6 Month Check Up

Alright, here we go, what’s turning into my weekly update. Maybe I just need to come to terms with the fact that I can’t blog during the week, although I think about it often I just can’t seem to get it done. The past few weeks I’ve been trying to watch less TV and get more accomplished in the evenings, some nights are better than others. How do working parents do this, I read blogs of women with multiple children and they seem to be wonder woman with 30 hrs in a day.

Wednesday Clare and I visited Clare for her 6 -month check-up, two weeks early. Dr. Dan is scheduled for back surgery this month so they had to play with the schedules to get us in, luckily we were able to see Clare the NP – yes she spells her name the ‘correct’ way also. The appointment went well, Clare is doing well and got a clean bill of health. It seemed as though Clare was impressed with her ability to sit unassisted and thought that by 9 months she would be standing. We talked about food and how she was doing with her new solids. It was suggested that we start feeding her solids twice a day, so starting Tuesday Karen will be giving her ‘lunch’ with the older kids. Clare also suggested that we could start to give her a sippy cup with water if we wanted to. She doesn’t necessarily ‘need’ the water for hydration but to start teaching her how to drink from the cup. So far Clare likes the sippy cup but can’t quite do it herself, the leaning back is challenging.

The most noteworthy part of the visit was her height and weight. Our 4-month appointment was on September 7^th, so just over a month ago. At that appointment she weighed 13lbs 2oz and was 25inches long. This month she was 14lbs 13oz and only 25.5inches. The nurse had us come back out and measure again; she couldn’t imagine how she’d only grown that much since her last appointment. I wonder the accuracy of the measurements; maybe it’s user error? All they do is lay her down on a piece of paper with measurements on it and ‘stretch’ her out, maybe one nurse stretches more than another? Either way, we were told to come back in a month to check her height and weight. Clare didn’t seem overly concerned, but more concerned in a proactive way, if that makes sense. I don’t expect her to be tall; heck neither of us is very tall.

Clare and I had our swim lesson yesterday; she seemed to like it and didn’t turn blue! Two of the other parents commented on how cute she was. I might be biased but I thought she was the cutest kid in the class. One father commented on how comfortable she seemed and asked how long I’d had her in the pool, ummm three times? I explained that she didn’t have much of a choice with my being in charge of pools; she will have plenty of opportunities to swim. After our swim lesson we went and bought a new battery for the car, never too early to teach her about car maintenance, Dr. Hall would be proud.

The weather has FINALLY turned cool; I know Jeff and I are happy; neither of us is overly fond of hot weather. With the cool weather I’m finding that Clare needs another pair of fleece pj’s, she only has one outside of her two sleep-sacs. We love an opportunity to shop; we’ll be visiting Kohl’s this week. I’ve also noticed that she only has 3 pairs of 3-6 month pants, and since she’s fairly short the 6-12 month pants (which she has plenty of) are huge on her, for now I’ll be doing laundry more often. It’s nice that she can finally start to wear the long sleeve items that have been hanging in her closet.

This week will be another week of work for us. For the first time Clare will be going to Karen’s before 8am, we both have training at 7:30am, the only ‘benefit’ of such an early day is we’ll get to go home early and have time in the evening. The evenings go so quickly when you don’t get home till 5:30; again how do working parents do this?

Tomorrow is our favorite day of the week, Monday. Hopefully we’ll be meeting up with some friends that also have the day off, if the weather is nice we’ll go for a walk and get some coffee. I love my Monday’s and enjoy them even more when we have something fun to do! I’ll be sure to take the camera and catch any cute moments.

We have an occasional thumb sucker.

OK, I have a goal of one entry before Friday; let’s see if I can do it.