Monthly Pictures

Dawson is just the best. If you take away the fact that he developed a dairy/soy protein sensitivity around 6 weeks and we struggled with it (poor little guy) until he was about 4 months old then you have the perfect baby. Really. I want to have more just like him. I am also realizing that Harper was such a great and easy baby -- I just struggled with what Doc McStuffins might call "First Time Momatosis." (Mom humor. ha.)

So let's recap. The first month with Dawson was great. He nursed basically the whole time. He was born weighing 9lbs1oz and measuring 22 inches long, and after one month he was 23 inches long and he weighed 13lbs5oz.

He looks like SUCH a different human here

sweet sweet baby face

At two months, Dawson made quite a jump and measured 25.7 inches long and weighed in at 17lbs12oz. I got very little sleep because this guy would wake up every couple of hours to nurse. The lack of sleep is much easier the second time around in case anyone is wondering.

It's around this time that we were going to the doctor quite a bit because he was crying a different kind of cry -- one that is hard to hear because you know it means your baby is in pain. I stopped eating all dairy a week before Thanksgiving. All dairy. That means no obvious dairy (milk and cheese) and then pretty much everything else -- BECAUSE EVERYTHING CONTAINS DAIRY or dairy proteins. No whey. No casein. The first few days were really hard because I didn't have time to read the labels on everything, so I ate oatmeal. 8 straight meals of oatmeal. Trips to the grocery store became an hour long because I had to read the label for everything. I figured that if I ate a mostly vegan diet then I would be avoiding dairy. And things got better.

We started noticing that Dawson's sensitivity was reappearing and I was getting really upset because I knew that I wasn't eating dairy. A lot of babies that have sensitivities to dairy also have sensitivities to soy AND most NON-DAIRY food items are LOADED WITH SOY. Poor guy. So I cut out soy. He started getting a little better. We went to an amazing pediatric GI (side note: my PCP, OB/GYN, Harper's pediatrician and this doctor -- I want to be friends with all of them. They are brilliant and hilarious and just great people) who assured us that babies tend to outgrow this around the time they start eating solid foods....which was just around the corner for us. Such a relief to know that there was light at the end of the tunnel and that we weren't causing any permanent damage to him.

At 4 months old, Dawson was measuring 27.7 inches long and 21lbs3oz. The only time he has been in the 98% for weight was at birth/1 month. After that he has been off the charts for both length and weight. That's how we knew that his sensitivity wasn't a major concern -- because babies who really have an allergy (or one that is cause for concern) will not "thrive" and our little man was clearly thriving.
 

At 4 months Dawson was well into rolling over. He began to hate the carseat. He clearly loved Harper and would constantly smile at her. He still refused to take a pacifier or a bottle and he giggled -- a lot.

At 5 months, Dawson really started trying to sit up. We were prepared for these early developments to take a little longer because he is so big, but he is right on track. He loves eating oatmeal, blowing raspberries, sticking out his tongue. He continues to smile a lot and giggle. He is always pulling my hair so it is (and will remain) up in a messy bun. He seems happiest when he can be completely naked.

At 6 months we introduced him to carrots. He did NOT like them at first, but he grew to tolerate them. He really enjoys sweet potatoes, Mum-mums and avocado. He rolls and scoots across the room much faster than I would like, he laughs when he hears Harper laugh, he found his playful screaming voice and really loves gnawing on his corn on the cob teething toy. The smile on his face when he wakes up in the morning can make you forget how little sleep you got that night. He finally took a bottle (two in one day) and now I feel like I have a little more freedom.

We are late in taking his 6 month photo, but I have several cute pictures to share from his first 6 months with us.