Happy 4 Months Bella!

Every month that passes I can't believe Bella is another month older. Sounds stupid to say but time is going even faster this time around.  Bella is still the same laid back and calm little girl. The only time she gets fussy is when she wants to eat, be picked up or her stomach is bothering her. So much of her personality is coming out! She is definitively going to be my talker. She will "talk" at length from time to time and will even sing along with you. She has the most infectious smile and laugh and loves to be tickles and play games. She smiles with her eyes and it absolutely melts my heart. I still think she looks just like Brayden when he was little. The resemblance is uncanny.

Bella is getting so big! She is gaining at a crazy pace despite all of her stomach issues. I had her to the pedes a week an a half ago and she was already 15 lbs! She has offically doubled her birth weight. We have her 4 month appointment on December 4 so I will have her exact height and weight stats.  Her stomach problems are an ongoing issue. Ugh I wish there were clear cut answers. I'm still trying to get her gastro appt scheduled, the office is driving me nuts by not calling me back. But she is currently on Prilosec (1.25mL), 2x a day and and Zantac (1.8mL) 2x a day for breakthrough pain. Even on both she is still refluxing and in pain but it's less than it was.  I'm still on the soy and dairy free diet and based on the mucous and color of her diapers I have a good feeling we will be doing more elimination. Thankfully the color and mucous in the diapers doesn't bother her so that's a good thing. At this point I'm willing to take it as far as we need to keep breastfeeding. She is doing so well and really relies on it as her comfort zone so I really don't want to take that away from her. Aside from the stomach issues, shes an amazing nurser and has made it so easy on me, so I'm extra determined to do it for her. 

Big smiles!!

She usually eats every three hours during the day, unless she's not feeling well. Based on what I can pump from one side she's drinking at least 4-6 ounces per feeding. She still hates the bottle. Ugh, she will sometimes take pumped milk from the bottle from Jason but has been refusing to take it from anyone else. That should be interesting since we have a wedding on the 8th. I'm hoping she drinks for my mom and katie!  

Silly faces :) 

She is still a good sleeper. She generally wakes up 1x a night. For a breast fed baby I will take it!! Although the times change she usually goes down to bed at 9 and will sleep till about 5 nurse and go back down. We tend to take her upstairs with us when we go to bed b/c we are co-sleeping so sometimes moving her wakes her up and that adds another feeding. But that's on me not her.  She tends to have a 30-40 minute cat nap in the morning , a long 3 hour nap in the afternoon and a cat nap after dinner.  It's nice at least for now her afternoon nap co-insides with Brayden's. I'll take it for as long as it lasts. 

Bella is doing really well developmentally. She's not nearly as advanced as Brayden was but she's right on track.  She's been trying to roll both ways, but is always getting stuck on her arms. I'm sure being the little chunker she is makes it tougher :)  She loves to sit! Her back is getting stronger but she still sits forward in her "monkey" pose to hold herself up. She does like playing on  her play may but will only lay on her back for short periods of time. I swear she thinks she is missing out on something so she needs to sit up. Plus laying flat doesn't do any favors for her reflux so I don't blame her.  She does like to stand and her legs are pretty strong.  She just tried her play jumper and really seemed to have mixed feeling about it.  I think she just didn't know what to make of it but had fun.  

Teething, boy did I NOT miss teething. So far she is a decent teether but only the future will tell. She has been teething for the last month despite not having any break through. We are using a baltic amber teething necklace and it helps with the pain, but the drool is a flowing! lol Here's hoping she is not a dramatic teether like her brother and they don't take forever to come in!!

Trouble!

Bella tried her first food on Thanksgiving! I don't think she is completely ready for food full time. We plan on doing things like with Brayden by skipping cereal and doing food led weaning with some puree. For her first meal we tried sweet potatoes with apple. Yes I know they're suppose to start with one food type but i was having a hard time finding an organic food that was one flavor. I plan on making all of her food like I did for Bray. Even making organic baby food, it is SO cheap! I really think making the food really helped Brayden find his love for a variety of foods so here is hoping!  In the mean time I will probably give her food sporadically until we get her stomach issues under control. Then I will start  more consistently. 

I think we seriously took 50+ pictures. Half of them she was trying to sit forward and falling or just wasn't looking. Gotta love bloopers lol 

Bella First Pair of Earrings!

We've been wanting to get Bella's ears pierced and finally went for it! She did really well considering. Of course she cried and it broke my heart but I nursed her right after and it calmed her right down. A dose of tylenol later and shes "all better". We picked out the princess cut stone set in white gold.  I think they look adorable!! We wanted to get them done early so shes doesn't "remember" the pain. I know some people like to wait till they are older so than can remember it as a milestone but I was a little too excited. lol Hopefully since she got them early she won't mind them and hopefully won't be trying to pull them out. Thankfully they're the kid safe kind with rounded locking backs so they don't dig in to her head.  It'll be fun to pick out cute earrings for her later. 

Here we go! 

Being a big girl! 

 

So pretty! 

4 months old!!

I can NOT believe how much Brayden has changed in the last month! it's amazing what he can do and how much more attentive he is.  He is learning at such a rapid pace and discovering his world. I LOVE every moment of it!  I hate how fast time is going but the older he gets the more fun he is.  He is a big talker now.. babbling,growling and screeching at anything and everything. He even had a 2 mins conversation with a pillow feeling and scrathing it the other day. lol  His leg and body strength is insane. I swear he is going to skip sitting and crawling and go straight to pulling himself up and running away. Okay may not to that extent but he really is experiencing things in a whole new light! He really makes every day amazing.... I'm SO IN LOVE!

Trying to sit up like a big boy!!  Doesn't last long but he is learning! 

 Drool monster! 

Some of the 4 month sticker shots! 

He is most definitely standing on his own.. his butt is the only thing touching the couch.. nuts! 

Look at those giant feet! size 3!! : P 

 I ABSOLUTELY love this one! 

CAUGHT eating his feet AGAIN! :) 

Doing the "model" pose! 

OH BANANAS!

It's been a whirlwind week of firsta for Brayden and Mommy!

On Tuesday we had Brayden's 4 month appt!  He is getting so big so fast!  He is now 15lb 1oz(50%) and 26 3/4 inches long(above 95%)!  TALL BOY!  The dr was very happy with his overall body strength and he loved showing off how well he stands, rolls, holds his head and body up and trys to sit! lol He did get 4 shots and an oral vaccine. Of course he cried (and mommy shed a tear) but he did much better than the last time he had his shots, so i was proud of him!

 We also got the okay to start solids!  So I went to the store and got some goodies (organic of course..lol) to make his food. I made carrots, peas, butternut squash, apples, bananas and avocado!  I froze all of his food in his containers and made cubes with the rest and bagged them up. it makes it SO easy and it made so much food for such little money!! can't beat that!

On wednesday we had our appointment at CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) with the gastro. It looks like there isn't much more we can do for Brayden's reflux Which can be extremely frustrating when he is in pain. But since is he gaining about 1 lb a month she is not concerned that he is at risk for malnourishment.

I was really glad the Dr decided that we are not going to have to do an endoscopy. She said that with his history and symptoms he definitely has GERD, so there is no need to put him through unnecessary testing. Needless to say I am SO grateful! So I was able to get the dr to agree to take him off the zantac (since i don't think it's working anyway) and we are sticking solely with the prevacid.  So in the mean time we are keeping him on the alimentum, since it takes the edge off the pain.

We also started Bananas on Wednesday! He absolutely loved them.. i mixed in some oatmeal (as per the dr) to help his stomach and he had fun making a mess and chewing on his spoon... i think he was more interested in eating the spoon than anything else. lol

We also transitioned Brayden to the crib on wednesday! This definitely gave me some anxiety!  As much as i did not want to move him to the crib I felt like he was being disturbed by us going to bed at night and wasn't getting as sounds of sleep.. so it was time.  He had an AWFUL first night... it wasn't even the crib it was his reflux. he was in so much pain and kept waking up. as soon as I would get him calmed down and lay him in bed he would be back up crying.  Needless to say it was a ROUGH night. I had attributed it to possibly being  b/c we had just stopped the zantac but wasn't convinced that was it.
Thursday the same thing happened. I felt so bad for him.  But I had this lingering though that it HAD to be the bananas he was eating around dinner time.

So Friday I tested my theory and he only got plain oatmeal.... and SURPRISE he had a good night. he woke up for his regular bottle but otherwise he did great.
So far he doesn't mind sleeping in the crib, even though mommy is slowly adjusting. I know i'm ridiculous but with all of his reflux issues i was more comfortable to have him in the pack and play in our room.  But he's a big boy so i need to let him have his own space.

Here's some pics of him playing in the crib after a nap : ) 

LOVES the mobile! 

Tonight we started carrots, he really wasn't sure what to make of it and made some hilarious faces... fortunately so far they haven't had any repercussions on his stomach!Again he is obsessed with the spoon! 

  

MMM Feet!

Brayden discovered his feet a few weeks ago and he is OBSESSED! lol it's the cutest thing! He gets so angry when he has to put PJ's on an yells at you b/c he wants to "eat" his feet!
Yesterday he discovered his arm.. not his hands (that was at 2 months) but his arm! It's so fun to watch him move his arm around and watch how he can made it go where he wants!
It is really so amazing to watch him discover his world... I love being a mom!

Teething

Brayden has been teething for about a month and a half and still hasn't had a break through. He apparently likes to teeth REALLY early like his daddy.   The kid chews on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING! From toys to blankets, teethers, our fingers and anything with in reach :)  We are going through bibs like they are going out of style. He literally soaked through 7 bibs today. He is not a very good teether but with a little tylenol here and there he's been managing pretty well.  Here's hoping whatever is trying to pop through does it quickly!! :)

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