6 Months

Here we are going for a walk around the neighborhood last weekend. (It was 74ºF out hence the bare arms and legs.) The Tuesday before that the Bear had his 6 month pediatrician appointment. Mike and I made a wager (but somehow forgot to mention what the winner would get - so I guess it was a wager for pure fun and love of a competition.) Mike thought he'd weigh in at 24 lbs. and I guessed 25lbs. We were both off. He came in at 20 pounds, 5.5 ounces. He's ON the chart now! I think that is the 90th percentile if I remember correctly. He's still off the chart in height and he's in the middle of the pack on head circumference. Mike said to the little one, "Well, there goes your hopes for being a sumo wrestler." The Doc said that 6 months is usually the peak of the chubby thighs so I'm glad we had a warm winter day to show them off before they get too gangly and lean; they are so squishy and zrrrbrrrtable right now. I mentioned to the Doc that he really thrashes his head back and forth* when going down to sleep. It's pretty intense and I thought it had to do with mouth pain due to teething. She thinks he's having nightmares but I disagree because he's not even asleep yet when he does this. He's getting a bald spot on the back of his head from doing it too. I wonder if Mike and I did this when we were kids? (Moms?) or if anyone elses babies do/did this? It's like he's shaking his head "no" really dramatically and over and over again (maybe 8-10 times at a time.)

*O.K. I looked up this thrashing head thing and although there were no official answers from Pediatricians that I could find, there were many moms (and mums) that have little ones who do this and a majority of their pediatricians said it's nothing to worry about. It looks like the majority was that the babies do this to soothe themselves. I also read about it in the book What to Expect the First Year and they called it head rocking and rolling - which seems really sweet and gentle...sweet and gentle this is not but at least it let me re-research it with that term and I found a simple and helpful article on "head rolling" on this Australian site called Raising Children dot net dot au. They also talk about head banging and body rocking. Looks like boys are more likely to head bang...oy vey. From that article on why they do it:

Why children do it
Rhythmic behaviour is comforting and soothing, even in normally developing children. You might notice your child doing it more if he’s experiencing some anxiety or stress during the day. But by itself, rocking, banging or rolling doesn’t mean your child has an emotional problem.

You can read the entire article here. Thankfully Mr. Bear doesn't do it all the time. In this case, yay for normalcy!