5 months old, 4 month check-up

*Gianna is all smiles and laughs now. She hasn't quite figured out how to chuckle; she squeals and screams with delight. It's awesome. Her bouts of fussiness seem to be slowly dissapating. We just keep our fingers crossed on a daily basis.

*She is always chewing on her hands, or burp cloth, or my hands, or her forearm, etc. I haven't felt any teeth poking through yet, but she enjoys her cold teething ring (that is, when she's not using me as a teether.) With the amount of biting on yours truly, I'm expecting teeth at any minute. Ouch!
*She likes holding my face while screaming with happiness. It's one of my favorite things. It's like she's saying "Look at me. I'm happy!"
*I swear it seems like she's going to start moving across the room soon. While we've never actually witnessed her rolling over, check out this push up.

*She grabs, holds, scratches, clutches, and is beginning to rake things toward her. She loves to stand and bounce and to kick while she's laying down. She's got her mermaid impression down pat. I often hear her legs pounding away on her mattress before she ever makes a sound with her mouth. And she loves holding her own feet. Here, she does both simultaneously.
*She goes down to bed around 8 pm and has been waking around 11 or 12, 3 or 4, and again at 5 or 6. Makes for a short set of naps for me. I wonder what happened to my sleeping-through-the-night baby I blogged about at 2 months.
*Gianna wears a size 3 diaper and 6 month clothing.
*She has begun to experience the joy of reading. This was her reading her first book solo.



I sort of forgot to schedule Gianna's 4-month check-up, plus I was peeved by our pediatrician (turns out all the unreturned calls were a mix-up with the after-hours exchange). Here are her stats, at 5 months:
weight - 17.5 lbs - 90th%
head circumferance - 41 cm - 30th%
length - 25.5 inches - 75th%
Jeff says, "so she has a huge body and a little head?!" A healthy little/big girl. Check out Enzo's 4 month stats.

After her four shots, Doc sent us for some hip x-rays. (I didn't have time to get scared, or to research the potential threats of infultrating her tiny body with high levels of radiation.) He was a little concerned with her asymmetrical thigh fat rolls which could be indicative of some hip problems. Better to know now than when she's trying to stand and walk, he said. It's probably nothing. Which it was. Thank God.