Blake's 4-Month Stats

Here are the results from Blake's 4-Month Dr's appointment. In short, our boy remains on the tiny side, except for his head which seems to be growing at an increased pace. (It probably doesn't help that I keep calling him "beautiful" and "my little prince"!) I was a little concerned at the low percentiles, but the doctor says Blake is right on track given his size/weight at birth and he isn't concerned by the low percentiles.

Poor little boy cried pretty much from the time I took him out of his infant carrier until we left the office, with a brief break as I nursed him, and a more intense, piercing, red-faced wail when he got his 3 shots. (Those needles are LONG! They look like they could go clear through to the other side of his little legs.) The appointment was at 10am, so we had to leave the house by 9:30am, and we didn't get out of there until about 11:30am, which meant the appointment was right over top of his 9:30-11am nap, and this is what I attribute the fussiness to. In response to all his tears the Dr even asked if he was a generally happy baby! (And Blake definitely is!) Oh, so sad that he didn't get to see Blake's happy faces and giggles!

The doctor was pleased at all the motor skill and social milestones Blake has achieved. However, Blake is not very interested in putting weight on his legs yet, and although he rolled over a number of times back around Thanksgiving he hasn't done it again since then. But neither of these were a concern to the doctor.

Our doctor also said to leave him in the infant carrier to sleep as long as we wanted (no rush to get him to the crib) and he says that by 6 months Blake would probably not need the swaddle any longer (that is when the startle reflex subsides), but it is fine to leave him swaddled until then. My only concern is I don't want to get to a point where both transitions (to crib and out of swaddle) are happening at the same time, so I might try moving him to the crib sooner than later if his reflux stays improved. But as it is, it is nice to not have to take a pack-n-play with us for him to sleep in! So what is my rush, really? I don't even know...

Per the doctor's advice we will be starting rice cereal now. If Blake weren't so little, or if I had more confidence in my milk supply, I think I would prefer to hold off until 6 months to start solids, but as it is I think it is wise to follow the doctor's advice and start him on rice cereal.

A blast from the past and answered prayer

I just wanted to share a little story that I repeat often but I realize I never put on the blog. One day my little baby was crying in my arms, looking much like this picture below, with his tongue thrown way back and vibrating with every wail. Suddenly, for some mysterious reason, he stopped mid-cry and fell asleep. His mouth was still open and the little tongue was still back in the "scream" position, and in the next 30 seconds or so, as he slept in my arms, the tongue slowly returned to the "down" (normal) position and his mouth closed. It was like slow-motion rewind!

Oh, my baby, I'm so sorry you had to scream like this so often as your reflux or tummy or something was obviously hurting you very badly.

The answered prayer is that I think we have a new baby! (No, I'm not pregnant.) Suddenly, starting the day after Christmas, Blake has been virtually pain-free! He goes to sleep happily, or fusses and cries the normal way, not the escalating, urgent, raspy way that came with his reflux. And he calms down for us in our arms, instead of crying endlessly for reasons we can't really see or understand.

We can finally REALLY begin sleep-training (letting him cry, putting him down awake, establishing routines and a schedule, etc), and he is responding to our training so well, I can hardly believe it. AND he is sleeping much better at night, typically just getting up once around 4am (going to sleep around 7:30pm and I have to wake him at 8am). It is such a blessing. I admit (am I crazy?) I actually miss the time we spent caring for our little one - God's word is true that "where your treasure is, there your heart will be" and as we served him so many hours for the past 4 months it just deepened my love for the little boy. But now I am so happy for him that he is feeling better. It is such a blessing to have a happy, giggly, well-rested, predictable baby. And these changes coincided almost exactly with his 4-month birthday. Praise the Lord. Thank you to everyone who has been praying!

Wake-Up Routine

We love going in to get Blake when he wakes up! First we are greeted by big smiles (which I've had a hard time capturing since the room is typically dark when he wakes up and the camera's "pre-flash" startles him and the smile temporarily disappears). Even if he has been crying our shouting to get our attention, the tears dissolve and the grin appears as soon as we go in his room. It melts our heart! (Here is a smile, but with eyes closed because of the flash; he really was awake.)

Next we open up his swaddle, one side at a time. Again, I haven't done a great job capturing this, but first the left arm pops up (the first arm that is freed from the swaddle), then the right arm pops up.

We call it his "field goal" stretch. (Here we've brought him out of the infant carrier right after a nap, still swaddled, just for the sake of getting some good pics.)

And then he makes a little scrunchie face and arches his back to finish it off.

Ahhh, another nice nap is over! (Is he cute or WHAT?)

Also hard to capture in photos are his little (and not so little) noises. Blake has been gabbering up a storm, and recently he has been shouting, too. Usually they are happy shouts and squeels.

I'd appreciate continued prayers for his reflux. Our pediatrician has finally decided to recommend we see a pediatric GI specialist - the medication we have been giving him doesn't seem to be as effective any more, and his reflux doesn't seem to be improving with age as we hoped (actually, it seems to be getting worse at times). Christmas Eve and Christmas day were very challenging, and I didn't know how we were going to be able to wait the 3 weeks until our appt with the specialist, but the last few days have been better which is a huge answer to prayer. I need to continue to remember that God is good and he is sovereign over this - even though we don't know what is going on, or how to help the little boy, God is still in control and loves our little boy even more than we do.

Another cute pic, just because he is so fun to look at!

We love him so much. God is so generous to us through this little boy!

BIG December Snow

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I repeatedly told the Miami PC couple that lives with us NOT to expect snow before Christmas. Well, this is the second significant snowfall before Christmas, and this one was a doosie! This is what it looked like coming down - and it looked like this for about 6 hours!

Here is my champion husband shoveling the driveway. (Well, not exactly - our kind neighbors snow-blowed it for us; Mike was just doing clean-up work.)

And here I am, exhausted from, er, holding the camera?

Here is an attempt to give you some perspective on how high the snow is. Officially our town got 22 inches and that seems right on track for what we saw at our house.

Here I am, frolicing. That's what you do in the snow, right? (In case you are wondering, Blake was in the house sleeping, and I had a monitor in my jacket pocket!)

And making a snow angel - I almost drowned! I don't think I recommend making snow angels in more than 10" of snow.

We put some bird seed out in a feeder on the front porch, and it was an instant hit.

The snow isn't all fun and frolicing, however. It is very sad that our PC family had a 10am flight back to Florida on Saturday, but due to the snow (and after a very long, challenging day of car/metro/airport chaos) they did not make it home; later in the day the airport closed altogether. They received some credit from the airline for a new flight, but given how expensive flights are around the holidays (and the increased demand because so many people are now in the same position), the credit would not come close to covering the price for 4 new tickets. So instead of spending Christmas in sunny Miami, they are now stuck here. They are trusting God for the change of events, but I am sure it will be hard to not be with family for the holidays. Please keep them in your prayers!

Evidence of My Stellar Hand Skills

Grabbing Monkey's leaf (notice the tongue; we've seen a lot of the tongue recently)...


Then I ran into the rings with my hand so thought I might as well grab on...

Hey, let's try to bring them closer...

Wow! Is this what hands are for? I like it!

By the way, Blake slept from 7:30pm until 5:30pm last night. He might have gone longer, but I was a little uncomfortable so I fed him. And selfishly, I'd rather give him a booster/early morning snack so that he sleeps until 8am rather than push it and try to get him to "wait" until 6:30am and have the day start then.

This is the 2nd night IN A ROW that Blake slept more than 8 hours. For some reason he keeps waking at 5:15/5:30am, a habit we will want to break him of soon enough, but for now I am just enjoying the longer nights' sleep.  But honestly, I know I will miss the late-night nursings when it is just me snuggling with the little boy.

His reflux has been great, despite even giving him one less dosage for the pass 2 days (I usually gave it during one of his late-night feedings, but he has slept through them). I am very encouraged. Either the Pepcid is working, or my milk-free diet is doing it. I'll kee off the milk and wait to see if he outgrows the Pepcid dosage or if he stays improved.

15 Weeks with Blake - some updates

Just a few quick "progress report" type updates:

• Blake is GIGGLING! It is so sweet. It doesn't happen on command, but when it does it is this precious belly giggle.
• Blake has had a number of "cry-free" bedtimes recently! This means I put him down to sleep when he is awake and he doesn't cry but falls asleep on his own! This is amazing to me and a huge answer to prayer. I think it helps that we are establishing more of a bedtime routine, the 4 "b"s - bath, book, uhm "nurse," and then bed. Also, I am soothing him a little longer before I put him down,.  Strangely, it seems to work best if I nurse him un-swaddled and then swaddle him just before I soothe him to sleep; if he falls asleep while nursing he rarely stays asleep. The afternoon nap suddenly got harder, and the mid-day nap shorter, but those are small prices to pay for an easy bedtime.
• Blake slept through the night last night! In short, he slept at least 8 straight hours, and went 10 hrs without a feeding! He finally fell asleep around 8:45p (last night was NOT one of those "cry-free" nights; and of course it was a night we were trying to get out of the house to get to Care Group!) and then I didn't hear a peep until 5:20am. I didn't go get him at 5:20am (he was just fussing a little and I suspected it was just gas) and he must have fallen back asleep because I didn't hear him again until 6:40am. Then  I went to nurse him, and even then he still seemed sleepy, so I laid him down again until 7:45am. I don't think he really slept after I nursed him, but he laid there relatively quietly.
• Blake is getting much better with his hands! Now he grabs things that are dangling above him, and if we put a rattle in his hand he shakes it all around and sometimes even puts it in his mouth. Way to go, baby!
• He is happy to see us after a nap! This has been happening for a little while, but it is worth mentioning. If we go in to get him after a nap because he is awake and fussing, as soon as he sees us he flashes us a big grin! And usually his smile continues as we unswaddle him and get him out of his carrier. It is really very sweet.
• Many naps are cry-free! I'd say about 1/3 of the time he goes to sleep without crying. I soothe him a little, then put him down awake, and he falls asleep. Interestingly, in the morning nap he consistently cries HARD for about 5 minutes and then falls asleep. The mid-day nap is most often cry-free (probably because I nurse him right before I put him down).
• He likes to stick out his tongue! I don't know what this is about, but it is as if he just discovered his tongue. He sticks it in and out, in and out. Silly and very cute.
• He is "talking"! I was just commenting to Mike that he wasn't talking as much as I thought he should be for his age, and then last night when he SHOULD have been sleeping, as I carried him around to soothe him he just kept making little noises, having a pleasant conversation with himself. Right now his favorite sound is "oo oo oo" which sometimes turns into "glube glube glube." He loves it when you respond to his gabbers.
• He is teething. No exclamation point there - he seems uncomfortable at times, and loves to chomp on our fingers if we let him. Now that he is learning to put things in his mouth perhaps those teeth will cut through a little more easily.

It continues to be a joy to serve this little one!

Things mommy is working on:

• Knowing how much time to spend with him. I want to "play" with him all the time, but I know it is good for himto spend time alone, and there is some house stuff I probably should be doing as well. As it is, I probably err on the side of spending more time with him - that is why I am  home, right?
• Making dinner in the afternoon/evening. We try to put him to bed by 7pm, so his bedtime routine starts around 6/6:15pm. Before bedtime he is just generally more fussy and needs more attention. How, in the world does dinner get on the table, and when do we eat?
• Getting out of the house during the day. I am so intent on not messing with his schedule that I am reluctant to go on errands. Sometimes he will sleep in the car, but that might throw off his nap schedule. Rarely will he sleep when we are out (like at the grocery store) so that makes me less inclined to take him out for long periods of time that cross naps. 
• Date nights. Because of his history of painful reflux (made worse if he cries too much) I am reluctant to leave for a date night before he has fallen asleep. So far this means we really haven't been on more than a couple dates since he was born; it is hard to arrange sitters in the "hopes" that he will go to sleep in a reasoable way. Now that he is going to sleep better at night (although not completely consistently), we hope to get out more in the evenings. The next challenge will be focusing on my hubby and not just thinking about the baby the whole time we are out.
• Travel. I have a husband who loves and wants to travel. I need to figure out how/when/if we can take the little one out on excursions further than the grocery store (and did I mention the grocery store is a challenge right now?). I have heard fom other friends that the babies can be easiest to travel with at 4 to 6 months, since they are content to sit, they sleep a lot, etc. That is right around the corner! I am praying that I can serve my husband and my son wisely and selflessly in this area.
• Faith. I am praying for faith to trust God and not trust in my ability to control every circumstance (his naps, his wake times, his reflux, etc. I would much prefer a predictible life that I can control, but God is showing me that his ways are better than my ways, and He doesn't always arrange a perfectly easy day.

(As always, I appreciate any thoughts on any of the above - selfishly I am also using the blog to solicit advice from you more experienced moms out there!)

The Wreckage

One day last week Blake went through 6 pajamas beween the time he woke up and noon. In all fairness, I have him layered, so it was really only 3 messes: two diaper explotions, and one "squirt" episode in the middle. Good thing the outfits are small, or it would REALLY be a lot of laundry.

(By the way, this is NOT intended to be a commercial for Shout. It doesn't work all that good on the orange poopy stains, it was just there!)

Grandpop's Visit

On Thursday my dad drove down to visit Blake. He is very kind to make the long trip just for a few hours of visiting time, particularly when Blake was sleeping a good deal of it. Thanks, Dad, for coming down to visit your grandbaby! They seem to hit it off pretty well, don't ya think?

Early Snow and Christmas Traditions

Ever since they arrived from Miami the 4-year old has been asking "When is it going to snow?" We kept telling them that they really shouldn't hope to see snow before Christmas. Well, God loves to prove us wrong, and we had a very SUBSTANTIAL first snow-fall on Saturday, Dec 5th! We estimate we got 3-4 inches of good, wet, packing snow. So we "played" outside. They didn't know quite what to make of it (mom included - it was the first time she had seen snow, too). Snow is COLD afterall!

But we made a snowman. (Do you like the peppermint patty eyes?) Sorry about the splotches - it was hard to keep the camera dry as it continued to snow.

Here is the whole fam celebrating some sports team that has something to do with a "U." Notice the hat on the snowman. (Sorry, I didn't get the specifics!) Actutally, I think it is really some strange Florida ritual...

And Tio Mikey and Tia Sarah with the snow man and snow lady. At this point the little boy was cold and hungry and didn't want to join us for the pic.

Later that day they helped us pick out our Christmas tree... (can you tell what S thinks of the snow?)

And then we did some warmer things, inside, like drink cocoa and build a gingerbread house.

J was in charge of making sure the gingerbread house was structurally sound and up to code.

K added the artistic touch.

And the kids did what any reasonable, fun-loving kids in their situation would do - they sampled the candy, got icing all over their fingers, ate the arms, legs and head off of a gingerbread man, and, oh, yeah, they managed to put a few pieces of candy decorations on the house as well!

We had a great time with you guys!  Thanks for such a memorable day!

Trusting God for a Baby in Pain (still)

This is just no-photo post to say that the improvement in Blake's reflux was short-lived.

Starting yesterday evening when we put him to sleep he was again in noticable pain, last night he woke up multiple times to eat and had a hard time getting to sleep each time because he was clearly uncomfortable. All day yesterday he was not been himself - giggles and smiles are hard to come by, sometimes he coughs when I put him down in the infant carrier (never did that before), he screams when we try to just put him to sleep without rocking him, he wriggles in our arms when we try to rock him to sleep because he hurts, and we can literally hear the reflux in his chest. It is so hard to see my little one in such pain, and I am wracking my brain to figure out what has changed in just a couple of days.

Last night, based on our feedback (and another desperate phone call from yours truly), the doctor has raised his dosage amount of the new med, and we going to hang in there for a couple days more in hopes that this new med can offer consistent help. In a moment of desperation tonight I decided to give him his old med, and he instantly calmed down...just to confuse me, I think. (I also think he likes the taste of the generic syrup of Zantac much more than the new generic form of Pepcid.) The doctor said he should NOT respond that quickly, and after a short nap in my arms as I was trying to put him down he again started to scream.

All the while God is gently reminding me that I need to lean on Him for Blake's relief, and not depend on doctors or medicine or what I eat or don't eat. God is sovereign and good even through our baby's pain and he is somehow equipping me (although I feel woefully ill-equipped) to care for this little one. I must confess I am not believing it very well some of the time, but it requires that I stay dependent on Him, and that is right where God wants me to be.

Just a tip, if anyone else is in the boat where they have to pay out of pocket for meds (and these reflux meds are VERY expensive), we found that these meds are offered over the counter in pill form for adults, at a fraction of the cost. After some discussion with the pharmacist and Blake's doctor we learned that we could smash the OTC pills, add them to the right amount of water, and make our own medicine coctail. It doesn't taste as good as the syrup, but Blake will still take it.  (Sorry, Blake, we've decided that it isn't worth $170 for your medicine to be yummy!)

Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles

I wanted to share with you a series of baby-sleep praises that are nothing short of miraculous!

1) Yesterday, to my great surprise, when we put Blake down for a nap at 5pm he went to sleep with NO crying! Only slept 20-25 minutes, but that is okay. (I don't typically like to put him down so close to bed time, but when he wakes up at 3:30pm he won't typically last until his 7/7:30m bedtime, so we have been putting him down for a brief nap around 5pm.) This (no crying) happens for his naps every once in a while, so it isn't completely earth-shattering news, but it is still a blessing every time.

(Cute pic, just to break up my less-interesting ramblings:)

2) And then, to my even GREATER surprise (and borderline "earth-shattering"), when we put him to sleep at 7pm after a bath, some reading time, and nursing, he AGAIN went to sleep with no crying! We heard a few grunts through the monitor, but after about 20 minutes he was asleep! This has NEVER happened - the past few nights, actually, we have been dealing with what seems to be rather painful reflux and in some cases hours of crying, and we were preparing ourselves for that again.

(Another cute pic, just 'cause:)

3) Then last night/this morning I woke up on my own (not due to a crying baby). It was still dark out, but I was remarkably refreshed. I looked at the clock - 5:15AM! Blake had SKIPPED his typical 3-4am feeding, and I had a whole 6.25 hrs of uninterrupted sleep! This is only the second time this has happened in the past 3 months (I would venture to say longer, since a baby on my bladder didn't make it possible to sleep very long that last month of prenancy, too.)

Shortly after I woke up I started to hear little grunts, but I think he was just passing gas (heard that, too!). But since I was up, and he was up, I decided to nurse him instead of pushing it and hoping he would go back to sleep until 6:30am. I was hoping he might sleep even longer if I went ahead and nursed him. When I went in to get him the little boy had his eyes open and was making little fishy-lip motions, opening and closing his mouth in textbook baby-speak for "I'm hungry!" Very cute. And sure enough, after he ate he slept until 7:45am!

So I am trying to figure out what happened...

• We did more of a bedtime routine (bath, reading, nursing, setting down), and started this a little earlier (6:30pm, and put him down by shortly after 7pm)
• I re-introduced dairy into my diet, and yesterday when he was screaming so badly I was concerned that perhaps dairy was the problem. But yesterday I also had some red sauce (lasagna) and perhaps the acidity of the red sauce is what was bothering him so much the night before. I don't think dairy has been the issue.
• He is on a new med - generic of Pepcid. Because of the big screaming match yesterday I didn't have high hopes that it was helping, but perhaps it is!
• Mike gave him a bottle around noon while I was out, and we added a good amount of rice cereal to pumped milk. He puked a TON at his next feeding (but very happy the whole time). Perhaps having the rice cereal in his tummy helped calm things down later in the day? (Can you tell I am grasping?)
• God's grace, ultimately! Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God is very generous! We prayed for a healthy, happy baby, and that is what we have had for the last 24 hours!

 Disclaimer: I don't in any way EXPECT that he will keep this up or even do it again any time soon. But I sure will pray, and I am grateful for today!

Caution: Fingers May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Just wanted to provide a little visual aid to show the recent hazard we are navigating: Blake's newly discovered (and still untamed) fingers!

Watch out nose, here I come!

Wow, these fingers are really long!

Eye lashes are no match for this intruder.

Help! I'm being attacked! Hey, who is in charge of these fingers, anyway?

Look, Mom, I have HANDS!

Blake is finally figuring out what to do with those hands! So far he has mastered getting them into his mouth to suck on his fingers (still tends to gag himself), but he hasn't made many other motions towards reaching for toys, etc. We finally decided to help him out a bit and put a rattle in his hand for him, and I think he is starting to catch on that the rattle noise is related to when he waves his arms.

So then we went a step further and dangled this monkey toy pretty low on his play mat, so that when he does his little happy dance (arms and legs swinging aimlessly just for the pure joy of being a baby), he would sometimes hit the monkey.

  And then he started to reach for the monkey ("reaching" meant arms straight in the air with clenched fists). And then, every once in a while, he would grab on to the monkey!

And of course mom and dad have been hovering with the camera, like baby paperazzi, just hoping to catch the moment.

We finally did! Yeah, Baby!

Health Update:

We went to the doctor today to try to get more help/answers about his reflux, since it has been a difficult past few days. They weighed Blake and he is a whopping 11lbs 1 oz (right on track for the 10th percentile, which is where he has been for a little while for weight). We are switching reflux meds in hopes that this new medication serves him a little better - the doctor switched us to Pepcid. The doctor is still pretty certain that the reflux has nothing to do with what I am eating, but I'm sticking to my "no dairy" diet for a few more days to make it a solid 2 weeks, to see if we notice ANY difference. This is really hard! I have had to pass up ALL the Thanksgiving leftovers that are in our fridge, including my favorite stuffing and apple crisp. I sure do love this little boy!