, we got through it and are back to our regular bedtime schedule of waking once a night to feed (Thank God!).

Recently, Henry has been more fussy simply because Mom and Dad are boring.
His active brain needs more stimulation than our tired adult bodies can handle. He’s become bored with the usual activities; chewing on his RingWorm and Busy Bee, flailing and kicking around on his Baby Einstein activity gym, swinging in his swing, and bouncing in his Jolly Jumper.

This weekend I bought an activity saucer (one of those stationary walker/bouncers) at a yard sale for $10. Henry seems to enjoy turning and twisting all the little noisemakers, and so we’ve added another activity to his repertoire. We also have another favorite activity that doesn’t involve toys. Henry usually gets fussy in the late afternoon (when he’s become tired of boring old Mom), so we’ve taken to sitting outside on the porch and watching all the cars go by. This is guaranteed to calm him down for at least a half hour or so.

But really, Mom and Dad need to learn some new tricks!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Random Gushing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.