Six Months (a few days late)

River, you are 6 months old (January 14, 2011)! 

You weigh 17.2 pounds. You are 26.5 inches long.                                                                You wear a size 2 diaper. You wear a size 2 shoe. 

You are in mostly 6 months clothes, but some 9 months and some 6-12 months 

(and of course, the occasional 3-6 month... why are clothes sized so differently?)

Eating... well, it depends on the day. You've had colds and congestion for the better part of the winter and it really makes bottle feeding harder. When you can't breathe our of your nose and are gagging on congestion taking a bottle just ain't happenin'! Add that to severe GERD and it's a slow go. Back at Thanksgiving you were taking 2-2.5 ounces regularly (but were extremely fussy... like cry at least half an hour of every hour.) When you got the first cold it just went downhill from there and we eventually stopped offering the bottle for a couple of weeks. We have finally built back up to taking 1-2 ounces with each feed. You do wonderfully if you are well rested and not having stomach pains, but that doesn't happen with every feed. We're working on it. I know one day you will conquer this and this must just be part of the story God is writing for you. I've been giving you very, very small tastes of applesauce on your paci occasionally. I think we're still months off from solids. You're taking 6 ounces every 3 hours, but sleep through the night (so about 5 feedings).

You're sleeping pretty good... usually waking up once a night either around 3 or 5 and sleeping till 7 or 8. Sometimes you sleep straight through till 8. We JUST stopped swaddling to sleep (unless you're really irritable or can't settle down) and you sleep just as great not swaddled. 

You've been so social lately... babbling and gurgling with lots of smiles (save for the last couple of days where you've been really fussy and gassy). You do pitch an ugly fit... raring back, stiffening up, and holding your breath. You are a mess! You had an MRI done about 3 weeks ago and the anesthesiologist made sure to come out and tell me how you held your breath for a solid 30 seconds when they were messing with you. No news to your mommy! I feel like most of these fit's are related to GI pain and hope we can find a doctor that is helpful soon. We hate to see you hurting. 

You've gotten much better at riding in the carseat and easier to take places. I wear you in Aunt Kel's Baby Bjorn a lot... we're going to have to find one that holds a higher weight to buy since Aunt Kel will be needing hers back soon for Baby Boy!

Developmentally... holding head up and rolling over like a pro when you are mad about something. When you're happy you hold your head up for a few seconds on your boppy. You're mostly holding it up when you are being held against someone though. We are proud of you.

We love you, River!