Gracen Rae

Today was Gracen's 6 month check-up and thankfully we had a uneventful day. I must confess that I HATE going to the doctor. I get a little nauseous when I walk into a hospital or doctor's office. This is probably because I have a weak stomach and you just never know what you are going to see in places like that. The last time I went to Dr. Simon's office, an entire family walked in with bowls. You know what that means! I started praying immediately for God to keep their stomachs settled until I was out of the waiting room. Is that terrible? If just one of them threw up I would toss my cookies, plain and simple. But, if the entire family started throwing up, you might as well sedate me. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. Anyway, I try to be very calm anytime I have to take one of my kids to the doctor, because I do not want to freak them out or put my irrational fears on them in any way. I think I do a pretty good job considering I would rather take a bullet to the head than sit in the waiting room with all those germs, etc. Luckily today, the office was very quiet. There were only 2 other children in the office and neither of them had a bowl with them. My mom met me there, so I had some back up, which is always comforting, and we didn't have to wait too long. That is always a good thing.

Gracen was very sweet, as she always is...well at least until the nurse started messing with her. She didn't like being measured or weighed. She weighed 15 lbs 3 oz, which is in the 45th percentile, and she measured 25 1/2 inches long, which is also in the 45th percentile, so she is right where she is suppose to be. She received 2 shots and only cried for a few minutes. We did not have to have a chest x-ray today. We are going to wait a little while on that....spread out the radiation exposure a little bit. I was relieved.

Here are a few current pictures of her.

She is sitting up all by herself now. We still have to stay close by because if she reaches too far to the left or the right she will fall over. She is learning to catch herself though. Here she is digging in the toy bucket. Too cute! Doesn't she look like such a big girl?

Here she is playing with Daddy. He is tickling her belly. She just laughs when he does this. It is adorable. Reagan, on the other hand, doesn't think this is too cute. She really prefers for all of Gene's attention to be on her.

I am still breastfeeding her. She eats every 4 hours starting between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning. We have added some solid food to her diet. She eats cereal in the morning and I am about to add some fruit to this. She likes sweet potatoes and squash and will tolerate a few bites of carrots. We have given her sweet peas on two different occasions and she dry heaved both times. It was pretty funny.

She is a great sleeper. She started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old, sleeping from 8:30 to about 7:00. If she wakes up in the night, something is wrong. She also naps pretty good, usually taking 2 good naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, sleeping for 1-2 hours. Sometimes she will take an early evening catnap around 6:00, but I am trying to eliminate this.

So hard to believe that she has been here for over 6 months. She has brought so much joy to our lives. We love you Gracen.