I finally posted a picture of Grace at six months (since she's now almost seven months...) and realized that she looks pretty much exactly the same in that six month picture as she did in the five and four month old ones. I thought I'd give a little explanation of that.
Grace hasn't been growing much.
Maybe a little more explanation would help.
Just before Grace's six month appointment, we went to her follow up appointment with the ENT in Salt Lake (about her acid reflux). He said everything looked fine (really, he just asked me if Grace seemed to have been doing better and I said yes. Stupid. Did I really have to go all the way to Salt Lake for that? Couldn't I have just told him over the phone? And if he's just going to take my word for it, why do we need him at all?) except that he was worried about her lack of weight gain. I tried just to blow off his concern. Grace was happy, alert, active, and sleeping great. She seemed fine to me. But just in case, I decided to start with rice cereal before we went to her six month appointment in an effort to chunk Grace up.
However, at her six month appointment, our pediatrician was also quite worried. My rice cereal scheme had not worked as I might have hoped. Rats! Dr. Anderson decided that Grace needed to start power-packing. Aka, the baby fat diet. She gave me this crazy program that included feeding Grace lots and lots of food (as well as continuing to nurse) AND sneaking extra calories into her food via butter. Weird. So, I melt one teaspoon of butter per ounce of whatever I'm feeding Grace (bananas, rice cereal, prunes, sweet potatoes, whatever) and give it to her. She seems to like it.
Really, she's quite the spoiled little baby. People keep asking me if I've given her anything she hasn't liked yet and the truth is that she's liked everything she's had thus far. But...I'd blame that on the butter. Everything tastes better with a little butter snuck in. I'm afraid she'll grow up with a mom-induced butter addiction. But, hey, as long as she gains weight, right?
And...she has. She's been doing great. After just a week of the power packing (and a blessing from Spencer), Grace had gained six ounces. This was after a gain of only eight ounces in two months. Then, just a little under two weeks later, she had gained another nine and a half ounces. Hooray! I've been pretty proud of her. She should be entered into some kind of baby "biggest gainer" contest. :0)
I keep wondering if she's going to get stretch marks from growing so fast after having grown so little for so long. :0) Probably not.
I guess the good thing in all this is that Grace hasn't grown out of her clothes as fast as other babies. That makes it easy on us. Plus, she gets to wear extra cute outfits for extra time. A definite bonus.
But, I'm so glad and relieved she's growing. I wonder if I should have just started her on solid food a little earlier. Her doctor at her four month appointment told me I didn't need to worry about it until six months or so unless I wanted to. And, being lazy, I didn't. I guess I'll just be more vigilant with the next one. Poor first children. They may get 100% of mom and dad's attention but they also get to experience 100% of mom and dad's first timer's mistakes.
"Me? Are you talking about me?"
The continual battle of the bow. She wants to eat it. I want her to wear it.
Grace and some of her friends.
