Six months old and dr. visits



Holden at the doctor's



So the boys are six months old...I know it's cliche, but it's hard to believe it's been a half a year! We had our dr. visit Monday, and it went pretty well. I'm going to post about each boy seperately, so all the "stats" will be in those posts.

We talked about feeding and sleeping schedules, and I asked a few other questions. Basically, yes they should be able to sleep through the night, but she said to feed them if they woke around 4 am or 5 am (which Holden typically does.) But since they go down around 8, that's still 8ish hours without food. So I guess I can do the night feedings for a little while longer! She talked about a nap schedule, and said that I should put them down at the same time each day, even if that meant some crying (because they'll eventually figure out, "hey, this must be time for me to sleep.") They do really well with the morning nap most days, but the afternoons seem to be less structured. She talked about them taking a two hour long afternoon nap, but I don't think we're quite ready for that yet. I still think they need three naps, because that's an awfully long time to go until bedtime. So we'll see.

Dr. Kelly with the boys at six months!

She said to go ahead with solid food, and to do two feedings a day. That will be difficult, since that adds a lot of time to our day, and we're not dropping any other feedings yet. But I suppose with more practice, they'll get faster and more excited about eating. I'm starting to feel like there's not going to be any time to leave the house to do anything between the feedings and the nap schedule!! We've tried avocado (since it's high in fat and Henry needs to bulk up!) and have to stick with that for four days to watch for reactions. I think we'll try some banana with our cereal or oatmeal after that, and Dad has some veggies ready in the freezer to try after that. :) She was a little concerned with Henry's weight, so we'll watch it and maybe bring him back for a weight check, since we don't see her again until 9 months.

Alex and I are both concerned with their skin. They both have ezcema, and on Henry it's really bad. He's started to itch more, and the steriod cream she'd given us didn't seem to be clearing it. It's hard, because I feel like we're already doing a lot (no fabric softener, scent free detergent, infrequent baths with fragrance free washes, putting on Aquaphor and lotions after baths and several days a week, etc.) and it doesn't seem to be helping. She didn't want to do anything more for them, since they're so little, so she had us go to a dermatologist.

The boys got their shots, and seemed to do ok. They were a little fussy afterwards, but it could be anything!! We still have no teeth, so it could be teething, and Henry's had a bit of a cold and a runny nose. We also snapped a quick picture with our doctor, Dr. Kelly, so we can take some with her as the boys grow! I figure it'll be cute to look back when they're going in to school and still seeing her.

So today, we went to the dermatologist's to see what she had to say. She gave us two different creams to use, and she'll see us again in a week. She said that if it clears up pretty well with the creams, then we can assume it's not allergy related. But if the cream doesn't help, we're probably looking at allergy testing down the line. She also said that a lot of babies outgrow it, which I'm hoping for, but since it runs in the family I'm guessing we won't get so lucky. She also wants us to bathe them in water (NO soap or shampoo) TWICE a day for 10-15 minutes each. So there goes the rest of my free time (wait, what free time??) We'll do our best with those instructions and see how that helps. Cross your fingers for us! I just really hope we can help Henry feel a little better so he isn't so itchy.

Lastly, here are a few pictures to compare birth/coming home from the hospital and now. (If I knew how, I'd put them in a cool side-by-side collage, but I can't figure out photoshop. Anyone know how and want to teach me?) We had the same outfits (the cute elephant ones) in newborn size, which were their coming home outfits, and then in six month size. And I included grandpa's favorite picture, them with the little basketballs. So here they are at SIX MONTHS in the same carseats and with the same basketballs. They look like giants!! :) Can't wait to see how they look at a year...sigh.