6 month updates

Today was the dreaded 6 month checkup! We love, love, love Henry's Pediatrician...she's amazing!! We usually have to book months upon months in advance just to get an appt with her. Anyway, today confirms that we have a little peanut here!

Length: 26 in (28.59%)

Weight: 15 lbs 13 oz (16.53%)

Head Circumference: 17.36 in (56.45%)

Okay, we can all tell from these numbers that he definitely has my head :) Henry loves to go to the doctor just so he can play with the crinkle paper...I almost took a picture of the table once we left...it was a disaster!! He doesn't like the shots so much. Today was a hard day: he had to get 2 shots in each leg and I almost cried!

Once we got in the car he was out and slept the entire way home. He was fine the rest of the afternoon, almost like nothing happened! Maybe is was the fact that we recently started bananas and he can't seem to get enough...it's pretty funny!!

If you look close enough in the picture, you can see a little white on the bottom row...scary to think that my baby is going to have teeth soon...YIKES!! This is also his new face, it cracks me up but he looks like he's confused...or something!! My Aunt Cheri gave him a bear that says the "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer, and his face is hilarious while listening to it. I'll try and catch it on video and post it soon!

Who would have know that he had 4 shots today...my little toughy!

6 months full of baby love

Nothing is better than a little baby love to start off your day!

It's been a busy week for the lil man and I!! Henry Lyons turned 6 months on Wednesday. I can't believe how quickly it's gone by, however I honestly can't imagine life without him! He's my lil snugglebug and I love him more and more each day!

I told you all about his first big playdate on Tuesday, however I neglected to tell you that one of the girls there also laid a smooch on him. One of my friends got a great photo of it!

On Wednesday we had another playdate with my friend Erin's kiddos. She has an almost 3 year and a new 7 week old. It was crazy seeing Henry next to Molly...he looked like a giant.

On Thursday, it was beautiful out so we decided to take out our Bob jogging stroller and jog the lovely hills of our neighborhood. I'm not sure who is more in love with this stroller, lil Henry or I?? He just sings to himself the entire time and the stroller is like pushing air so I can get a great run in!

Hey look...I can sit up! He's pretty proud of himself!

And for Henry's 6 month birthday, we celebrated with squash...now who's jealous ;) He actually loves squash, and now that he's tried that he doesn't quite like his rice cereal anymore, so I trick him a bit and mix the squash with the cereal. We are also drinking out of a big boy cup and occasionally we use our sippy cup. We're trying peas today...oh the things you look forward to in mommyhood!!

Tonight is date night for daddy and I to celebrate our 2 year anniversary which is on Monday. It will be our second time with our babysitter, but we really like her!!

Have a great weekend!!

Henry's first 'real' playdate

Sure, Henry's had a few playdates here and there with my all my friends babies, but today topped the charts. It's crazy, it seems like everyone on my floor at the hospital is either pregnant or just had a baby. It makes it even crazier when the parents make comments like "wow, EVERYONE here is pregnant, there must be something in the water!" Well that statement is certainly true! At this playdate alone, 14 of the 16 most recent prego nurses brought their kiddos, and some even had older ones to add to the total! Henry was great, he held hands with one of the girls and she was 16 months old...going after the older ladies already ;) All of us girls had such a great time catching up...it was definitely needed! We attempted a group photo, but I'm sure you can all guess what happened!

Just when we get most of the kiddos on the couch, the older ones with a very short attention span get up, Henry tries to sit up by himself and ends up falling between the two pillows (yep that's him next to Avery, the girl with the pink shirt...she was pulling his binky out the entire time we were trying to take pictures, he didn't mind, I think he liked the attention!) and Nicholas started crying! This was our best attempt!

At least they all knew how to share...can they possibly fit another baby on this mat!

We can't wait for the next one! We're starting a little tradition and meeting once a month because it's amazing how much these little kiddos will change in that short of a time period!!

Henry had so much fun that once I snapped him into the car he was out...even before I left her development!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

And our lucky number is...

451!!!

Well that was what Henry's platelet count was as of yesterday...what an improvement from 6 weeks ago!! The normal platelet count is 150,000 to 400,000 platelets per microliter (mcL) of blood or 150-400 as we call it in the healthcare profession!! It's not a big deal to exceed the max number, but at the end of December Henry was at a critical low of 13!

Other numbers:

My little peanut weighed 7.14 kg or 15.7 lbs (with his clothes on, so we'll call it 15 even) and he was 65.3 cm or 25.7 in (give or take a little for all his wiggling!). He's still falling around the 15-20% for his age, however we have his official 6 month appointment the 24th so we'll have more exact numbers to report!!

Another great number to report: Henry's bedtime has changed from 7pm to 6:30pm (it is said to make the bedtime earlier if the baby goes from sleeping through the night to waking up again) and he slept until a little after 5am today, fed and then went back to bed until 7:30am...NICE!!! He may have slept a little longer, but I wanted to feed him before I left for work this morning.

On that work note...I'm making this a short post just because I had to get up at 4am this morning to shower, get ready, feed Henry and leave for work by 5:25am...I'm exhausted!!

G'night all!

The pictures say it all...

I walked upstairs from my run last Saturday and this was what I found in daddy's office:

PRICELESS!!!

A month on formula

So Henry has officially been on formula for a little over a month. It still breaks my heart that I can't nurse him any longer, but it's best for him and that's what has gets me through this. A little history on it: Somewhere around Henry's 2-3 month milestone mark I started noticing a little blood in his stools (maybe TMI, but hey you're family!). Being a nurse often times makes me more paranoid, almost knowing too much about certain illnesses. I called the after hours nurse (because it couldn't have happened during normal business hours) and she advised for me to stop all dairy. So I don't drink milk, I've always used almond milk and I rarely eat cheese. Just to let you all know, there is dairy in everything! This was all happening around the holidays too, which only made it worse for me, great for my health! At his 4 month appointment they checked his stool again and noticed that there was still blood in it and now there were white blood cells as well, which indicated inflammation of the bowels. I was then told I needed to do the elimination diet, so I now needed to stop eating milk and soy products. I was allowed to eat fruits, veggies, meat and rice...Yippee :) That diet surely got me in shape, but I was also losing too much weight. When they noticed that this diet wasn't helping Henry at all, my pediatrician opted to start formula instead of eliminating yet another thing from my dairy, wheat was suppose to be the next thing to eliminate. So December 23rd I got a call from the doctors office saying that I needed to stop nursing all together...I was bummed to say the least (ok I'll admit that I cried for the entire afternoon) :( Henry had to be on Alimentum which is Similacs hypoallergenic formula. The first bottle was priceless...oh the faces he made. He has taken a liking to the formula...it smells horrible so I'm not sure why he likes it. On another note...it's expensive!!! Of course he has to be on the most expensive formula, 1 can goes for $25 and lasts 4-5 days!!! Thankfully I get a ton of coupons and free things from Similac so I usually get 10 or so dollars off per can which REALLY helps!! As for the nursing aspect...it took me almost a month to "dry up." As of 2 weeks ago, I was still pumping out 30+ ounces a day...it was crazy!!! My body is back to 'normal' and I'm looking forward to nursing the next baby...whenever that may be!

We go for our hematology check up Monday so I'm anxious to see how much he weighs now. He's definitely going through a growth spurt since he usually is asleep at 7pm and up around 7:30am, however now he wakes at 2am and acts like I never feed him. He chugs his bottle down, I change him and he's back to sleep in 20 minutes tops...so I really can't complain!

Grandma's here this week and we're suppose to get an ice storm today so we're just going to kick back and relax today...look for some new pics later:)