Grayson: 5 Months

This month has been full of changes!

Nursing

A couple of weeks ago Grayson decided he was too cool to nurse anymore.  After two days of barely eating I resorted to pumping and giving him bottles in hopes of salvaging my milk supply and his nutritional intake.  Seeing that he happily would take a full bottle, I did not heed my doctor's advice to make the trek to Danville again for an upper endoscopy and instead bared down and worked hard with Grayson for a few days at simply taking a full feeding.  The problem remains, he gets frustrated when the initial milk flow slows, but the screaming has lessened and with some persistence on my part he will take a whole feeding.  Thankfully, though feeding in public is now a near impossibility, he has continued to gain weight well.

Grayson is currently just over 16 lbs and has remained around the 40th percentile.  He is wearing a smattering of 6 mos, 9 mos and 6-12 mos clothes and just switched to size 3 diapers.

Schedule

We switched Grayson to a 4-hour schedule this month and he did so fairly seamlessly.  He is now feeding four times during the day, once in the late evening and then once in the middle of the night.  I made a solid effort to drop the middle of the night feeding but without success.  Since the switch he has been napping well, sleeping 2 1/2 - 3 hours in the morning and afternoon and 1-2 hours in the evening.  However, with the schedule switch he simultaneously came down with a fever that has yet to lift.  This could be behind the lengthy naps!

Doctor's Visits

For my own memory's sake, here is a more detailed account of the past weeks.  About two and a half weeks ago Grayson came down with a hoarse throat and later a fever.  His mood wasn't suffering so I didn't think much of it until it persisted and he became more fussy in the last two days.  Yesterday we went to the doctor and with no apparent reason for the fever, we spent the rest of the afternoon attempting twice to get a urine specimen from Grayson via catheter and getting blood work done.  So far all results have come back without alarm.  As if in protest to revisiting the doctor's office ever again, last night and this morning Grayson had no fever!  We are praying that it stays away, otherwise we will be sent back in for a third catheterization and chest x-ray.

Fun stuff

The kiddo is rolling over a lot more now and is in the unfortunate stage of waking from a nap, stuck on his belly!  He has also found his feet and successfully grabbed a dangling toy and brought it to his mouth for the first time this month.  Grayson loves to stand or be on the floor, rolling and playing freely and is less interested in being in his swing.  Though I'm sure he'll keep me busy, I can't wait until he can sit and crawl and is able to better control the movements that right now make him quite the flailing mess at times.  Ava was in no hurry to get any place but Grayson is definitely a mover trapped in an incapable body!

Sleep

Still swaddled.  Still with the paci.  Works like a dream.