6 Months Old

Grant is 6 months old today--wow, a half of a year old! He is really showing us his fun-loving, active, and expressive personality lately. He is reaching and grabbing for anything he can get his hands on and of course trying to get it all in his mouth. He is talking so much more too. We actually got him to say "da da" after we kept repeating it over and over to him. He will try to imitate our sounds, which is so neat. He is also sitting up better and for longer amounts of time, but still falls over to the side after a little bit. If he keeps his hands steady on the floor, he can sit for a few minutes without toppling over, but the adventurous side of him wants to reach for things or lift his hands up, which of course makes him fall. He will figure it out sooner or later!

He is still growing like crazy, and we have no doubt that when we go to the doctor on Monday he will be measuring in at all the right sizes for his age. He seems to have jumped right past wearing 3-6 month clothes and is now in size 6-9 months. He is also so close to already outgrowing the size 2 diapers! With this rapid growth, he was starting to outgrow his little bed/bassinet he has been in since early July that kept him inclined at an angle to help with his spitting up. He loved that bed and seemed so comfortable in it, but we knew we needed to get him used to the crib. We tried it a few weeks ago, and he took to it like a champ! He now sleeps there every night with really no spitting up. He will do some of his naps during the day in the crib, but he won't sleep as long in there and tends to spit up more. His favorite place to nap is on me--he will sleep for up to an hour and a half on me, but may only do 30 minutes or so in the crib. While I love this quiet time with him lying on me, I know we have to keep working on getting him used to napping in the crib. But for now, I'm enjoying the time I have with him snuggled up with me. I know those moments will be few and far between in the future!

Grant had his first physical therapy appointment this week at the Children's Hospital branch in Fairfield. We will be going every Tuesday for the next few months. His P.T. Amy is very good with him, and she has no doubt that his torticollis will go away little by little with our weekly sessions and with the exercises we do with him at home.

We are looking forward to celebrating Grant's 1st Halloween. We will be sure to post pictures of that next week, along with his new stats after his 6 month checkup on Monday. He will also be starting solids next week, assuming we get the go ahead from the doctor, so I will definitely be posting about that adventure, too! You can also see the pictures from Grant's 6 month photo shoot today on Facebook.

Video Updates

Here are some updated videos of Grant. He has recently been surprising us with a lot of changes. He is now rolling from his tummy to his back, he can sit up for some short periods of time, and he is talking up a storm. He has discovered his tongue and loves to talk and spit at the same time, giving us those cute little raspberries. He has found his feet and loves playing with them and putting them in his mouth. He is laughing a lot, and loves to smile and flirt with everyone. It's so neat to finally see his personality coming out. He is doing a great job sleeping as well. He sleeps around 10-11 hours most nights now (he puts himself back to sleep if he wakes up a few times overnight), and takes some good naps during the day. We are so lucky to finally have him doing that. He is still spitting up like crazy (as you will see in the last video) and still taking Zantac. He makes quite the mess all day long, but we hope he will begin to outgrow it soon, maybe as he can sit up more on his own or with the start of solids. But it could go on until he's at least a year, so we are learning to just be used to it. It's a small price to pay for having a happy, healthy, sweet baby. We just can't get enough of him--he is so amazing and such a blessing to our lives! Which leads me to let everyone know that today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. After having a miscarriage and knowing many other people who have as well, along with having our close friends who lost their baby at almost 38 weeks, I will never forget how hard it is to lose a baby, no matter how far along you are. We cherish our little guy more than anything, and we pray and hope for our loved ones dealing with loss that they will have a little one to cherish soon too, while never forgetting about the one(s) they lost. They will always be in our hearts and they are the angels among us.

One more thing to share regarding a small health issue. Grant has been diagnosed with something called Left Congenital Muscular Torticollis. That just means that he has tightened muscles in his neck on the left side. We had noticed that Grant always wants to turn his head to the right and always reaches with his right side, and sleeps with his head turned right as well. We were getting a little worried more about his head becoming flat on the side he is always lying on, so we took him to Children's Hospital this week on the recommendation from our pediatrician. Luckily, his head shape is fine for right now, but they noticed his left side is tighter. This is probably due to the position he had in the womb, so he prefers his right side. It's not a major concern right now, but it could cause problems down the road if left untreated. We were told to do certain stretches with him 4-5 times a day, and he will need to see a physical therapist once a week for a few months to loosen those muscles. It probably sounds way worse than it is, and we are happy it's nothing more serious. Hopefully it will all be normal in a few months!