This week I took Wesley swimming for his first time ever at my parent’s hotel when they were in town. We got him spruced up in Finding Nemo swim diapers that were much too large for his little hips but managed to stay on anyway.

The water was a little tepid at first, so I think Wesley’s first impression of the pool was, “What’s with the cold bathwater, mom?!” He seemed to be shivering slightly when only his legs were in the water, so I dunked him all the way to his shoulders and he appeared to warm up.

First I had him in sitting position so his head was upright. He seemed fine in the water. Here he is with me, and my nephew with my dad.

Wes didn’t seem to much care what was going on, as long as he could still suck on his fingers.

Then I put his back down like he was doing a back float. I expected him to try to pull up to sitting position again, but he didn’t resist. He actually waved his arms around in the water beside his head and kicked his legs. I’m guessing those movements were instinctive forms of self-defense, but it looked like he was swimming!

Afterward we headed back to my parent’s hotel room and my dad (bless him) propped up my two-year-old nephew and Wes against pillows to watch TV while we changed clothes. Television junkies already!

Wes turns six months tomorrow but had his six-month appointment yesterday, wherein he was weighed, measured, and found wanting.

Oh, wait, no–that’s A Knight’s Tale. Wes, of course, was weighed, measured, and found to be growing!

At four months, he was:

9 lbs 7.5 oz (7th percentile on DS chart)
22 inches long (13th percentile)
14.6 inch head circumference (20th percentile)

This month he is:

11 lbs 13 oz (11th percentile on DS chart)
24 inches long (16th percentile)
15.4 inch head circumference (26th percentile)

Movin’ on up, he is.

And here are photos from some of his bumbo chair work time today:

Wesley’s newest favorite thing is sitting in the Bumbo chair. It’s a teeny tiny chair that supports his back, but not his neck, so he has to hold that up himself. He likes to sit in it and play with any toy we stick in front of him. He lasts about five minutes per sitting session right now. His head control, though, is so much better than even a couple weeks ago. He’s getting stronger all the time.

When we see him sitting in the Bumbo, he looks simultaneously so big and so little. So big because, wow, he’s sitting up like a big boy! And so little because he is still so very little. This picture doesn’t show him to scale with the rest of the room, but the chair really is teeny tiny, and so is he in it!

Lately I’ve noticed that sometimes when the TV is on Wes is watching it. The first time I saw his eyes trained on the TV was when I was following an aerobics workout. Wes was lying on the floor, supposed to be playing with his play gym above his head, but instead he had twisted his body around so he could watch the aerobics instructors dance around.

Then the other day I was watching some show while feeding him, and when he finished I sat him on my lap and saw that his eyes were glued to the telly. I don’t even know what I was watching, but when I saw him watching too I turned the channel to KBYU to an educational animated show. Cartoon animals were singing songs about words, and Wes was riveted. Given that he’s only five months old, should this concern me? On the other hand, I wonder if the visual stimulation is actually good for him. Any thoughts out there?

Here are some things Wes is up to these days:

1. Sucking on his hands a lot, specifically the thumb and first knuckle on his right hand. Binkie days are behind him.

2. Standing up on his feet with support. He seems to prefer standing to sitting. This is how he spends sacrament meeting at church, standing on my lap and looking at everyone around him. I’ve been told that such determination and strength to stand up is unusual for a five-month-old with DS.

3. Trying new foods! So far he’s had rice cereal, bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, and diluted apple juice. He loved the apple juice, sucking it down as fast as he could. The worst reaction so far was with his first taste of sweet potatoes, when he made a face and started to whimper. I waited a few days and tried them again, and he did better the second time.

4. Bouncing and swinging. Our friends lent us a bouncy swing that hangs in a doorway. It’s terrific because it forces him to hold his head up by himself like a big boy, and we can give him a toy to hold and focus on while he’s sitting there. I think his therapist will be pleased; he’s doing so much better every week with neck strength, focus, and interest in the world. He lasts about five minutes at a time in the swing right now, but I expect that will improve as he gets stronger.

Tonight Wes wore his first-ever 3 month size outfit. I was looking at his unworn 3 month clothes hanging in the closet and thinking how big they look next to his newborn and 0-3 month clothes. But then I took a gander at the 3 month tags, and they say they fit babies up to 24 inches and 12.5 lbs. (!) I’m pretty sure Wes is right around there, somewhere. So I quickly pulled one out and put it on him to see if it was too late. Of course it’s not; I mean, even though the kid is five months old, he can still fit in newborn clothes (although they’re getting snug), and his 0-3 month clothes are still plenty loose.

Here’s a picture of Wes taken October 11 when he was a whopping four weeks old. He’s wearing a preemie outift on the left.

Here he is today, 22 weeks old, in the same outfit from the above photo, size 3 months. Look how he’s grown!