Despite continued struggles with reflux and "cryin' crying all the time," Luke has grown a lot this month both in size and abilities.
With Luke, I think his crying and reflux have distracted us somewhat from his developmental progress. That, or our trip and out two other children. Whatever the reason, I have seen so many new abilities in Luke this past week when we got home and back into a Mommy-Luke routine that seemed to come out of nowhere. They have reminded me that everything is a phase (even reflux) and to lay attention because I might miss something!
At 3 months, Luke is:
At least 13lbs 8oz, a gain of a pound and a half in a month. We took him in to the doctor bout reflux and were pleasantly surprised by his continued strong weight gain.
It's no wonder he is growing- Luke nurses about every 2 hours from 7am-8 or 9pm. Nursing sessions are getting shorter- probably averaging 10 minutes. On occasion he'll eat very little during the day and make up for it by hanging out and lightly nursing for 30+ minutes before bed. Luke has only had 6 bottles so far- I'm sure that will increase over the next few months but I am proud that we have almost exclusively been breastfeeding because although difficult, it was one of my goals for Luke and I.
Smiling a lot. His happy periods are growing longer. He loves to stare at faces and interact. He can tell faces now and it seems like he is trying to get a look at them even If they are not looking at him (his brothers and his parents distracted by his brothers).
Baby talking- "ahgoo" is his favorite phrase, but he also has a sound like "hi." He giggles and laughs. We have nice little conversations-- I crack him up.
Sleeping pretty well- despite his schedule being off while we traveled, Luke seems to be back to a 6-7 hour stretch at the beginning and then 3 hours after each subsequent waking/feeding. The last few days he has only nursed 5-9 minutes during his night wakings so I may try to soothe him without the boob and see how that goes (aka see if I remember to do that in my sleep-deprived state).
Napping- again, things are in flux and highly dependent on what else we have going on, but he has been taking a short morning nap (25-30 minutes), a longer afternoon nap (sometimes 2-3 hours), and an evening short nap (25-30 minutes).
Enjoying more time on his playmat and a teeny bit of time on his tummy. But because we're often holding him upright due to the reflux, he has good neck strength.
Still suffering from reflux: well, I think it's fair to say the Zantac did not work considering he would have fits of crying hysterically after we gave it to him and he is still spitting up. And he still screams in the car. We went back to the doctor and will be transitioning Luke to Prilosec. We got it at a real pharmacy because it had to be titrated to baby dose and it tastes Luke banana cream. We're really hoping it is the fix! We want Luke to feel better!
Happy 3 months, sweet Luke. It is bittersweet to watch you grow out of the newborn phase and because more of a interactive baby who is (hopefully) growing out of the reflux!
