Hi There,
So hard to believe Spencer is 6 months old (corrected) already! Time sure goes fast. As of today, May 5th, he weighs 21 lbs 6 oz and is 72 cm long. Head circumference is 25.5 cm. From last month, it's a gain of just under 2 lbs weight wise, 3 cm length wise and 1 cm head circumference wise. Again, if you're someone who reads into percentiles, when measured against other 6 month olds, he's in the 86th for head circumference (last month was 84th), 93rd for weight (exactly the same as last month) and 91st for length (last month was 89th). If you were to compare him to other 9 month olds (chronologically, Spencer will be 9 months in two days), he'd be in the 49th for head circumference (was 40th last month), 60th for weight (was 49th last month) and 41st for length (last month was 33rd). Heading in the right direction! All is well on the growing front.
Holy cow, as I mentioned last month, Spencer LOVES food. To date, he's had each of the different cereals (rice, oat, barley, wheat), several vegetables (carrots, peas, squash, green beans and sweet potatoes so far) and quite a few different types of fruit (so far, apples, pears, peaches, bananas, blueberries and raspberries) and he'll happily gobble up whatever is being offered to him ... there hasn't been a single thing he doesn't like! (Thankfully, there hasn't been a single thing he's been allergic to, either). He eats quite a lot, too - he'll have 6 tbsp of cereal AND half a jar of fruit for breakfast as well as half a jar of vegetables and half a jar of fruit for dinner. This is in addition to all the milk he gets in one day! (I nurse him, on average, three times a day and he gets topped up with bottles of formula when we're out and about). He is definitely quite the eater. He also likes those little Baby Mum-Mum rice rusk things and will gum away at those whenever he's offered them.
There are two things that will cause him to cry while eating. One, if you're not putting the food on the spoon fast enough for him (pretty funny) and two, if you finish the bowl and he hasn't had enough yet, he'll let you know it and off you have to go to the kitchen to get more! It's cute. : D We've been feeding him jarred food so far, mainly because at first I was worried that I wouldn't do as good of a job as Heinz or Gerber does at blending the food well enough for there not still to be any little chunks in it that could choke him. Maybe a paranoid first time mom thing, but so be it, haha! : D The past few days though, I've tried making my own applesauce, pears and bananas and that's gone ok. So, I'm thinking maybe I'll do a combination of jarred food and homemade food.
Music class (once a week) and swimming lessons (once a week) are the two "activities" we have Spencer in right now. I think it's just the right amount for a baby of his age - I definitely don't want to be one of those parents who overschedule their kids! The music is outstanding - the teacher is fantastic - and the swimming is something he seems to enjoy. One thing that the instructor (on only the 2nd class!) had the parents do was blow in the child's face so that, by instinct, they'd close their eyes, and then dunk them under the water for a couple of seconds. The first two times Drew put him under, Spencer came up crying, but the third and fourth time, he was fine with it. I guess the thought is to get the babies comfortable with being under water as early on as they can.
Thumb sucking isn't something that Spencer has been doing too much of this month (maybe Drew's idea with the socks on the hands worked!), but he has now taken to sucking on his pointer finger! A funny choice - I've never known a baby to pick that one to suck on, but Spencer loves it - sucking, gnawing and chomping on it a few times a day.
Speaking of chomping, there's no teeth to speak of yet ... but, they're coming. He hasn't had the fever or the red cheeks that I hear can come with teething, but he's been drooling up a storm for the past two months! We'll see when his first tooth breaks - I imagine it may be in the next month or so.
One more thing to mention - 'cause I find it hard to believe - is that Spencer is an outstanding car traveler. Sometimes, I'll think he's asleep 'cause he's so quiet and when I glance in the rearview window to see, he's just sitting there, as relaxed and content as can be, looking out the window at the passing cars, trees, etc. It's awesome ... and I sure hope he'll be like that when he's older, rather than being one of those "are we there yet" and "how much longer" kids (like his mommy was)!
Well, I guess that's it for this month. Hope you enjoyed the update and if you have a chance, scroll down for this past month's photos - there's 5 of them.
Alright, stay tuned for the next installment of the "Life and Times of Spencer" in another four weeks' time!
Tara, Drew & Spencer xo
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Spencer - 5 Months Corrected Age
Howdy,
Well, it's been an eventful month! Spencer had his first ever illness ... it started out as croup, complete with the barking seal cough and everything, poor little guy. Thankfully, after twelve days worth of prescription medicine, it cleared up and he's now as good as new.
A couple of weeks ago was Spencer's pediatrician check-up and Dr. Cieslak said he couldn't be more pleased with his progress. He weighed, measured, poked and prodded Spencer and at the end of the appointment, he said for me to "bring Spencer back when he is one year old unless you have any concerns up until then, but I sure don't anticipate any, you have one completely strong and healthy baby there"!!! Wow, music to a preemie parent's ears. ; ) Believe me, I don't take a single thing for granted and am so thankful that we're so lucky that Spencer is doing so well. He truly is our little miracle.
On the same day as the pediatrician appointment, Spencer had his follow-up eye exam with the pediatric optometrist. His eyes are healthy and fine. "No glasses or other corrective measures required", she said! Another stroke of good luck and another reason to thank our lucky stars. And believe me, I do. EVERY DAY! : )
For a few weeks now, Spencer has "graduated" to solid foods. He started out with rice cereal and has since made the rounds through oat, barley and as of today, wheat. So far no allergies to any of it and once we make our way through this package of wheat cereal, we'll start in on the veggies. Can I just say though, how much he LOVES the food? At one of our preemie groups, I was told that oftentimes, preemies have a hard time eating and can choke and gag on the cereal when they first start on it. Well, from the get go, Spencer has downed every mouthful and more times than not, will cry for more as I'm putting the next spoonful on the spoon! In other words, I can't get it into his mouth fast enough! Pretty funny.
Two weekends ago, Drew and I took him swimming for the first time. He starts lessons on the 11th of April (this coming Sunday), so we wanted to bring him to the pool a couple of times first, so he'd be somewhat used to the water. We take him to the pool right around the corner from us (it's a 7 minute walk, which will be super nice in the summer!) and - thank god - it's as warm as a bathtub and is also ozonated, which means there's not much chlorine in it. When Spencer first got in the water, he was looking around with a very apprehensive look on his face - not scared, not upset, just a look of "where am I and what is this?" It was pretty cute. By the end though, he was splashing his arms, kicking his legs and squealing .. he loved it!
As of today, he now weighs ... get this, 19lbs 10.5 oz! He gained 3 lbs this past month - holy cow, a big boy he is turning out to be. Length-wise, he's now 69 cm (up 3 cm from last month) and head circumference is at 44.5 cm (up 1 cm from last month). If you go by percentiles (some people swear by them, others don't think they mean much - I'm somewhere in the middle), he's now at the 84th for head circumference (was 81st last month), 93rd for weight (was 73rd last month) and 89th for length (was 85th last month) when measured against other 5 month old babies. If we were to measure him with other 8 month olds (which is Spencer's "chronological" age), he'd be in the 40th for head circumference, the 49th for weight and the 33rd for length. Last month, it was 30th, 12th and 18th (when measured with other 7 month olds). So, this month has certainly been a good growing month for our little man!
All is well. Personality-wise, Spencer is still a happy, easygoing baby who smiles easily and loves to gab away to all who will listen. He still sucks his thumb from time to time ... a habit neither Drew or I want him to have (I was a thumb sucker and had the buck teeth and braces to prove it, ouch - not fun!) ... so Drew has come up with a way to try and put a stop to it -- by putting socks on his hands! Not sure if it'll work, but it's worth a try, haha! Take it from me, thumb sucking is a tough habit to break and never starting in the first place is the best way to break it! Socks don't taste nearly as good as a nice, soggy thumb, so we're hoping this'll do the trick. ; )
Well, I guess that's all the "new news" until next month. Please scroll down for some recent pictures .. I've uploaded 8 for you all to see!
Thanks for reading and take care, everyone ...
Tara, Drew & Spencer xoxo
Well, it's been an eventful month! Spencer had his first ever illness ... it started out as croup, complete with the barking seal cough and everything, poor little guy. Thankfully, after twelve days worth of prescription medicine, it cleared up and he's now as good as new.
A couple of weeks ago was Spencer's pediatrician check-up and Dr. Cieslak said he couldn't be more pleased with his progress. He weighed, measured, poked and prodded Spencer and at the end of the appointment, he said for me to "bring Spencer back when he is one year old unless you have any concerns up until then, but I sure don't anticipate any, you have one completely strong and healthy baby there"!!! Wow, music to a preemie parent's ears. ; ) Believe me, I don't take a single thing for granted and am so thankful that we're so lucky that Spencer is doing so well. He truly is our little miracle.
On the same day as the pediatrician appointment, Spencer had his follow-up eye exam with the pediatric optometrist. His eyes are healthy and fine. "No glasses or other corrective measures required", she said! Another stroke of good luck and another reason to thank our lucky stars. And believe me, I do. EVERY DAY! : )
For a few weeks now, Spencer has "graduated" to solid foods. He started out with rice cereal and has since made the rounds through oat, barley and as of today, wheat. So far no allergies to any of it and once we make our way through this package of wheat cereal, we'll start in on the veggies. Can I just say though, how much he LOVES the food? At one of our preemie groups, I was told that oftentimes, preemies have a hard time eating and can choke and gag on the cereal when they first start on it. Well, from the get go, Spencer has downed every mouthful and more times than not, will cry for more as I'm putting the next spoonful on the spoon! In other words, I can't get it into his mouth fast enough! Pretty funny.
Two weekends ago, Drew and I took him swimming for the first time. He starts lessons on the 11th of April (this coming Sunday), so we wanted to bring him to the pool a couple of times first, so he'd be somewhat used to the water. We take him to the pool right around the corner from us (it's a 7 minute walk, which will be super nice in the summer!) and - thank god - it's as warm as a bathtub and is also ozonated, which means there's not much chlorine in it. When Spencer first got in the water, he was looking around with a very apprehensive look on his face - not scared, not upset, just a look of "where am I and what is this?" It was pretty cute. By the end though, he was splashing his arms, kicking his legs and squealing .. he loved it!
As of today, he now weighs ... get this, 19lbs 10.5 oz! He gained 3 lbs this past month - holy cow, a big boy he is turning out to be. Length-wise, he's now 69 cm (up 3 cm from last month) and head circumference is at 44.5 cm (up 1 cm from last month). If you go by percentiles (some people swear by them, others don't think they mean much - I'm somewhere in the middle), he's now at the 84th for head circumference (was 81st last month), 93rd for weight (was 73rd last month) and 89th for length (was 85th last month) when measured against other 5 month old babies. If we were to measure him with other 8 month olds (which is Spencer's "chronological" age), he'd be in the 40th for head circumference, the 49th for weight and the 33rd for length. Last month, it was 30th, 12th and 18th (when measured with other 7 month olds). So, this month has certainly been a good growing month for our little man!
All is well. Personality-wise, Spencer is still a happy, easygoing baby who smiles easily and loves to gab away to all who will listen. He still sucks his thumb from time to time ... a habit neither Drew or I want him to have (I was a thumb sucker and had the buck teeth and braces to prove it, ouch - not fun!) ... so Drew has come up with a way to try and put a stop to it -- by putting socks on his hands! Not sure if it'll work, but it's worth a try, haha! Take it from me, thumb sucking is a tough habit to break and never starting in the first place is the best way to break it! Socks don't taste nearly as good as a nice, soggy thumb, so we're hoping this'll do the trick. ; )
Well, I guess that's all the "new news" until next month. Please scroll down for some recent pictures .. I've uploaded 8 for you all to see!
Thanks for reading and take care, everyone ...
Tara, Drew & Spencer xoxo
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