Family Friday: 6 Months

26 Weeks (6 Months) Old

Cameron is exactly 6 months old today!  It is truly remarkable how fast babies grow and change, both physically and mentally.

Cameron had a six-month wellness check up yesterday.  She now weighs 15lb, 9oz.  That is in the 45% percentile so she’s just about average for her age despite starting out at only 5lb 13oz.  She is now 25.2 inches long (a 7.2 inch increase since birth).  She had to get more immunization shots but now she is done with those until 12 months.  She developed a slight fever again and got a little fussy but otherwise did fine.

At 6 months, Cameron is now wearing size 3-6 month clothing and size 2 diapers.  She sleeps from 8pm to 7:30am every night and takes three naps during the day.  She is still being swaddled for sleeping at night, otherwise she continually wakes herself, but I’m starting to leave her unswaddled for naps.

She drinks four 8-oz bottles a day and we are currently doing solids once a day.  She has had avocado, pears, butternut squash, and peas.  The butternut squash has been her favorite so far – she couldn’t get enough of it!  I am making all of her food myself and doing simple, one-food purees for now.  We do each new food for a few days to test for allergies before moving on.  I have a feeling that she is going to love multi-food blends when we get to that.

Cameron is not teething yet and I’m not anxious for that to start.  She can sit very well with support but cannot sit long without support yet.  If you hold her on your lap with her feet touching the chair or ground, she will sit then stand over and over for at least 20 minutes.  She loves looking around outside and when she sees something that excites her, her whole body will tense and shake!  She has just recently started grabbing and playing with her feet while she is laying on her back.  She is also getting very good at picking up a pacifier and putting it in her mouth all by herself.

Cameron is creeping like a champ, almost crawling.  She gets her whole body off the floor and moves up to six inches at a time, quickly getting to what she’s after.  She is starting to get her knees under her body but hasn’t mastered moving that way yet.  She also can’t go backwards yet so if she moves up against something and can no longer go forward, she gets stuck and cries.

I am 6 months postpartum so I’ll add one final update about me.  Cameron was induced 3 weeks early due to my sudden high blood pressure.  It remained elevated for a couple months after she was born, then it jumped around for a while, and now it is finally consistently normal.  I do worry about developing blood pressure issues when I become pregnant again.  My history of pre-hypertension, along with the fact that I am 35 years old, will make me an automatic “high-risk pregnancy” next time around.

I am completely back to my pre-pregnancy weight and measurements!  I always worried about that, seeing so many women battle with weight or wider hips after having children.  I continued exercising while I was pregnant and only ended up gaining 23 pounds.  I lost most of that within the first few weeks but my body held on to the last 5 pounds and a few inches.  In December I started a 60-day Beachbody Insanity Challenge that I finished in February.  I actually didn’t lose any weight during the challenge but I did regain muscle and I lost 2.5 inches off my midsection.  After finishing the challenge, I started running again and really watching what I ate and that last 5 pounds and the final inches finally came off.  It was hard work getting back to “normal” but the way I feel now makes it so worth it.  I highly recommend the iPhone app, MyFitnessPal, which is a free app for calorie counting (which was necessary near the end) and so easy to use!

My body now looks exactly like it did before having a baby with the exception of two things: my c-section scar (which is still slightly numb on one side) and my deflated boobs.  Breastfeeding advocates say that it is a myth that breastfeeding ruins your boobs… well maybe for some lucky women but not everyone!  Breastfeeding (even for only four months) completely ruined my boobs.  I was a 34B before getting pregnant, went up to a 34C/36B while breastfeeding, and now I am a 34A.  They are a sad, sad sight.  sigh…

My hair started falling out like crazy when I stopped breastfeeding two months ago… and it’s still falling out!  My hair has never been this thin in my life.  The thinner hair is actually kind of nice if it would only stop falling out!  I am so sick of my hair being everywhere… on me, all over the house, on the baby, on the dog, clogging the vacuum and the drains, ughh!  I have been shedding worse than Dulce for the past two months and I can’t wait for it to stop.

So many changes happen to your body while you are pregnant and just as many changes happen after giving birth.  We definitely want more children and plan on having them close together (like getting-pregnant-again-soon close) but the thought of going through everything all over again is honestly not very appealing.  If only the guy could do it all the second time around!