Five Months!

Zane is now five months old. I can't believe we're almost to 6 months and a half a year gone! We must be getting bored with Zane because we had no new pictures of him for this week! I needed to take a bunch especially for today. I know you can't tell in these pictures, but I swear his hair is starting to grow! His Grandpa Milt commented on it without me prompting him, so I'm sure it's not just me thinking so.

I start work February 2nd, so our precious home time is almost done. I'm a bit nervous as Zane has been on a bottle strike for the last two weeks. He began taking a bottle at about a month old with no problem. Since then he's taken a bottle from many people, but now he won't drink from one unless he is totally desperate. He just chews on the nipple and fusses for the real thing (moi). The folks at daycare (where he's been twice now for 5 and 4 hours) say he'll eat when he gets hungry enough. Baby group nurse Ann Keppler says if he doesn't eat, he'll be fine, but we may end up nursing a lot at night.

In our case, I’m never around when Zane gets a bottle, so that’s not the problem. He has been mildly stuffy, so that could be an issue. He also spends a lot of time chewing the bottle nipples, so teething pain and the relief from the chewing may be trumping hunger. This morning we tried out a faster and different shaped nipple and a sippy cup. He drank from the bottle just fine! I have a pretty strong let down, so perhaps a faster flow of a nipple encourages him. We'll see how he does at daycare next week.I worry a little bit more than I normally would because Zane is small and not as chubby as his doctor would like him to be; however, a lactation nurse said he’s getting plenty to eat from me. We went to a checkup this week, and Zane continues to drop in his weight percentile. However, he is actually a bit chubbier than last time when you look at his weight for height, and I was also about the same size at his age. Zane is now 26 1/2 inches long and 14 pounds 3 ounces. His doctor says he is still pretty sure Zane is fine, but he wants to track him closely to make sure we are not missing anything.

Zane has had a mild cold for the past couple of weeks. Not enough to make snot run out of his nose, but enough to make him a little uncomfortable sleeping. The blue bulb snot-sucker just wasn't doing the trick, so yesterday I got a NoseFrida. It's really gross. The parent sucks the snot out of the baby's nose with a siphon, but there is a filter to collect the snot. Doubly gross is that it is clear and you can see the snot burbling in. Zane absolutely hated it, but it did clear his nose. I'll only use it if he's really having trouble breathing, since he hates it so much.

In better news, we went to our first library story time! It is at the Shoreline Library where I work, which is extra fun for me. It's on a non-work day, so we should be able to keep going. Zane had a great time watching and listening to us sing songs, and he loved the other babies. When Miss Laurie got out a book, he stood up and quivered. Definitely our son!

And finally we leave you with some giggles: