A late 4 months

Freddy just had his 4 month check-up, the ticker up above tells me that he is 5 months and 2 days old today. Oh well. He is healthy as a horse. He weighs 18lbs 8oz, which I found hard to believe. He feels way heavier than that! He is 27.5 inches tall, that puts him between the 90th and 95th percentile for height. Yeah! He won't be a shorty like Mommy and Lucy. :) As for his birthmark, it is called a hemangioma, and it is blood vessels that are too close to the skin.Here is what WebMD says about them: Strawberry hemangiomas (also called strawberry mark, nevus vascularis, capillary hemangioma, hemangioma simplex) may appear anywhere on the body, but are most common on the face, scalp, back, or chest. They consist of small, closely packed blood vessels. They may be absent at birth, and develop at several weeks. They usually grow rapidly, remain a fixed size, and then subside. In most cases, strawberry hemangiomas disappear by the time a child is 9 years old. Some slight discoloration or puckering of the skin may remain at the site of the hemangioma.
So, unless it changes in appearance, there is nothing to worry about.

The doctor also said that we can start solids if we want to or we can wait for the AAP (American Academy of Pediatricians) recommendation and wait another month. I think I will wait at least one more month...just kidding! I know there people dying to start feeding him, we will probably try out the rice cereal sometime in the next few days. It will be nice to be able to get a break. Don't get me wrong, I love that I can breastfeed my children and I am proud and amazed of how big they can grow on my milk alone, but it's the "my milk alone" part that gets tiring. Neither of my kids would take a bottle, not that we really tried very hard with Freddy, which has left me with not being able to go anywhere for more than about 2 hours. Freddy has made it longer than that (he did about 4 hours Saturday) but after 2 hours I worry so I can't go anywhere and be relaxed about it. It will be nice to be able to have someone else feed him and I know his Daddy can't wait for the chance.

Speaking of starting solids, I am making some baby food right now. My new food mill came in the mail today so I am cooking carrots and sweet potatoes. I had better get back to them.