Logan's 5 Month Update (what happened to month 4???)

Well, our little man is 5 months old today, and somehow all of November got away from me and I never even posted his 4 month update.  Let’s see if I can catch you up ...

At his 4 month apointment, he weighed in at a whopping 18 lbs 11 oz (96th percentile).  He was 26" long (82 percentile) and had a head circumference of 17.6" (95th percentile).  It's hard to call him "little" anything!   

He checked out A+ healthy. We only had a few questions, but Chris also commented about the fact that every once in a while he noticed that Logan’s soft spot seemed a little puffy.  It didn’t seem to be big deal, but later that afternoon the doctor called us and said that they would like to play it safe and get a sonogram of Logan’s head just to make sure nothing was going on that needed more attention.  So, 2 days later we headed to Plano Pediatric Imaging for the sonogram.  The next day we got a call that he had a little more fluid around his brain that what’s normal.  Again, nothing to get worked up over … yet.  Next, we went in for an MRI.  If you’ve ever had an MRI you know that you have to lie perfectly still so they can get good images.  How do you make a baby lay that still you might ask?  Sedation.  Yup – sedation.  For a 4 month old.  Not a happy thought for a new mom (or any mom for that matter).  And, sedation means nothing to eat except clear liquids.  Try telling a 18+ pound 4 month (who didn’t get that way by skipping bottles) that all he can have is Pedialyte – a happy baby that does not make.  Well, we got through that but then came the next call from the pediatrician that they were a bit concerned that the ducts that allow fluid to drain from the brain were a bit narrow and our next stop was a pediatric neurosurgeon.  This is the point where we had to remind ourselves that by nature pediatricians are very, very cautious people.  With babies, it’s almost always better to be safe than sorry.  After all, Logan was still a fat & happy baby (the very best kind, IMHO).  So, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving we got to pack him up and take him down to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas since that’s where one of the few pediatric neurosurgical groups in DFW work out of.  Finally, after 2+ weeks of tests and worrying, a very odd but apparently very smart doctor told us what we really already knew – Logan is healthy and has a big head.  <big, fat, huge sigh of relief>  Yes, he has a little extra fluid and his ducts are a little narrow, but none of it is serious enough to be concerned about.  But, as I pointed out earlier, pediatricians (and even pediatric neurosurgeons) are overly cautious by nature, so we’re scheduled to do a follow up with him in 3 months to make sure nothing has gotten worse.  It means another trip to Children’s and another MRI, but I think we can handle it.

In the meantime, our little guy has done a great deal of development:

• He started trying to hold his own bottle at the end of November.

•  He is sitting up by himself with just needing to lean on his hands for balance.

• He discovered his toes and has decided that socks are his mortal enemy and must be removed from his feet as fast as possible.

• He’s reaching

 for toys and loves to bang them as loud as he can (probably just to annoy me).

•  

• He’s sitting at the dinner table with us in a booster seat.

• He started on rice cereal in his bottle, but mom goofed and gave him too much to start with and it caused the poor guy to get constipated.  So, we’ve had to back off the cereal until he’s more regular again and then start over.  Ooops!  (It’s hard being the first baby.  They’re our guinea pigs since we have no freakin’ clue what we’re doing.)

• He has started blowing raspberries.  Seriously, he just did this on his own.  We didn’t each him!
  

• Here’s the big one … He moved from our bedroom into his own room!  We did it the weekend before Thanksgiving (at 4 ½ months), and I’m shocked at how well it went.  I honestly think he’s sleeping better since we’re not sneaking in and out of the room like we had to when he was in our room.  He’s sleeping an incredible 10-11 hours at night.  (Please don’t hate us!!)

I'm sure he's doing all kinds of other things that I'm not thinking of right now, but that seems like quite a lot to have rambled on about so I'll leave it at that for now. 

Comments

[Amanda Pace]

Jonah did much better sleeping in his own room too, and i will say, blackout curtains are a tired mom's lifesaver... he still sleeps 12 hours most nights... uninterupted at this point, but did 7 hour stints at Logan's age on occassion. I don't hate you! I'm glad someone else has a kid that sleeps so well so that I don't have all those angry mom's with non-sleeping kids coming after me! ;)