The Jones Team: Stats - Magdalena 6 months

Magdalena turned 6 months on the 11th, and we took her to the clinic for just Alex's company and their families (doctor is from South Africa, English is his first language) - on Monday the 12th. Since the 12th here is technically the 11th in the States, this was pretty much right on.

Magdalena was 69.5 cm and 8.95 kg. This is about 27.4 inches and 19.75 lbs to you and me. Oh, and her head circumference was 43 cm. She is now about 90th percentile in both height and weight - down from 99th, and her head circumference is about 60th. The doc said that is very good for a cranio baby, as they tend to not grow as well in their heads as other babies. I hope that doesn't mean her brain is growing too fast for her skull, but the surgeons at OHSU assured us that this would not happen to her. And her behavior is completely normal for her age.

Magdalena is not yet experiencing stranger anxiety, but Lucia didn't either until around 7.5 or 8 months. She doesn't have teeth yet, whereas Lucia had 2 by 6 months. She does say "Dada" and "baba" and "vava!" And she just started saying Mama today! She doesn't know what these things mean, I'm sure, but she is saying "mama mama" when she is upset about something - like after I finished nursing her tonight and got ready to put her down, she started to fuss and say "mama! mama!" while I was swaddling her. I wonder if this has something to do with Lucia crying Mama Mama when she is upset about something - Magdalena hears a lot of that. :-)

Magdalena is sitting up okay on her own for a few seconds. However, since she still has the major head tilt (we are doing exercises and stretches, and forcing her to hold it straight a lot, but can't do it all the time, and when we don't, she tilts to the side again). So this tends to cause her to topple over a little more than Lucia did at this age. And I was planning to hold out on giving her solids until closer to 7 months as I am a bit paranoid about food here. Lucia got her first solids 1 week before her 6 month birthday (organic sweet potato). But today I broke down and gave M some rice cereal with DHA that I bought in the States. She didn't seem to love it as much as Lu loved the sweet potato - and in general she's not eyeing us eating as much as Lucia did. So maybe she's not as into eating, and she still LOVES to nurse. Since she is very healthy, I'm not going to stress it too much, and will probably keep nursing mostly until 7 months as originally planned.

No crawling activity yet, but she does raise all her limbs a lot when she does tummy time, and she coos and babbles and laughs like mad when we walk around stores or at her sister jumping on the sofa, etc. She is hard to get to smile for the camera, though, and since I'm usually the only one home to take photos, I don't have a lot of shots of Magdalena laughing or smiling. She does love her bath, and she also belts out the laughter when we kiss her tummy, neck, nose, lips, or chin. She is generally very happy - sleeping from around 7 pm to 6 am without waking, taking one morning nap for 45-60 minutes (when we don't have to get out the door), and usually naps again in the afternoon for an hour or so, as well as catnaps in the car. I just love my girls so much, and feel so blessed to have this time with them.

Happy 6 months Magdalena!
(for the record - Lucia is 37.5 inches and just under 33 lbs after having lost some weight with her earlier sickness and keeping it off)

Here are some photos to commemorate the anniversary:
Magdalena sitting on the sofa: