Herring Family Happenings: Graham: What I want to remember from 3 to 5 months

Graham will be five months old tomorrow, so I thought I'd write an update on how much he has grown and changed. I realized I hadn't done such an update last month. Truth be told, last month was rough, and I kept waiting for things to improve before I updated. Obviously, that didn't happen. Thankfully, the past two weeks have shown a little bit of improvement in Graham's overall demeanor.

Eat: Graham still nurses every three hours, and many times even more often than that. I think his stomach dictates that he take in small amounts quite frequently. We supplement every once in a while with a prescription formula that would cost us about $400 a month if we were using it exclusively--yowza! It seems to sit easier on his stomach than the $250 a month formula. Needless to say, I'm still mostly breastfeeding. I've now limited my diet to exclude dairy, soy, eggs, peanuts, almonds, and red meat. We have an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist at Vanderbilt in a few weeks.

Sleep: What's that? On a good night, Graham will only wake twice between bedtime at 7:00 and 7:00 the next morning. But I can't count on one hand how many times that has actually happened. Most nights have three or even four wakings. Josh and I have tried all the sleep training tips (cry it out, pacifier, no pacifier, back sleeping, side sleeping, tummy sleeping, laying him down drowsy but awake, etc), and nothing has worked. I'm tired. He has begun to nap a little better most days. He usually takes a short (30 to 45 minute) nap in the early morning, a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the late morning, and another 1 hour nap in the afternoon.

Play: This boy is very busy like his sister was at this age! He now has pretty good use of his hands and loves to grab and play with anything within his reach. And of course, most things end up in his mouth. I love to hear him playing while we're in the car with the little bug toys that hang from his car seat handle. Also like his sister, Graham prefers to be with other people rather than by himself. His favorite playmate is Piper, by far. She can always get him to smile and laugh! And speaking of smiling and laughing, he does this so much now... and then he screams.