Dear Ben,
Happy 5 months! A month shy of your half birthday? How is this possible?! You continue to be the sweetest little baby EVER! Our whole house was a little under the weather this past month, but thankfully we are all healthy again! I must say that although you were probably the sickest of all of us, you were always your happy and smiley self! I wish your daddy and I could say the same about ourselves... I'm going to try to organize these posts a little better so that I don't forget things! This is kinda how we do things for the kiddos at work. :)
GENERAL: Like I mentioned above, you are just the best. You are ALMOST 12#s and you are 24 inches. You didn't eat much when you were sick, which caused me to worry A LOT! I'm still trying to help you get onto that growth chart, little buddy! We celebrated Omphalocele Awareness Day on January 31. We received SO much support from our friends, family, and even people we don't know. We tried to educate as many people as possible to let everyone know how special omphalocele babies are!
EATING: You are eating better now that you are feeling better! An exciting thing that happened the past few weeks is that you will now take a bottle from either me or daddy!! We both feel like champs when we get you to eat for us. Even if this requires singing "I Love Benji," an original of mine, the entire time. This weekend, you had about 4 ounces every 3 hours during the day. You usually will eat about 3-4 ounces at a time. We started adding formula to the breast milk to give you some extra calories. The down side of this is that it makes you a bit more gassy and a little less comfortable. Boo! We attempted baby oatmeal twice, but you were not that interested and since you were not feeling well, so we stopped this for the time being. We are going to start up again soon. You haven't seemed as interested in nursing these days. Actually, I think you are afraid you will miss something. You will eat for a few minutes, and then you will stop so you can SMILE and look around. This usually repeats until I declare that your meal is over. At least with the bottle you can look around a bit. You still nurse when you wake up at night though, which brings me to the next category...
SLEEP: Not to keep mentioning your being sick, but you are sleeping MUCH better now that you are feeling better! (Amazing how that works.) We typically have to put you to bed when you are already sleeping, but there have been a few nights where I will feed you and then put you to bed awake. I'll watch you talk and look around a bit on the video monitor, but then you will fall asleep all on your own. A couple of Saturday nights ago, you had a sleepover at Nana's house because your daddy and I were SO tired and sick! Of course you slept like a little angel over there...even if she put you in a doggie bed! Lately, you've been going to bed around 7:30-8 and waking up around 3:30 to eat. You will then fall back asleep until 6 or 7. Not bad at all. You are a great napper. Nana discovered that you love being wrapped in your quilt. As soon as you're cozy in the quilt your eyes are closed. It is so cute. You are often down for your nap before I even leave for work in the morning! (Side note, I still miss you like CRAZY when I go to work!)
FINE/GROSS MOTOR: You are much more active these days! You still like to snuggle, but this is more often when you are tired these days. You still love your play mat thing and you love any thing that lights up or plays music. You sure like to grab toys and shake things! You love those fingers and anything else that can go into your mouth too! Even if it doesn't fit in your mouth, you try to make it fit until you start coughing. You are also rolling more. You mostly roll from your tummy to your back, but this just might be to get off of your tummy! We finally put your highchair together, so you've been sitting in there pretty regularly, at least when we are eating dinner. You still prefer being in a standing position to sitting, but your sitting is getting even better. (Not independent in this..yet) Your PT is very pleased with how well you are doing!
COMMUNICATION/COGNITION: You are quite the blabber! I love each and every noise that comes out of your little mouth. (Yes, even the cries are cute, but I like you to be happy, as you almost always are.) You essentially have a permanent smile on your face. I love going to get you in the morning and seeing a HUGE grin smiling back at me. You have started giggling quite a bit too, for daddy anyway. For example, when daddy crashed into the coffee table, you thought this was hilarious. You have your daddy's sense of humor thus far. We sure LOVE your little laugh though! You genuinely seem interested when we read books to you lately. Unless you're not in the mood, and then you definitely let us know! You are also quite interested in anything that lights up--TV, phone, ipad, laptop, etc. You seem more and more observant every day. I love watching you learn!
These posts seem to be getting longer as the months go on. And honestly, I could probably write about you forever, but it is getting late so I better stop now! We are getting so excited for it to get warmer outside so we can take you outside! We did bring you out in the snow for a little bit, but it is COLD and we want you to stay HEALTHY! We love you soooo much!
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| Wearing black and white in support of our "o" baby and all the other "o" babies out there! |
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| And mine to you, my little Valentine. |
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| You still love your baths (and fingers), even if your head is nearly half off the tub. |
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| Mesmerized by the lights. |
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| "I'm holy." |
