Justus Update

No teeth yet!

Already fascinated by monster trucks. I steal brother's whenever I get a chance.

My first biter biscuit. Yum!

With rolls like these you'd think I'd weigh more!

Justus had his 6 month check-up today and boy was I surprised! He looks so chubby and feels so much heavier these days, I was totally unprepared to hear that he's ONLY 14 something pounds. I was so surprised that I didn't even catch if he's closer to 14 or 15 #. He's really short too, at around 25 inches.



I think his smallness took the Doc by surprise too. He was a student doctor this time and he first said, "Oh, you are SO big!" and after asking his name he said, "You look like you could dole out some justice big boy." Then he looked at the charts and realized what a shrimp he is! All of my babies have been "tiny" and low on the scales but they've always been healthy and had plenty of cheeks to go around. I guess it doesn't matter how we feed our babies, they just tend to grow slower, although Justus is growing much slower even than his siblings. He is healthy though so there is no concern there.

Justus weaned himself from breastmilk now, which is very sad for me since I had hoped to continue that for much longer. I had origianally hoped to breastfeed him for a year and a half, longer than the other two, but alas, our plans don't always work out how we want them to. His Doc reassured me that just nursing him exclusively for 4 months puts him in an entirely different category when it comes to lowered risk for allergies and asthma, etc. so that made me feel better. I tried and tried and pumped to try to give him breastmilk in a bottle when he began refusing the breast because it wasn't fast enough, like a bottle, but my body just wouldn't give out anything. Though I wish I could be nursing him, there are a lot of perks to bottle feeding. It is a lot easier to do and you can share the feedings with your spouse and Grammy when they are around. You can feed easier in public and feed easier while juggling other kids too. And though he still seems to have a fast metabolism like all of our kids and not be sleeping 13 hour stretches on one bottle like some babies do, I know he would still be waking up twice as much if I was only nursing him and I'd be a complete zombie.

He's been sleeping pretty well for a month or two now, going to bed around 6:30pm and waking up at around 11pm for a bottle just before I head for bed and then at 5 or 6 for a bottle, after which I go to sleep until 7am when I get up with all 3 of the kids. He's still our happiest, easiest little guy. Jerby was such a Cuddle Bug from Day one, needing constant cuddling and hugging and crying when he wasn't with me and I can totally tell Justus is completely different. Justus seems very social, and not at all needy. He is happiest when Ali is giving him a gentle tickle torture and he loves to just feed off of Ali and catch her attention and giggle uncontrollably with her. Uh-oh! But I can also tell that he will be a lot less defiant than Ali because there's a real easy-going streak about him too. I'd have a dozen kids if they were all guaranteed to be as easy as this guy!