6 Month Jemma Update

So Jemma is 6 months now! YAY! She had her 6 month doctors appt yesterday morning and the doctor said she is 100% perfect! :)

She weighs 15 lbs (34%), 26 3/4" (86%) and her head is 16.5 inches (37%). I asked about her weight since it was low and the doctor said that once she starts eating solids it will start going up. But she gets plenty of food I think. She drinks ~6oz for breakfast then 3-4 5oz bottles during the day, then eats another ~10 oz at home at night (sometimes another 5 oz in the middle of the night too), so she gets about 31-41 oz per day which is at the upper end of what I read is standard for a 6 month old (24-36 oz). So I don't know why she is skinny. Oh well. My mom had been saying for a little bit now that we should increase the amount she is fed but from what I understood breastmilk gets fattier over time and so it doesn't have to be increased unlike formula. But the doctor said that we can certainly increase her to 6 oz if we think she wants it, so that is what is going to happen now. She has gotten 6-7 oz bottles a few times before. But she got her first of many 6 oz bottles yesterday. She is a little piggy, so of course she finished it. I'm not actually sure what her limit is on how much milk she will drink before stopping but I am sure it is greater than 7oz. I wasn't there but she spit up a little bit after it. Her spitting up is definitely getting better but has not gone away. Spitting up is another reason I was a little reluctant to up her milk intake but it is getting better so hopefully it will be ok and hopefully she won't eat quite as often as well :) 


Anyway, she is doing great and is getting very mobile. She is a very active kid and never seems to want to sit still. She wiggles and squirms and rolls nonstop and wants to touch everything and put it in her mouth. It is nice when nap time corresponds to dinner time. At the doctors office, she was having a blast and was pulling on the wall decorations next to the scale and the nurse had to pull her hands off to weigh her. Mike had to hold her so the doctor could do her thing. She also poked a hole in the paper on the table then had a blast ripping it all apart. When we left the doctors office, the paper was all ripped up and what wasn't ripped up was all crinkled up from her pulling on the edges and rolling all around. We kept having to take the paper chunks away before she would eat it and stop her from getting on the plastic under the paper. We kept trying to distract her with toys but it wasn't working, the paper was just too interesting :)

She calms down when she is tired though and is good at snuggling then and will fall asleep in your arms pretty easily. I just have to cover her head with a blanket and she goes right to sleep with a little "shhh" sound and a little rocking helps too. If she gets over tired, we have to walk her around for a bit but in general she falls asleep pretty easy.

Which segues nicely into her sleeping! She sleeps in general very well. She goes to bed somewhere between 8-9pm and sleeps till around 6-7am. She seems to wake up at one point a lot of nights and needs her pacifier put back in but then she goes right back to sleep. Mike usually does this cause she seems to get more upset if she sees me and wants to eat. But I have to wake him up to do it because he sleeps through her making noise. Sometimes this doesn't work and she is too upset, then she needs to have her diaper changed and get fed before she will go back to sleep. But once she gets a fresh dry diaper on and some food in her belly, she goes right back to sleep.

Also, she is getting really good dexterity. She can see her pacifier, pick it up, and put it back in her mouth with no problem. She picks things up really easily now and can pass them back and forth between her hands.

As for daycare, it is working out perfectly. My parents watch her everyday except Thursdays when my mom volunteers for neighbor ride and Becky watches her. She seems to be doing very well and seems to like both places a lot. She gets to play with bunnies at Beckys and her kids seem to like her a lot (especially Sami). Silky, my parents dog, and her seem to get along pretty well. She tries to pet her and pull her hair all the time and sometimes Silky likes it but sometimes not so much. Silky smells Jemma all the time, just sniffs the top of her head, its weird. Last Thursday, Becky got sick and so my dad had to watch Jemma all day long by himself. She was very good with him. My mom has no problem taking Jemma with her shopping or if she goes out to lunch. And Jemma is pretty good, so it works out well. Plus it gives Jemma outside interaction. I asked the doctor about the fact that Jemma doesn't play with other kids her age and the doctor said until around 18 months, it really doesn't matter and it is almost entirely parallel play, so that made me feel better. She said if she is too withdrawn that she can get anxiety about people and noises but I think Jemma is around enough different people and out in public enough that it wont be a problem.