6 Month Doctor's Appointment

Ariella had her 6 month doctor's appointment on Saturday morning. It went really well overall. The shots were harder this time, though. She cried a LOT. The previous 2 times, she cried a little, but as soon as I got her over to nurse, she stopped and nursed herself to sleep. This time, though, it took her quite a while to latch. And, then she kept popping off to cry. I felt really bad for her. Either the shots hit some kind of nerve that made it hurt more, or maybe she's just more aware at 6 months. This doesn't make me optimistic about next time's shots. Poor little girl!

Onto the better parts of the visit, though. Here are her 6 month stats:
Height: 27 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 18 lbs 5 oz (90th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 inches (75th percentile)

Ariella was a little wiggle worm for her head circumference measurement. The actually had to come back into the room to take it again (because the first measurement didn't make sense with her growth curve). She is growing so big! At least she's in the same percentile for height and weight now, though. She's leaning out a bit.

The doctor seemed pleased with her solid foods progress. She said to do a new food every 3 days. That's about the pace I've been doing. She also mentioned finger foods and then table foods. I think she meant for a while down the road, though. She said the goal by her 1st birthday is to have her on all table foods (but after I asked for clarification, she said it was still fine to be nursing). We're also going to be moving her down to 3 bottles rather than 4 during the day (so, 3 bottles of about 6oz each). And, then we'll increase her amounts of solids over time.

In addition, we'll be starting her with a sippy cup with water soon. I bought 2 sippy cups yesterday (the ones with the handles), so once they go through the dishwasher, we'll do up to 4 oz per day. The nurse said we could do 2-3 oz 2-3 times per day. I've heard the rule of not more than 1oz per month old, though, so I'm going to start on the lower side. And, if she doesn't drink it all, no problem. I'll just leave the cup filled in the morning with 4oz, and whatever she gets though will be fine.

I was a little discouraged at the doctor's lack of enthusiasm over her sleep progress. At the previous visit, Ariella was still getting up 2-3 times a night. This time, she has progressed to most nights going to be between 7 to 9:30pm and sleeping until 3 to 4:30am. But, the doctor said she should be sleeping longer than that - until at least 7am. Sigh... Oh well. I think we're going to do the crib transition next weekend. (If she knew we were still co-sleeping, she would probably have NOT been happy about that. She told us at 4 weeks that Ariella should be sleeping in her crib in her room upstairs and that we might have to let her "cry a little".)

But, Ariella has regressed a little bit with her sleep in the past couple of weeks. Every couple of days, she's been waking up to eat at 1am! She did it last night, too, but I was determined NOT to feed her. So, I didn't feed her until 3am, but I certainly didn't get sleep from 1-3am. She was a squirming little gal! I'm not sure if she was asleep of awake, but she was definitely not still. And, she kept making noises, so I had to keep putting the pacifier back in. And, she kept spitting it right back out and getting unsettled. Who knows? Maybe I should have just fed her.

The doctor checked her hips and her mouth (still no signs of teething - yay!), and when she checked Ariella's belly, Ariella started laughing! So, that was fun. The doctor also evaluated her sitting, which is coming along but isn't quite there. But, the doctor said she should be progressing with that continually, so all was fine.

Overall, a very good visit. Shots were bad, sleep progress wasn't quite good enough, but everything else was great!