So Griffin is now three months old. We have spent three months as a family of three and I can't imagine it being any other way! Griffin fits right into our family and we love having him here!
Sleeping has started to change a bit, Griffin will now occasionally sleep longer than 3 hours. We did get 5 1/2 hours in a row one night, but it has yet to be repeated :( On average now, the first bit of the night he will sleep about 4-4 1/2 hours in a row, then after that back to waking up every 2-3 hours. Regardless of the fact that he is still waking up to eat 3-4 times a night, I am feeling more rested this month because I have finally mastered the art of nursing him laying down! This means that all I have to do is pull him out of his co-sleeper into bed with me, nurse him and then slip him back into his own bed when he is done. No more getting up to go sit in the family room to nurse in the middle of the night HURRAY!
He still comes in to bed to sleep with mommy, usually between 7-8am. It's funny because it's like he knows the time and says ok, I'm tired of being alone, I want some snuggle time!
We all know Griffin spits up A LOT! What bothers me is that it is not just the spitting up. He has many of the signs of acid reflux. I have tried all the conventional advice the Dr gave me like, keeping him upright after eating, burping him often, adding rice cereal to his milk… ect. I am sooooo frustrated with this because I explained all of his symptoms to Griffin's Dr 3 separate times , and he just blew me off and said that all babies spit up and it is normal. Finally I felt so bad for Griffin because he was having such a bad day, that I decided to actually sit down and write out a list of his symptoms, and make a Dr appointment to demand that something be done for my little guy. So I went into the appointment armed with this list.
1. Excessive spit up - Big amounts (enough to soak both him and me) and way too often, sometimes he will go an hour without spitting up, but sometimes it is 10-15 times within half an hour. He will also spit up in his sleep and soak himself, he will even spit up while nursing and half choke himself. Often when he spits up it makes him very upset, and he cries like it is painful, or at least very uncomfortable.
2. Gurgles like food is coming up into throat and swallows it back down. (sometimes he coughs and chokes instead of just swallowing it back down)
3. frequent gas
4. irritable when eating - this is sooooo true, nursing can be a very frustrating experience because he will latch on suck for a few seconds to a minute, start to complain, get angry, kick his feet and arch his back, pull off, cry, act hungry root around, re-latch... eat for a few seconds, and start the process again. Now granted there are sometimes where he eats and does not do this but honestly at least 50% of our feeding sessions involve A LOT of the above described process
5. Coughing - He coughs a lot, not enough that I would think he is sick, but enough that when I saw this listed as an acid reflux symptom I was like... yup, he does that.
6.Frequent Hiccups - Griffin gets hiccups 3-4 times a day, and usually he gets very upset about them... not sure if they hurt or what
Well the Dr found out just how protective I can be because when he came into the exam room he knew why we were there and immediately launched into his normal speech to blow me off, I basically cut him off and said you have already told me all of that, I have tried all of the suggestions you gave me and they did not change anything. My son is uncomfortable everyday and I do not believe this is normal. This has been going on since he was born, it is getting worse not better and I think it has gone on long enough… at which point I burst into tears (soooo embarrassing). I then tried to pull myself together and recited my list of Griffin's symptoms. I'm not sure if he decided to do something because he was scared of more tears… lol or if I really convinced him but either way he ordered a prescription of Zantac to try and an ultrasound of his pipes to make sure all the valves were working properly. So either way I am happy that we are trying to find a solution so Griffin can be a bit happier!
One fun thing this month is that Griffin is talking to us all the time. He is full of babbles and coos and he is experimenting with making different sounds. It is so interesting! We have started a list of words that he has accidentally said.. His first word was Ma Ma (hurray!) He said it when woke up and started crying one day, he obviously needed me ;) He has also said good several times and even said "OH boy" and "I pood" when daddy was changing his diaper…lol The best one though was last week when I was holding him and talking to him, I said Griffin you're so handsome, you're handsome aren't you? and he looked right at me, smiled and said "yeah". My mom and Tiffany were in the room and they both heard it too, it was so funny we had a good laugh about that one!
Griffin's always been full of personality even while he was still bopping around in my tummy, but I must say it so much fun to see him developing into such an awesome little person. He smiles at everyone and anyone who talks to him now, and it's funny because if you really please him he gets a huge smile and then will go into shy mode and turn his face away. He will smile at the ladies in Target when we take him in there to show him off, he will smile at the ladies at my mom's gym when I take him there. He even smiles at other babies. He is sooo cute when he is interacting with the world! He used to only smile at us if we got right in his face but now he has also started to smile at mommy or daddy if we talk to him from across the room. He hasn't laughed out loud yet, but he will smile and squeal when he is tickled so I know it is coming soon!
Griffin still loves to stand while mommy or daddy help him balance but has added stepping now, he looks like a soldier marching, it is hilarious!
Griffin has also started swatting at his toys. Although it is still very uncoordinated he will occasionally grab onto one. He will also smile and "talk" to his toys… so cute!
Griffin has started to get upset when he startles himself. He will throw his hands and legs up into the air, get stiff all over and then just start bawling! It is the saddest thing. He will do it if he gets picked up or put down too fast, and he did it once when he grabbed one of his toys on the play mat, but couldn't figure out how to let go. He is starting to get a bit better with it so I am hoping he is starting to realize that mommy and daddy will not let anything bad happen to him.
I got a breast pump this month so I have been pumping and starting to build up a stock in the freezer. I must say that I do not find pumping to be fun at all, not very comfortable and it can be disappointing if I don't get much out. The best way I have found to do it is to feed Griffin on one side and pump on the other. Jeremy got to give Griffin his first bottle of mommy milk, but said it wasn't tooo exciting because he is so used to giving bottles to baby calves..lol. All the pumping I have done has enabled me to go out to a movie with the girls and leave him with daddy, and I also started doing massage therapy in the mornings at my mom's gym. It's nice because I can earn some extra money and Jeremy can watch Griffin.
One problem that has developed this month is constipation. Griffin went 7 days without any poop at the beginning of the month, and we ended up having to take him to the Dr to get a suppository… it worked and I know he was VERY backed up because he then promptly FILLED three diapers. YIKES!!! For most of the rest of the month he had not gone #2 once without the aid of either a suppository or the laxative powder that the Dr gave us. I do not let him go longer than 4 days, if he hasn't gone by the evening on the 4th day, he gets a suppository. I also started giving him 2 oz of prune juice every day and after 3 days of it he finally went #2 on his own for the first time this month.
The pets don't seem to think that Griffin is all that interesting. The cats do seem to get concerned when Griffin cries and will come and look at him like "what is wrong with you?" and they will occasionally sniff his head, but for the most part they ignore him. Zoe seems to view Griffin as more of a piece of furniture than anything and doesn't even flinch when he cries. She is so used to being around babies because of my mom's daycare that he is just one of the pack. Zoe will however lick him if she smells the slightest bit of milk residue and we have to watch her if spit up hits the floor, and clean it up ASAP because apparently she feels the need to clean up after him.
A few milestones this month…
Griffin has discovered how to suck his own fist. A noisy task but he seems to love it. He even ended up giving himself a hicky on his hand/wrist. It scared me at first because I thought it was a bruise, and I was like "how in the world did you get a bruise there?" then I looked closer realized he had given himself a hicky and laughed my head off… silly boy!
He learned how to roll from tummy to back… soooo cute! He will not do it every time I give him tummy time but he has done it a handful of times now, so he is getting better and better at it.
He has kicked the swaddle to the curb and now sleeps unswaddled. The only problem we have run into with this is that he has started to scratch himself during the night. I really need to trim his nails but it scares me because I am so afraid of nicking him! I guess this is a task to tackle for next month.
I have loved watching Griffin grow (now weighing in at 13 lbs) and as he is getting older he is only getting more and more interesting and fun. Being Griffin's mommy is the best job in the world!
