As promised from a previous post, here is the video of Jack’s new consonants: Mmms and Bbbs. His little lips are so cute when they are pursed together while he tries to figure out how to make these new sounds.

He also had a wonderful day of naps, which has been unusual over the past month or so. Today, he took a two hour nap by himself and another two hour nap with me this afternoon. I was so excited to see him get a good sleep for once! I’m not sure if it’s because of the Zantac or if it’s because he reached a milestone today, but we are hoping for more good sleeping tonight! Cross your fingers and pray real hard!

He was worn out from his morning outing with mommy and went straight to bed for his nap when we got home. We’re praying he starts feeling better very soon! This has been going on for a month now. Since he can’t tell us what is wrong, it was just a guessing game as to what it was. I’m so glad we have figured it out!

Now for the not-so-fun report. It seems that Jack may be suffering from reflux. According to Dr. Sears, reflux peaks at four months of age in infants. They should outgrow it by one year of age. Today, Jack has had a rough day. He hasn’t been able to keep much down today. And he had a very runny poopy diaper this evening. I called the pediatrician, and the nurse is suspecting that he may be suffering from reflux. He has a lot more of the symptoms, like not sleeping well, wet burps, arching his back, and being fussy while eating yet eating frequently. So, we’re going to go tomorrow to take a look and see if that is what has been causing all of this. I hope we find answers finally.

Randomly, Jack has begun saying Mmmmmms and Bbbbbbbbbbbs today. I was in the shower, and all the sudden I heard him start talking and what sounded like Mama. I kept repeating it to him, but never quite heard it. But it was so cute to see him pucker his lips together and give us a few new sounds today. I have it on video from one of his talking episodes today, so we will upload it soon.

We wanted to start supplementing with a little formula. Mostly because I have to pump three times just to get enough milk for one bottle, which is very tedious and time consuming. I was also ready to start weaning him, so he would be done with breastfeeding by six months, but he is not about to have that! I tried to be sneaky and mix some formula with his rice cereal this morning, and he had the most sour face you’ve ever seen when that stuff hit his mouth. He loves his rice cereal mixed with breastmilk, and you could almost see the disappointment on his face this morning when it didn’t taste good. HA! Guess I wasn’t as sneaky as I thought!

We’re still having a lot of trouble getting him to sleep at night. He is waking every hour to every two hours still, and Sean and I are pretty exhausted. We’ve tried every sleep book and sleep method known to man. Pardon my french, but they are all crap, in my opinion! At least when it comes to trying to get my little one to sleep - HA. If I leave him to cry for any period of time (even 10 minutes), he gets absolutely hysterical. So, that’s just not an option. I’ve read of a four month sleep regression, and it seems a lot of moms are having trouble with their four month olds sleeping, but he has to get back to his normal self sometime soon. I just don’t understand how he was sleeping 5 hours straight, and then even sleeping 7 hours on a few occasions, and all the sudden he just went to not sleeping well. Nothing changed! It just happened! Anyways, we’ve got to the point where we just have to accept our little boy is having a rough bout with sleeping, and we’re just going to have to be patient and help him get through it the best we can.

The funniest new thing he does is when he wakes up, he tries to “fly” in his sleep positioner. He won’t sleep unless he is swaddled and on his side. So, now he is somehow pulling up his head and legs so that he looks like he is flying. It is so funny! He’s such a ham, and certainly knows how to make mommy and daddy laugh.

Today, Jack graduated to oatmeal cereal. He really loved it, too! He was opening his mouth as the spoon approached, and he was eager to grab the spoon and “help” me feed him. That sure got interesting! HA! Since it was a new taste, I made it pretty thin to start with, but he is ready for me to thicken it up, just like I did with the rice cereal for tomorrow. We are going to start feeding him twice a day, since he gobbled up yet another bowl full of cereal tonight and was still looking for more. This is one hungry kid! After a few days of oatmeal cereal, we will look to add a fruit or a veggie to compliment the cereals. I’m pretty convinced that once we actually fill this little one up, he may start sleeping a little better.

So, this past Thursday, Jack had his first bowl of rice cereal. I mixed it with breastmilk, so it had a familiar taste to it. And he loved it! He immediately got the hang of being fed with a spoon, and it seemed as if I couldn’t give it to him fast enough. He ate 3/4 of his bowl. Then on Friday, he ate the entire bowl! So tonight, we decided to thicken it up just a little bit, but using the same amount. It took him a few minutes to get use to the yogurt-like texture, but he loved it. Again, he ate all of it! He hasn’t shown any bad reaction to it, so we will probably alternate with oatmeal cereal, as well, to give him a little difference in taste, twice a day. After three days, Sean and I are happy to report that his sleeping is already starting to improve, and his mood during the day is a hundred times better!

His favorite thing, as you can see from one of the pictures, is to “help” me feed it to him. He is already reaching for the spoon! Oh boy, what a mess that will be! But a fun one! That’s why we have a dog - ha!

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy…

Then came the infamous conversation on his bad sleeping habits lately. I knew it was coming… let him cry it out. UGH! He is FOUR months old! Are you kidding me?! Well, I got brave and gave it a try for his afternoon nap, and we both ended up in hysterics and tears. When I went to check on him, he was screaming so hard that his body was shaking, his face was purple, and he had made himself throw up he was crying so hard. His little raspy voice was all I could handle! I scooped him up, held him close and nursed him to sleep. We took a nap on the couch for two hours - we were both exhausted. And I vowed I would NEVER EVER do that to him again. That is just cruel and unnecessary. Maybe it will take him longer to sleep on his own through the night - so what! I can’t let my child scream like that. So, I guess for now we’ll deal with it and hope it gets better soon. I’m reading the No Cry Sleep Solution right now, and I’m hoping we can follow that plan instead of the cry it out solution, which I hate to even call a solution. It’s ridiculous!

Well, Sean is having no such luck getting Jack to sleep tonight, so I better head back upstairs and help out…