JR’s 6 Mo Checkup stats:
My boy is big, strong, and healthy!!! He’s six months old today (where did the time go?!) and we went in for his checkup. His doctor was sooo pleased at how well he’s doing! Here are his stats:
Height: 27-1/2″ tall
Weight: 20 lbs, 13.2 oz
Head: big (like 18-1/2″, I forget and can’t get him to sit still for a measure)
This puts him in like the 90-95% for his age bracket! WOOO!!!
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March 9th is when you really started crawling.
JR can get up on all fours and rock back and forth now!! He’s just started doing this… today, really. It’s sooooo cute! He can maneuver himself ALL over the floor, and I’m constantly on the lookout to see what he’s trying to get himself into next! I’m going to have a crawler VERY soon!!!
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Posted March 12th:
JR has learned how to snuggle up to us and give us lovin’.
Probably since he first came home with us, when I would pick him up, I’d lightly rub my forehead against his, mildly moving my head from side to side while touching foreheads. In the last week or so, JR has started doing this on his own with us!!
He’ll also rub his forehead like that on our leg if he’s on the floor to let me know that he’s ready to be picked up and just cuddled. Sometimes, it’s his way of letting me know that he’s sleepy and ready to get prepared for bed. I just fed him, sang to him, and got him ready for bed… and before nodding off, he gave me a little lovin’.
I love my Jellybean.
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You climbed onto the coffee table on June 25th. <3
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We took you to the Fairbanks Folk Fest on June 9th.
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May 16th was the first time you went swinging.
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JR had his 9 month well baby checkup last Friday. Doc said we’re doing an outstanding job with him!
He was amazed that JR is standing alone now, and even more amazed that JR can climb! (Did I mention that JR can climb? I caught him climbing onto my coffee table on the 13th.) Doc said we should hire JR out as a babyproofing consultant to all the new and expecting parents, saying that if he can get into something it needs to be babyproofed, because JR is so proficient at getting into absolutely everything! We thought that was cute. All in all, Doc was really impressed both with JR and with us.
JR is still at the top of the growth charts too!
Height: 29″
Weight: 25 lbs
Head: 18.5″
So JR is doing excellently, and we have a follow-up ultrasound this Friday to check his kidneys and the status of his hydronephrosis. We’re extremely confident that everything is going to check out just fine, but I’m nonetheless a little apprehensive. As mobile as he is, I can’t picture him willingly sitting still long enough to get it done.
I expect that at our next checkup when he’s 12 months old, Doc, Daddy and I will be chasing him all over the office!
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JR’s Birth Story (short version)
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JR was due September 9th. On Tuesday, September 5th, I went into labor. I’d gone into the hospital a couple of times already, told it was false labor & to go back home. So on Tuesday, when I’d been contracting for hours, and when they’d been 4-5 mins apart for like 4 hours, DH finally convinced me that it was time to go to the hospital.
I went in Tuesday night about 10:30 pm, had blood pressure of 171 over 115 (incredibly, dangerously high), and was admitted immediately. They said it was pregnancy induced hypertension and pre-eclampsia — things that could have meant that I might have had a seizure and killed both me and baby before he was born if I hadn’t gotten to the doctors when I did. I was sad because I knew that my plan to have a medication-free birth was going to be out of the question.
They put me on an IV solution of magnesium sulfate (which made me feel a thousand times worse, but brought down my blood pressure a little bit) but the mag sulfate slowed my contractions. So since my contractions had slowed, they put me on a pitocin drip to induce labor contractions at 6 am, then broke my water at 7:30 to try to speed things up. The pitocin made the contractions so much more severe and PAINFUL. I was trying so hard to have a natural birth without pain meds, but at 3 pm (I’d already been having labor contractions for over 24 hours by 3 pm) I gave in and asked for some IV narcotics to take the edge off the pain. The stadol worked, sort of, for about an hour, but the contractions kept getting more severe and I wasn’t dilating any further, and at about 4 pm I asked for an epidural. It took them almost an hour to come in and administer the epi. But when I finally got it, it made everything feel better. I could feel a tightening sensation when I was contracting, but the pain was basically gone. At 5-something pm, the doctors checked on me again, saw that I hadn’t dilated past 3 cm despite all their efforts, and decided that the best thing for me and the baby would be to do a c-section. After they got things ready, they wheeled me down to the operating room, left John in the hallway, poor guy was out there pacing through the longest 10 minutes of his life.
I had convinced myself that I wasn’t going to survive the c-section. I told DH to let my son know that I’d tried my hardest to do right by him, and kept telling him and DH that I loved them soooo much. DH held my hand during the whole surgery, telling me what they were doing as it happened, then I briefly got to see him (couldn’t see too well because my vision was all messed up from my blood pressure and the meds) and John went with him to the nursery to make sure he was ok. Our most handsome, wonderful little man was born at 6:42 pm at 7 lbs 10 oz, 20-1/4″ tall. John took pictures the whole time he was in the nursery, then brought the camera to me in the recovery room so I could see what had taken place.
After I was able to go back to my room (took an hour or so), they brought my baby to me to nurse — and since then it’s been the greatest time of my life.
