6 Month Milestones!

I know I'm totally late on this, but things have been hectic to say the least in the Spear Household the past few weeks! I just wanted to make a quick post to mark some of Jack's milestones for his 6 month mark!

• Rolling from tummy to back like a champ - but still working on back to tummy!
• Sitting by himself fairly well, but we still need pillows for fall protection!
• Starting to stand and not buckle at the knees!
• Babbles like nobody's business! He is saying all kinds of things and it just seemed to happen overnight! Bababababa! Dadadada! An occasional Mama! Hi! Gagagaga!
• I'm starting to see signs of some "Stranger Anxiety!"
• Still NO teeth!
• Temper tantrums are in the making!
• Still NO baby food - formula only!
• Sleeping like a champ 98% of the time!

xoxo

Quick Update: I just wanted to add for my records that Jack weighed in at 17 pounds 8 ounces at his 6 month Well Baby Visit and was still only 25 inches long!

6 month pictures!

We had Jack's 6 month pictures taken on Saturday and they are already online! Here is the website: http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/store.aspx?p=48091

Go to Recent Photos, Click on Jack Spear - the password is nolan. ENJOY! I love them!

xoxo

Size Stats

On Tuesday I took Jack to the Dr. because he has been having chronic runs! Yuck! But no fever, ears looked good, chest/heart sound great, etc. Dr. said it was probably just something viral that would run its course - GREAT! But the exciting news is that since we hadn't been there in 6 weeks I was excited to see how much he had grown!


He is now 25 inches long, up from 24.5 inches at his 4 month appointment! His head was still normal - I don't concentrate much on that because no one ever says anything about it so I guess he is average!? And he weighs a WHOPPING 16 pounds 14.5 ounces!, up from 14 pounds 13 ounces at his 4 month appointment!

So I guess the no food thing isn't hindering his weight! :-) Dr. did say that they do like you to start solids at least around 6 months and that we don't need to necessarily start with the cereals if he doesn't seem to tolerate them and could skip to veggies and fruits. I'm still going to wait it out a little while and then we'll see!

xoxo

Snap Shots of My Little Man!

Where's Waldo, I mean Jack!?

Practicing Sitting Up!

These rings taste GREAT!

Smiling Boy!

That'll be $20! Jack helping Steph at Bella Capelli!

Jack has discovered his feet and is constantly grabbing at them!

This was Jack's first morning in his crib in his room! What a big boy!

Tonya took this picture at her house one day and I love it! It's kind of old, but still one of my faves!

xoxo

BIG THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

Last week was a pretty momentus one for Jack! First, on a random Thursday night I decided, "Hey, lets put him in his room tonight and see how he does!" Actually it was partly prompted by Chris because he was getting up at 3:45am to go hunting and he always wakes Jack up! So we set up the monitors (yes monitors - a video monitor and a motion sensor/audio monitor and yes I understand both of them might equal over kill, but hey it's what works for me!) and moved everything from his pack n play to his crib! I wanted his crib to seem just as familiar as his pack n play - I wouldn't even let Chris switch his lovey, his blanket, or anything! Still haven't actually...but none the less...we put him down around 7pm which is his normal time and I'd say it took maybe an extra 10 minutes or so for him to go to sleep, he seemed to play longer then normal, but eventually he fell asleep just like always! He did GREAT! He slept until I think 5:15am and I didn't get up to check on him but once when Chris got up because he woke me up! No button replacing in the middle of the night, I never heard him moving around (which he does constantly and wakes me up), and he never woke up crying! I fed him and put him back in his crib where he fell back asleep until I woke him up around 7:15am for daycare!



The second big accomplishment is that Jack has proven his ability to ROLL OVER! Yes, I said it - he can roll! Friday night (11-13-09) we were playing on the floor and we have been working with him to roll over for a couple weeks, but he was just totally uninterested! But we were playing on the floor and I used his favorite toy to "tease" him to roll over and sure enough he follwed that toy with his eyes, head, and body and rolled from belly to back, then back to belly, then belly to back again! I was amazed! Too bad Chris wasn't home to witness the big event! Jack and I showed Chris the next morning and we worked on it again some yesterday! He can roll over, but still doesn't really want to roll over! But at least we know he can!

Adventures in Sippy Cupping

We started giving Jack a little bit of Apple Water (more water then apple juice) in a sippy cup so that he could start getting familiar with the whole "cup" idea! At first he totally didn't understand! He would just go face down onto the spout and then quickly become bored with it.

This past weekend I decided to lay him down (the other times we have tried he was sitting up) and he seemed to have a totally new perspective of the sippy and quickly figured out how it worked!

Just checkin' things out...

What's in there?

What Mom? It's just a sippy cup I'm drinking out of?! What's the big deal?

I was thrilled he figured the cup out, but he wasn't feeling the Apple Water! He would suck and get some in his mouth then spit it out!? It was really funny, but at least he is catching on!

xoxo

Living for the Weekends

I think most people "live for the weekends" although I'm sure there are those people that just love their jobs and gladly go to them everyday, but in general I think people live for the weekends!

I think I can say I've always been a "live for the weekender" but now I live for the weekend for a completely different reason then I have in previous years. In my pre-motherhood years to be more specific. Working full-time is a necessity not a choice (although I'm not sure I could be a 100% SAHM even if it were a possibility, but I would enjoy a day or two a week at home with Jack), but it totally stinks! It's like I don't even have a child Monday-Friday! I get a total of maybe 2 hours with Jack each day Monday-Friday, usually never more then 2 hours and sometimes it's more like 30 minutes.

Example: Last night I had to work late and didn't get home until after 7pm and where was my adorable little boy? In bed fast asleep! I love that we have allowed him to develop healthy sleep habits this early on and that he is getting all the sleep he needs for his age, but it totally stinks that he is in bed by 7pm b/c I get NO JACK TIME! He is in bed by 7pm and usually wakes between 5 and 6am, eats and back to bed until I wake him around 7:15am to get up and dressed and head to daycare!

So I used to be a "Live for the Weekender" to party and see friends and go to dinner with Chris, but now I'm a "Live for the Weekender" so that I can spend some QT with my super cute little boy! He is getting so big so fast and I'm totally missing it! Ugh...Grr...

And people don't get why, "No you can't keep Jack for a weekend!" I mean seriously?!

xoxo

Bad Cereal...

Yes, rice cereal is B.A.D! I gave in this past Saturday and we gave Jack his first little bit of rice cereal. I have to admit I was excited; excited to feed him with a spoon, excited to see how he did with the spoon, excited and hopeful all would go well...

He did awesome with the whole spoon concept! From bite 1 he was waiting with an open mouth! And once I figured out I needed to put the spoon in a bit farther he never even spit any out! So obviously developmentally he is ready for solids. I was hopeful after the great experience of the actual feeding/eating...

6 hours later however - I regretted it! Jack was screaming in pain, pulling his legs to his chest and passing gas like I've never heard! Poor guy! He would cry and cry and toot and toot and wiggle around so uncomfortable! I seriously haven't heard him cry like that in over a good 2 months - it was an all out screaming cry! I tried to hold him, rock him, calm him, I even ended up swaddling him - nothing was helping, so I finally gave him some gripe water and that seemed to settle his tummy and he fell asleep!

Needless to say it's going to be a few more weeks before we try cereal again! And I might even skip the rice and go for oatmeal b/c I heard it doesn't give them gas/constipation like the rice can...we'll see. I'm just like when is he going to be able to eat normally? I mean he still can't even digest a "regular" formula for goodness sake! Is he is going to be a toddler and living off milk? YIKES!

xoxo

Food for Thought

Here we are at 5 months and 1 week old and "The Mean Momma" (aka me!) has yet to let my little man have any food even brush across his perfect little lips (well except for that one BBQ chip Daddy let him lick before I had a chance to scream NO!).

I'm just not ready, it's not that I don't necessarily think Jack is/isn't ready, but I'm not ready either. I'm worried about his little tummy! He still seems to have a rough go at it as far as digestion goes - have I mentioned he has had hard BM's for about 3 weeks now? He goes once if not twice a day but some are formed, some just dry, some really pasty - I know it's from the formula switch, but I was hoping his little system would adjust but so far no luck! The only thing that is keeping me from flipping out is that he doesn't seem bothered at all my any tummy troubles - no more gas then usual, his belly is soft and not hard, he doesn't cry or scream while having a BM, etc. He seems perfectly fine, but doesn't it sound wrong? For a 5 month old who is still formula only to have hard, dry BM's? IDK - maybe it's normal?!

I also know that there are some foods that will make it worse (BRAT - bananas, rice, apples, toast - the ole BRAT diet staples), but I'm not sure what everything else will do to further stop him up! Poor little guy! I know there are foods that should help, but I don't really know which foods those are - I mean in baby food world?

I swear everyone looks at me like I'm "The Mean Momma" and not letting him have food, "He must be starving!" they say, well more like they give me a weird look and I know what they are thinking...Ugh! Well you know what, my 5 month old is close to 17 pounds, chunky, happy, healthy, and sleeping through the night for 10 hours (knock on wood - we don't want to go down the sleep path again) so I say, or scream - HE IS NOT HUNGRY OR STARVING - BACK THE TRUCK UP! OK?

xoxo

Halloween!!

Happy First Halloween Baby Jack!

Showing off his costume's full potential!

My favorite picture of the evening!

Super Cute! He was the best lion in SEK!

Mom/Dad - why do you torture me like this?

After we got home! He was T. I. R. E. D.

Over it!

Daddy and his little lion!

Too cute!

At Great Grandpa and Grandma Spear's for Chili Dinner!

I thought the tree was a good idea - it wasn't! He quickly scooched down and got mad!

Overall he did great and was a trooper! He was definitely tuckered out though once we got home!

xoxo