And He Continues to Grow

Henry had his four-month checkup on Monday and, no shocker, he's still a big boy. He's in the 90th percentile for height at 26 inches long, and remains in the 95th percentile for weight, at 17 pounds, 14 ounces.

I had no idea all those steroids would pass into my breastmilk - honestly!

In the past week, he's apparently started rolling over, too, although we haven't witnessed it firsthand. We always put him to sleep on his back like they say you're supposed to, but a few times we've found him in the morning lying on his stomach. He's also getting better and better at grabbing toys (and faces and hair and glasses...) and stuffing them into his little mouth.

He's pretty cute.


(Thanks for the picture, Jamie! I couldn't find a recent full-body shot of Henry in my stash, so I thought I'd use this one. I thought it was a pretty cute shot of Mom and Henno!)

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Bumbo Baby

Mr. Henry Pickles sure is growing up fast. My mom told me the second child seems to grow up faster, partly because he'll try to keep up with his older brother, and partly because I'll be so busy with two kids that I won't dwell on his growth so much. I'm finding this to be an unfortunate truth. As much as I'd love to pay as much attention to Henry as I did to Asher when he was a baby, I simply can't. Our pediatrician said this: Having your first child is so special, but having your second is so much fun. We may not put Henry under the microscope like we did with Asher, but we also don't get as frustrated with him or worry so much about him, which I think makes him a happier baby. Because really, who wants to be stared at all day?

Anyway, I mentioned in my last post that we've started Henry on baby food. Another change he's going through is sitting up. This boy loves to sit up and see the craziness going on around him. Mom bought him a Bumbo seat last weekend so he could have an easier time doing this. He seems to enjoy it. And then, just like with every other baby contraption we have, he's screaming to get out of it within ten minutes. But hey - ten minutes is enough to make a quick blog post, right?

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Feeding Time Struggles

The kids have me constantly worrying about their diets. Henry is a little butterball turkey, so he's obviously getting plenty of nourishment, but since I started pumping, I've become obsessed with how many ounces he eats and whether I'm producing enough for him, blah blah blah. Same annoying worries I had when I pumped with Asher. I stopped nursing Henry altogether for about five days last week because he has started becoming violent with the goods - my guess is he's frustrated because he thinks taking the bottle is easier - he gets to look around and I'm sure the flow is faster with a bottle. But, I started nursing again, and he's tamed down a little bit. Sometimes. We've also started him on solid foods. He's improved his eating skills quite a bit - he's getting better at swallowing instead of pushing the food out with his tongue and now opens his mouth when the spoon nears his pudgy face. And with the introduction of food comes STINKY diapers and MESSY mealtimes. I'd forgotten how frustrating it is to feed someone who flails his arms constantly and blows raspberries with a mouth full of food.

And then you have Asher.

The foods he'll eat: chicken nuggets, fish sticks, french fries, most fruit (with the exception of cantaloupe and honeydew), corn, grilled cheese sandwiches, plain noodles (don't even try putting any sauce or cheese on them), white rice (with just salt, pepper & butter), yogurt, any kind of bread, and cereal. I finally got him to eat a few bites of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich last weekend, and he said it was good, but I'm not adding it to the list quite yet. Of course he's OK with any kind of junk food you have to offer, and ketchup. This is what's all over his face in this picture. He'll eat it plain if we let him. He also likes to eat salt & pepper directly out of the shakers when we go out to eat. Do you know how grossed out I get when I look away for a second and look back to find him licking the top of a sticky pepper shaker? Almost as grossed out as I get when he does something like lick the floor at a restaurant under the table. Yeah. He won't eat macaroni and cheese or any vegetable, but he'll lick the floor at McDonald's.


Oh, and I did convince him to try cucumber last week. He nibbled a little bit on a slice before becoming completely distracted with the seeds, which he pushed around all over the table like tiny slimy cars, yelling, "BEEP BEEP!" I don't know if he liked it much, but I felt like buying him a car out of the happiness I felt over the fact that he tried something green.

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