Questions, Comments, Concerns

Questions
Are you still out there? Do you still read this? I would understand if you've left. It has been forever. Almost 2 months! Where is the time going to? I cannot believe that my baby will be a year in less than 6 months. It has flown by. And you know everyone tells you that it does. But reality doesn't really hit you until you are really in it, at least this is true for me.

Comments
Riley is growing, and it seems that he has just gone through a growth spurt. He is beginning to need larger clothes, and is pretty much fully out of the 0-3 months clothes. He definitely still fits the best in most of the 3 months clothes (except for the pants of most things). He is like me and has longer legs, and a shorter torso, so he grows out of the pants first. Most of the 6 months clothing are too big at the waist. I cannot imagine a baby actually fitting in some of the clothes. (Though I know there are some Budha bellies out there that might.)

Riley has begun on solid food now. I started him out with peas (because it was something I had on hand). I pureed them in my VitaMix, as I plan on making all of his food at least for the first year. He was not a fan of peas. I wasn't sure if it was the taste or the texture, so I waited 3 days and attempted apples. Again, the same thing. He was not a fan. I wanted him to get some extra calories, so I decided to start him on rice cereal.

I had read many places that rice cereal isn't necessary, and decided I wasn't going to introduce it. However, since I wondered if he wasn't ready for solids, or just wasn't a fan of the flavors I had picked out for him, I decided to try it anyway. I pulled out the dry container for my VitaMix and blended brown rice into a powder. The only unfortunate thing is that unlike the store bought variety, you have to cook homemade rice cereal. It is much like oatmeal when you cook it. I make a serving, then divide it into small containers and refrigerate it. He actually loves it.

A couple days ago I added some ripe bananas to it, and he was a big fan of that. He still is pretty messy at the whole eating thing, which means he pretty much needs a bath afterwards, but it is worth it.

I'm out of practice, and have a lot of things to say, but I have a fussy baby in the other room frustrating his daddy. Which means I need to get the booger fed and put to bed soon. Therefore, my writing is jumbled and disorganized, and I apologize.

Concerns
On Friday I took Riley to his 6-month well-baby exam. He weighed in at 12 pounds 14 ounces. This is below the 3rd percentile for weight and she wants me to bring him in again in a month for a weight check. I've known he was small, but he was consistent prior to this. He had been on the same curve since birth, but this weigh in he dropped down quite a bit. So now we are on a mission to fatten my baby up. I'm going to try and drink a lot more water, and make sure he eats well every time. The problem is that he often falls asleep while nursing, so doesn't always empty each side. I'm really focusing now on making him stay awake as long as possible, in hopes that he will get as much milk as possible.

I hope to be back here a bit more frequently. While writing this post I can feel all of the thoughts and feelings I would like to share flooding out of me. I have missed it.