Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours :)

He wants to crawl!

Mac is getting more excited about being on the floor and is READY to crawl.

He hasn't done it yet, but he's managed to scoot a little bit.

5 Months

I'm a little behind schedule, but Mac turned 5 months old on the 20th.

Can you believe that?

My little is growing up!

And, finally, he's growing out too.  The little bugger's definently been chunking up more this month than the last!  I think he's nearing 15 pounds, thank God!

Let's watch him grow!

Update

Monday we took Maclin to see the Pediatric ENT. 
After a very quick evaluation by the doctor, he said that Maclin did, in fact, have tongue tie.  We talked about the implications and risks of having it clipped and decided that the procedure had many more benefits than negatives.
Maclin had a frenotomy...it was slightly traumatic (for me, mostly).  He nursed pretty much immediately afterwards and was calm and asleep within 30 minutes.  He took a good long nap and woke up happy.  There was minimal bleeding and he acted completely fine yesterday.  So fine, in fact, that I ended up going to work even though I had prepared to take the day off.

So far, his nursing seems improved and he seems more content after feedings.  Per direction from the lactation consultant, I'm going to slowly decrease his supplementary bottles by around 1/2 ounce a week and hopefully be done with them around Christmas.

Thank you for all the positive thoughts and prayers--it was so nice to know we had people on our team!

Mac's grateful too!

YAY!

At Mac's appointment yesterday he had gained a full pound!  Now he weighs 14 lbs 2 oz.  He also gained 1/2 an inch in height and about an inch around his head.

Praise the Lord!

So now we've got an appointment with an ENT on Monday.  I'm taking Monday and (probably) Tuesday off work.  Keep us in your thoughts--if they do the procedure it shouldn't be too traumatic for him.  I'll probably be emotional though.

Thank you for all the kind words yesterday!

The one where I admit some difficulty

I have a hard time blogging or talking about the things that bother me or upset me.  Since we've now got our situation somewhat under control, I feel ready to share.

Maclin had his 4 month check up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and we learned that he had gained NO weight since his 2 month appointment.  Literally.  To the ounce, he weighed 13 lbs, 2 oz at both appointments.

I panicked.  Because ZOMGZOMGZOMG my baby was starving!  I am a horrible mother!  How did I not realize this?*  Luckily, my doctor was MUCH calmer than me and said that sometimes babies flat line for a while and it can't be explained.  He went on to say that based on his observation of Mac, he wasn't overly worried.  If the lack of gain was paired with lethargy or inconsolable crying, that would be cause for alarm.  Mac, however, is a happy, smiling kiddo.

* In my defense, I had called the doctor a week prior because I thought he was somewhere around 14 pounds (based on our home scale).  They said that as long as he acted fine, it could probably wait until his scheduled appointment.

The doctor did say that he wanted us to start solids immediately and see if that helped. We were instructed to feed him rice cereal 3 times a day and start adding in veggies on the following Monday.   After two weeks, we would do a weight check and re-evaluate.

I didn't really feel ready to give him solids... I hadn't properly Googled and I wasn't even planning on considering it until he was 6 months old.  But, as David so eloquently told me, we don't pay a pediatrician to ignore his advice and listen solely to Dr. Google.  So, after a 6 hour drive to my parents' house, we fed Mac his first bite of solids.

Of course, we stripped him down to his diaper...and he was confused.

The first few bites were traumatic.  I think he thought we were trying to kill him with rice cereal.  After a while we reasoned that maybe he was freaking out because he had never had milk without being held... so I tried holding him.

And things were better.... he actually seemed to enjoy it a little bit.

But by the next morning... Mac was a man who knew what he wanted.

And it was cereal!

Even squash was a hit!

So Mac started solids, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something more was going on... Dr. Google had told me that replacing breast milk with solids would hinder weight gain-- not speed it up-- because breast milk is waaaay more calorie dense than rice cereal.  I equate it to me replacing a candy bar with a piece of celery.  Which I SO have not be doing lately.  Ahem.

Because I didn't feel this could be a long-term solution, we went to see a lactation consultant that was recommended to me by my La Leche League leader.

Alyssa was AWESOME!  I felt so supported and she really calmed me down (because, obviously, there was a TON of emotional turmoil and guilt happening in my brain).  After talking to us as length, watching Mac nurse, checking out his mouth, checking out my lady bits, and weighing Maclin before and after nursing, she said she thought Mac might be tongue-tied.

Besides seeing and feeling what she felt was a short frenulum, she also said that he only managed to get 1.4 oz of milk during his 30 minute nursing session.  That might explain why my baby boy had been a SLOW nurser before--his meals could last upwards of 1 hour.

There are a lot of other indicators he fit, but the one most apparent to me is a heart-shaped tongue.  When someone with tongue tie sticks his tongue out, the tongue can appear heart shaped because the frenulum is pulling on the underside.

Check it out:

That, my friends, is a heart-shaped tongue.

I talked to my doctor and he's hesitant to do the frenetomy immediately.  So he told us to feed Mac 2 oz of pumped milk after every nursing along with his solids.  Doc says that if he has a significant weight gain, then he would be willing to refer to an ENT.

Right now, Mac's taking 21 oz of expressed milk a day along with ~4 nursing sessions...all of which last 45-60+ minutes.  I am losing my mind, because to keep up with Mac's need I need to get up in the middle of the night to pump AND pump after every nursing session.  I cannot keep this up long term...right now I'm pumping 75-90 minutes a day and nursing for about 3 hours.  Then I need to feed him the bottle (if David's not home) and wash the pump parts.  My house is not clean--and we haven't decorated for Christmas.  And I need a nap...but I always need a nap :)

We see our doctor tomorrow and I'm hopeful that Maclin's had some significant weight gain.  If he hasn't, I will probably be a hot mess.

Luckily, he's REALLY cute, so all this is totally worth it.

How I'm Losing It

Lack of sleep is taking its toll on me.  I am a confused mess!

I normally pride myself on being a person who is always on time and usually over-prepared.  Motherhood has totally changed this.  The other day, I was late to work because I had to take Big Mac to daycare...which wouldn't have been an issue except I forgot his milk and had to turn around to get it.  Whoopsy...but not something Mac could just power through for the day.

Speaking of milk, I pump several times during the day...but because I travel between two schools, I have several different pumping locations.  At least once a day, I go to my location, get set up, and realize I don't have my "pump parts," because they're in some refrigerator across the school.  So that involves me redressing for a trek across school to get my parts.

One morning, when I woke up, Mac had a bib in his crib with him.  I have  vague memory of deciding in the middle of the night that he MUST have a bib IMMEDIATELY.  Why?  I don't know.  I need to stay in bed during the night if Maclin isn't waking up.  At the very least I need to not attempt costume changes while the baby is asleep.