Hellobee

Charlie turned 6 months old today! Does time feel like it’s flying by because he’s growing so fast? That’s how I feel when I see other babies!

His head is so round!

My little man is not so little anymore!

Weight

27 Weeks – 19 lbs 7 oz
24 Weeks – 18 lbs 7 oz
16 Weeks – 16 lbs 10 oz
8 Weeks – 13 lbs 3 oz
Birth – 8lbs 6oz

Weight: 19 lbs 7 oz = 75%
Height: 26 inches = 75%
Head Circumference: 43.5 cm = 50%

Charlie had been in the 90th percentile for height and weight since he was born, but I’m not surprised it’s gone down. Since he started sleeping through the night at 4 1/2 months and dropped 2-3 middle of the night feedings, he never made up all those calories in the daytime. He regularly leaves 1, 2, even 3 ounces left in his 5 1/2 ounce bottles. I used to coax him to finish all his bottles, but I stopped doing it because I read that forcing babies to eat when they don’t want anymore can cause eating disorders/poor eating habits. And lord knows I’m already scared of making him anorexic and passing my food issues on to him. Since Charlie started solids though, it’s like his appetite has been invigorated. He’s been finishing every single bottle the past 4 days on top of finishing all his solids. He even had 2 oz of carrots today instead of his usual 1 oz.

Cowboy Charlie.

Charlie cried when the pediatrician examined him and when the nurse gave him his shots, like he did at his 4 month checkup. Red face, tears streaming, the whole bit. I don’t know if it’s the pain so much as him not liking strangers.  Our pediatrician mentioned that Charlie has a quick off switch though because he stops crying as soon as Mr. Bee or I hold him. Now that I think about it, I don’t think Charlie’s much of a crier, but I just don’t know many babies to compare him to.

Here he is sniffling but smiling right after his shots:

One interesting thing our pediatrician said was to take lots of videos of Charlie’s jolly innocent laughs because they will only last for a short time and then be gone forever. Good thing I’ve become a video taking maniac lately. My mom even called me last night to say not to make Charlie laugh too much — like I do in these videos — because it’s too much laughing for him and he’s not going to be able to catch his breath.

Charlie seemed his usual happy self after his vaccines yesterday, but he kept waking up and moaning in his sleep all night long. He’d tolerated his 2 month and 4 month vaccines with no fever, so I didn’t expect him to have any adverse reaction to his 6 month vaccines since he was getting the same shots. The poor boy didn’t even cry and just rolled around in his crib moaning quietly in his sleep for most of the night. He woke up around 2:15am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I went into his room and he gave me a big smile, so I thought he couldn’t have been in that much pain. But his forehead definitely felt warm, and when I took his temperature, he had a low grade fever.

A recently published study found that giving acetaminophen right before or after vaccines makes them less effective, so our pediatrician said to give Charlie acetaminophen only if he had a fever. I’ve never given Charlie any medicine, and I was scared to give him the generic acetaminophen I had on hand (since I had to toss our Tylenol and Motrin because of the recall). Could I trust this brand I’d never even heard of? What if Charlie had a bad reaction to the acetaminophen? Plus the box says to ask your doctor for dosages for babies under 2, making me even more nervous. I’d already looked proper dosages up online — acetaminophen is given to infants based on weight and not age — and talked to our pediatrician about it. But I still felt anxious about giving Charlie medicine for the first time.

Charlie seemed extra clingy so I gave him 120 mg of the concentrated infant drops. His fever came down, but of course he didn’t want to sleep anymore because he got so many snuggles, and he’s not used to me coming to get him in the middle of the night. He was up for almost 3 hours before he passed out on his bottle and finally fell asleep at 5:25am this morning. He still has a low grade fever this morning, but he seems to be pretty happy so I’m going to hold off on giving him more for now. I think he’ll probably be ok by the end of the day today. It’s hard when your baby is even a little bit sick though!

No more shots until 12 months now. By then he’ll be super aware and will hate going to the doctor even more!

Rocking his fedora.

Charlie is obsessed with grabbing his feet and sucking on his toes. He loves peekaboo. He likes to blow raspberries.  After getting stuck on his tummy for a little while in his crib, flipping every which way is now no problemo and he sleeps in every possible corner of the crib. His tummy has been his sleeping position of choice for the past month which still makes me nervous, but babies tend to sleep better on their tummies. He has a repertoire of monosyllabic words like mamamama, babababa, dadadada and has developed all kinds of grunts and squeals to express his emotions. And oh my does he love to laugh!

I think Charlie looks best in baseball caps. Mr. Bee will get him into the Yankees and I’ll get him into the Lakers (Go Lakers!!).

Charlie is getting so strong it often surprises me how hard he can hit/grab/pinch me. Last week while Mr. Bee was giving Charlie his night time bottle, he kicked Mr. Bee in the nuts super hard!

Charlie had major baby pattern baldness at 2-4 months when his hair fell out, but it’s really grown back. His hair was jet black when he was born, but look at how light his hair is now! I love it because I had super light hair as a baby too.

Charlie and grandma, his #1 fan.

Charlie’s looks have changed so much since he was born. He was much darker. He had black hair. His eyes were smaller. You couldn’t see his eyelashes. He really wasn’t cute that first month or two. Now he’s a lot paler with light brown hair, round eyes and he has luscious curly lashes that I can only dream of!

Charlie couldn’t do very much when he was younger, and it was often pretty boring playing with him to tell you the truth. But I think he started getting super fun just in the past two weeks because he’s so much more vocal, active and aware of everything. In my 5 month update, I said that Charlie changed the most from months 4 to 5. He hit a lot of milestones in his 4th month of life, but his ability to interact with us and his surroundings now changes almost daily. It feels like something just clicked overnight when he turned 6 months old!

Charlie’s top three obsessions right now are:

1. Cold Snapple bottles and plastic beverage cups. Charlie screeches with absolute glee when he sees a glass bottle or beverage cup. His holds his arms and hands out and they start quivering because he gets so excited. He’ll take a cold bottle over his toys any day.
2. Smokey and Sparky the cat. For the first four months, Charlie didn’t even notice the cats at all. Around 4 months he started watching them. Now he screeches with excitement every time he sees them. Unfortunately he doesn’t understand petting, so he grabs their fur and puts it in his mouth. Luckily the cats aren’t scared of him, and they seem to know that he’s a baby.
3. Running water. When I run his bath or wash my hands, Charlie is mesmerized by running water.

He’s such a giggly, happy, lovable baby and it’s only going to get so much more fun from now on!