Baby Champuru went in for her 5 month well-baby examination yesterday.

Age: 5 months and 6 days
Weight: 14 lbs. 14 oz. (45% percentile)
Length: 25 inches (44% percentile)
Head circumference: 40-1/2 cm

The doctor checked her development:

• Grabbing objects with hands
• Squealing/yelling
• Tripod sitting
• Creeping
• Bears some weight on feet while holding her up

The doctor said that she may start to recognize people and develop stranger anxiety (already happening), and once that begins, she will start dreaming. These dream cycles may rouse her from her sleep every two hours or so, in which case we should attempt to comfort her and put her back to bed.  Her sleep patterns already started changing since last week and she has been on a 2-4 hour cycle in which she wakes up and I usually have to nurse her to put her back to sleep.  Gone are the blissful nights of 8-10 hours of continuous sleep?

Baby has been making great strides with her mobility lately.  She’s begun creeping!  It’s so wonderful to see her big smiles of accomplishment when I praise her for her progress.

I haven’t been rushing the introduction to solid foods. Although the doctor advised me to feed her 1 Tbsp. of rice cereal to 5-6 Tbsp. of formula/breastmilk, she has never been able to finish that much. So, I scaled it back to 1/2 teaspoon of rice cereal to 3 teaspoons of formula. This week, I’ve increased it to 1 teaspoon of rice cereal to 5 teaspoons of formula and she’s been able to finish most of it.

At this appointment, he instructed me to introduce vegetables into baby’s diet.  This is uncharted territory for me, so in addition to his instructions, I have also been doing research on the Internet about the topic.  The pediatrician recommended starting with “yellow” vegetables: squash, sweet potato, carrots. Then, move on to the green vegetables.  Introduce one new vegetable each week.  If baby has a reaction, such as hives or diarrhea, this will help us determine exactly what she is allergic to.  This is her feeding schedule for solids:

Breakfast: Rice cereal
Lunch & Dinner: Vegetables (2-3 Tbsp. per serving)

Looks like I better invest in a dropcloth for the carpet!

According to the doctor, Baby Champuru’s growth and development are right on track.  Another blessing to be thankful for!

Next month, shots.