Ant diary: 24 weeks

I think it's 24 weeks, anyway! After this update I'm going to go to monthly, it's just too hard to keep track now. Mark could always tell me because Ant was born the first week of football season, but now that's over it's tougher to figure it out :-)

Growth check: At last weigh-in, Ant was almost 17 lbs. He's now in 6-9 month clothes, for the most part, and even close to outgrowing some of those! His feet also hang over the edge of his carseat - I'm hoping, though, that he can last in that for a couple more months, until it's not so cold outside. It's much nicer to be able to put him into his nice warm carseat in the house, rather than having to fuss with straps etc. with 0 degree wind blowing around us. Mark did suggest that we could get into the car on the other side for doing up the straps - but it's just much easier with the infant seat.

Tummy-time: Ant can last on his tummy for quite a while now, as long as he has interesting things to look at. He's back to pushing up on his arms reasonably well, and if I give him an arm or a leg to push against, gets into a decent crawling position, with his knees tucked under him.

Other movement: A few more rolls from tummy to back, but none from back to tummy. Bizarre! He loves to sit and stand, and his progress in those two in the last two weeks is just astonishing. Two weeks ago he could sit up with me holding onto his arm, but I had to use a fair amount of force to balance him. Now, all it takes is a little hold on the finger and he's just fine. He can also sit up pretty well on the couch, with his back against the back of the sofa, or in the boppy. He can even sit unsupported for 30-60 seconds, if I balance him well enough. He can correct for a little while when he starts to topple, but then goes over (we do that a lot on the bed, where the toppling is actually fun). He's also so much more stable standing - when we first started standing him up at the music table he was supporting some weight on his legs, but we really had to hold him carefully, as his legs would collapse under him every now and again. (I bumped his face on the table once because I wasn't holding him enough). Now, he barely needs our support on the table at all!

Toys and games: Just in the last couple of weeks Ant has started really actively playing with the music table (it's clear now that he's doing things on purpose, rather than just hitting them accidentally). And the rings that Ann & George gave him for Christmas are a new favorite - he likes to use his hands to twist them around, lift them up and down, and also to kick at them with his feet. He also really enjoys bags and bottles, and other smallish items that he can manipulate. And he's just begun banging with his hands on things like his books, and boxes or other bang-able things we give him.

Teeth: Still only the bottom two, but we continue to wonder about the next set. Drooling seems to go in waves, some days there's a lot (to the point of sodden bibs), other days there's hardly anything. He was really off this past week, with some major screaming fits, and teething was one of the things we thought of. But there certainly aren't yet tooth bumps like there were with the first two. And this isn't exactly teeth-related, but Ant now sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating just like I do!

Hands: Antony loves to suck the first two fingers on his left hand. That is definitely his self-soothing of choice! Every now and again he'll go for the thumb on his right hand, or some of the other fingers, but for the most part it's those first two on his left hand. And they're in his mouth a LOT. Way more than we ever gave him the pacifier. He's also just started to really pay attention to his hands, watching them move around, sometimes looking at them for minutes at a time.

Feeding: We've got a pretty good routine going now - most days he wakes up for his morning feed at between 5-6am, then I feed him at 10, 2, 6, and 9-10 when he goes down for the night. The rice cereal we started a few weeks ago did not seem to interest him any more - last Friday I decided that rather than get frustrated with trying to feed him and not getting anywhere I would just leave it and try again with a different cereal. So today we did barley, and he was back to eating the whole serving. Although it's somewhat of a battle - he seems to prefer to suck on his fingers than to eat, although when I hold his hand(s) out of the way he seems to enjoy the food. What would the DSS people think of little baby handcuffs to keep his hands out of the way? ;-)

Sleeping: Bedtime actually seems to be moving a little earlier even than the 10pm of the last update, which is nice. He's still taking 3-4 naps a day, at relatively variable times.