I missed Audrey’s 4 Month update so even though 5 months isn’t a huge milestone I still wanted to do a little update.
Audrey is still exclusively breastfed and it’s going really well. Sister is 14 lbs 11oz and has lots and lots of delicious rolls!
I mentioned before that we put her on reflux meds and that is still going well. But girl can puke! It’s not spit up- it’s full on vomiting! It’s worse when she’s sick (more about that later.) but it’s literally all day long. I tell people Abe and I are traumatized from all of her puke so you will ALWYAS see us with a burp cloth. I have about 100 in my diaper bag at all times and you can find one in just about any corner of our house. She vomits right after eating, before eating, 2 hours after eating- it’s doesn’t matter. It’s all day long! I’m obviously concerned about this but her pediatrician keeps telling me that because she’s growing so well, they aren’t concerned. I’m not completely sold on this thought process so I’m definitely keeping my eye on it.
See. So much puke!
I took her to the doctor just before Thanksgiving because she was having blood in her poop. She was also having increased vomiting, diarrhea, and low grade fevers. The NP suggested I strictly avoid dairy and they also checked her urine. We found out a few days later that she had a UTI and she was put on antibiotics. UTIs in babies so young isn’t super common so the recommendation is for her to have an ultrasound to check her kidneys.
The beginning of December she started having the same symptoms as before. I took her back to the pediatrician and sure enough, she had another UTI. I was definitely concerned by this point so we scheduled the ultrasound. It done a few days ago and came back normal. No problems with her kidneys!
I had some issues with the way her pediatricians office was managing her care so we decided to switch offices. The previous office was encouraging me to stop breastfeeding and give Audrey a special formula. I’m not sure we are at the point where she can no longer have my breastmilk and I really wanted to keep nursing her so I was super thankful when we saw her new pediatrician and she actually encouraged me to keep breast feeding. She said in Audrey’s case, there is no reason to stop breast feeding her if I can change my diet. We have decided to continue avoiding dairy and also cut out soy and caffeine from my diet and hopefully we’ll see an improvement with the vomiting and yucky poop she’s been having.
We started her on oatmeal and even gave her some purees. So far she has had avocados, sweet potatoes, and pears. It’s hit and miss how much she’ll take. Usually after her afternoon nap I can get her to take an entire 3oz pouch of purees but if she’s tired or just not interested she wont even take more than a spoonful. She’s still young so we will just keep working at this.
Sleep has been pretty terrible the past month. We never experienced the 4-month sleep regression with the boys but we sure did with miss Audrey. In the first couple months, she would give us 6-9 hour stretches of sleep and I honestly thought God had blessed us with a baby who figured out how to sleep. Then she turned 4 months old. She started taking really crappy naps and was waking up as much as 4-6 times a night. For an entire month! I really thought I might die of exhaustion and felt so incredibly defeated! I am happy to say she has had a couple really great nights of sleep this week so far so I hope we are on to something. If not, I am absolutely signing up for this sleep training class!
We have started to play a bit more. She’s super into anything she can chew on and loves to hear me read her books. She got a walker for Christmas. Her feet can’t reach the floor yet but she likes the play with the buttons on it. She still likes to lay on her large play mat and roll all over.
Audrey had her first Christmas this month. She had absolutely no clue what was going on and requested a nap halfway through opening presents. I loved every minute of shopping for our baby girl and really enjoyed opening her presents for her 🙂 She was my favorite gift of 2017.
I am looking forward to the next couple months of her growing and developing. I am excited to see her sit up on her own and start rolling from her belly to her back. I am really, really looking forward to more sleep and hopefully less spit up!
