- We had thought that Abby was teething since she was constantly drooling, sometimes chewing on her pacifier, not eating as much and well, it could be that time for teething. However, after 2 rough nights of sleeping and one absolute sleepless night for everyone in the house (even Lacey was wide awake!), we took Abby to the pediatrician. The nurse diagnosed her with a double ear infection. I had a mixed reaction. First I was estatic that there was medicine to cure my over tired, cranky baby, but then I was sad. She wasn't even 5 months old and she has a double ear infection? Isn't breastfeeding supposed to prevent these things? What's the future to bring? I immediatley jumped to her needing to get PE (pressure equalization) tubes at a young age. I almost cried in the doctor's office, but quickly pulled it together - I mean it was ONLY an ear infection. After one dose of the bubble gum medicine (amoxicillin) we could already see a change in Abby. Since Abby didn't like sleeping on a flat surface, we were advised to have her sleep propped up. So her bouncy chair went into her crib and that's where she slept for 3 nights until we felt it was fine for her to sleep flat on her back again. Now we know the signs and we won't wait so long to go to the pediatrician's office!
- Still not rolling over on purpose, but she is getting so close! She continues to do the "torticolis turn", but won't get her hip over to complete the roll. I guess she is content just turning and looking. We keep encouraging her however.
- Vocalizing up a storm! She just coos all the time. I've been listening for a variety of consonants and vowels (Obsessed SLP here!). So far I've heard, "ah", "agoo", "oo" and a bunch of glottal sounds. She will make this funny sigh/glottal sound every now and then. It's just funny, but I imitate her and she just looks at me and smiles.
- Breastfeeding is more challenging as she's getting distracted. I like to play on my Kindle Fire while she's nursing, but I've learned I can't do that as easily, if at all. Abby will constantly want to lean back and reach towards my Fire (oftentimes "clicking" on things or turning the pages in my book!).
- She hasn't gone back to sleeping through the night yet. I keep waiting. In the meantime, she's waking up 1-2 times at night. Brent and I are not afraid of the cry it out method (Brent may disagree about my willingness!), but when she cries at night, I can tell that it's not a cry that is going to settle any time soon. So I go in to feed her. Am I creating a monster by feeding her? Don't know. Perhaps. Does she quiet down and fall back to sleep? Yes.
- Everything is going in her mouth. She grasps onto a toy, finger, clothing, whatever is close and in the mouth it goes.
- Still no solid foods yet. We're holding off as best as we can to as close to 6 months as possible. So far, Abby hasn't shown us the "readines" signs so we're just keeping on the path we're going. Research has shown that holding off until 6 months for solid foods can:
- reduce food allergies and thus allowing for an easier time when we do start solids
- allow time for digestive maturity
- have greater protection from illness
- protect baby from iron deficiency anemia
- prevent future obesity
- maintain my milk supply
Next month, Abby will be a half a year old! Oh my!
No comments:
Post a Comment