Thompson is SIX Months!

How in the world has it been half a year?  I spent the first four months of Thompson's life so ready for him to get bigger and stronger, and now I just want to pump the brakes.   I feel like each week brings about something new with this baby, and it's exciting but sad at the same time.  Each day he gets closer and closer to toddler-dom and less like a baby.

We had his 6 month appointment, and the little guy hit a growth spurt.  He grew three inches in two months, raising him from the 39th percentile for height to the 93rd.   He's 28 inches tall, and weighs 18 lbs which puts him in the 58th percentile for weight.  He's still in size three diapers, and wearing six and nine month clothing.

I mentioned at the end of his five month update that we started solids a few days shy of his five month birthday, so all this month we've had fun introducing more and more foods.  The first few weeks I made everything from scratch in my Baby Brezza, and then things got crazy with jewelry orders and preparing for holiday shows.  Enter: pouches.  Pouch purees have become part of Thompson's daily routine, and they make everything so simple.   We're still following the Moms On Call Schedule for sleeping, but I've tweaked it a bit for mealtimes.  MOC recommends eating baby food three times a day- breakfast, lunch, and dinner- but we just do baby food at lunch time and early evening for dinner.

At the five month mark, Thompson's dairy allergy started to get better and better.  I started introducing dairy back into my diet (hallelujah) right around the same time we introduced solids.  I started eating dairy in very small amounts, and he had no side effects.  As of now, I'm back to my cheese eating, milk drinking self, and even had my first bowl of ice cream in months.  Praise be.

He's continuing to sleep like a champ.  He takes three naps a day, and then sleeps from 7-7 each night.  He's still infatuated with his Jumperoo and likes sitting in his highchair with toys in front of him.  A couple of weeks ago, Thompson stayed with my Mother In Law Wednesday-Sunday while I worked at JLC Holiday Market in Columbia.  This was the longest that I've been away from him ever, and I missed him like crazy.  Thankfully she came and visited us on Saturday afternoon so I could see him for a bit.  I feel like he changed so much just by being gone for those four days.  When we got home I noticed that he was sitting up so well without any support, which was not the case the previous week.  So crazy how things can change in just a matter of days! He's not crawling yet, but each day I feel like he's getting closer and closer.  He wants to be on the move, he just can't figure out how to get his knees underneath him yet.

We went to Hilton Head with T's family this year for Thanksgiving.  Thompson and our niece Caroline had matching Christmas PJ's so we took some photos on the golf course behind our condo.  Poor Thompson took a tumble during one of the photos.  He was just fine, didn't even cry, but the photo we captured of his face plant was priceless.  I have a feeling this photo will follow him for a while, it's just too good.

One of the biggest changes for both Thompson and me is that I've started to supplement one bottle a day with formula.  Exclusively pumping has been a challenge, and I'm so incredibly proud of myself that I made it to six months giving Thompson only breast milk.  I don't know what it was, but the day after his six month birthday I woke up feeling like I was ready to change things up a little bit.  A switch flipped, and I felt totally at peace and guilt-free about introducing formula into his diet.  I've mentioned my thoughts on formula feeding vs. breast feeding in previous posts, but I would be lying if I said I never felt guilt about wanting to throw in the towel.  For some reason, that guilt just went away once he reached six months. I talked about it with the pediatrician at his six month appointment, and she was incredibly supportive.  I left that appointment, and picked up the first container of formula on the way home.   I'm still pumping 3 times a day, which gives me 75% of the milk I need, and them I'm supplementing the other 25%.

The final highlight of this sixth month was Thompson's first hair cut.  I feel so ridiculous talking about getting our six month old a hair cut, but the poor boy needed it.  He was born with a head FULL of hair, and then lost it on the sides at around three months.   He was left with this little tuft of hair on top which is precious, but it just needed some taming.  I'm so glad we got this done in time for the Holidays, it looks SO much better.

You can see other monthly updates here:

See previous month updates for Thompson below. 

One Month | Two Months | Three Months | Four Months | Five Months