I can't believe it's been five months since Little Miss joined our family. I'm absolutely loving motherhood and feel so incredibly blessed. For those of you who don't know, it took us 18 seemingly endless months to get pregnant with our little bundle of joy and though the first several months of pregnancy went quite smoothly, the last few were a real challenge. Sunday was Little Miss' dedication at church (the pic was taken after church) and the next day she turned 5 months on the nose. We seem to be in a good groove with her schedule and life is good.
Little Miss is the happiest, smiley-est baby around. Everyone always comments on how content and sociable she is. Several people have told us we should get her into modeling because her smile and her temperament are perfect for it. We are contemplating entering her in some photo contests and seeing if it goes anywhere.
Sleep Issues: I think, fingers crossed, we have turned the corner on her sleep difficulties. Her nap difficulties got better little by little just before she turned 4 months old. It started with her sleeping through the occasional nap with 5-10 minutes of crying in the middle. She then began only crying about 5 minutes. Now she will occasionally cry 45 minutes to an hour in but rarely cries very hard or very long.
Only about a week after the naps returned to being consistently good though, she started waking up in the night again. Up until then, I could count on half a hand the times she had woken in the night since 6 weeks when she had started sleeping through the night. It was right before Mother's Day and right around when she turned 4 months. I had read on Chronicles of a Babywise Mom that 4 month sleep problems are rather common so I wasn't too surprised. I knew she was learning how to roll from back to tummy and that she was practicing when she should have been sleeping. I also knew that she was really taking an interest in the world and had been much more distracted while nursing making full feeds more difficult during the day and I thought she might even be going through a growth spurt to boot.
I assumed that it was a hunger problem and sure enough, she took a full feed. That continued for a few nights until I questioned whether she was going to get used to feeding in the night and therefore if I was setting a new routine in a different direction than I wanted to go. I tried letting her cry for 5-10 minutes and then soothing her without feeding her, but she really was hungry so I ended up feeding her. Then one night she slept through. Then another night she would sleep until 6 (normal wake up is 8). Then she would go back to 4:30. There was even one or two nights she woke up twice to eat. She had a cold during this time so I really didn't want to do cry it out while she was sick so I kept feeding her when she woke and she kept eating. I actually didn't mind waking up all that much as I would just watch her nurse so peacefully and think about how fast she is growing up. My baby won't always be a baby so I'm doing my best to cherish every moment.
There was one night last week that I finally decided to let her cry. She cried for over an hour. I only checked on her once in that time as letting her see me only makes matters worse. I finally decided she really was hungry and wasn't going to fall back asleep so I fed her. That was a rough night. The next night she slept through till 8. She has slept through the night the last several nights though so I think we may be over the hump. Only time will tell.
Dairy Allergy and Reflux: At 2 months, I went off dairy (after mucousy, bloody stools) and Little Miss started eating better without fussing so much. At 3.5 months, she was fussy again and spitting up more and acting like she was in pain while eating. We put her on Zantac hoping it was reflux and not more food allergies. She got better (around that time her naps got better too). Around 4.5 months, she started fussing while eating and spitting up again. I called the doc and they upper her Zantac dosage so it is more in line with her current weight. Overall, she seems more comfortable but still has times when she struggles while she's nursing. I'm praying she's not allergic to anything else because selfishly I don't want to have to cut anything else out of my diet.
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