Early December Update

The last two weeks have been pretty tame. We are settled back in at home and getting on a schedule. Last week was bitter cold in Montana, 5 days in a row that didn't even get into the positives, so Cooper and I have been staying in the warm house. Cooper is almost 5 months old, 10 weeks adjusted. In some ways he is still much like a newborn, in others he is developing very well.

Cooper still eats every two hours during the day. I continue to give him more in his bottle, adding a few mLs every few days, and he always eats it all then two hours later is hungry again. He's a little piggy! We are still nursing a few times a day. I let him eat as long as he wants and it's usually between 1 hour to an hour and a half. Sometimes he wants a bottle 30 minutes later. I'm trying to keep myself positive but it is getting frustrating when it takes so much time. We will continue working on it as I'm hoping that he gets stronger and quicker. My ultimate goal is to just stop pumping! I'm still adding to the stock pile of frozen breast milk so if I get to the point that I give up on breast feeding, I can stop pumping and still feed Cooper bottles from the stock pile for quite a few months.

Cooper still likes tummy time, but I think he likes playing on his back even more. He kicks and swings his arms around and gets so excited to interact with me. He also loves to sit up. I think he really likes to look around and sitting up is the best way to look around. We support his back, but he holds his head up all on his own. He is such a smiley baby! We are to the point that all I have to do is look at him and smile and he breaks out a huge grin. He does a little grunting chuckle sound, lots of squeals...and I swear one time he did a full on giggle! He loves when I sing! He is starting to figure out his hands. He usually just brings them to his mouth, but one time he grabbed my finger and took it to his mouth. I catch him really looking at things, studying them. He loves mobiles. When I put Cooper in his crib, he looks up at his animal mobile and smiles like they are his friends. It is so cute!

He is sleeping in his crib every night. I give him his last bottle sometime around 9 then put him in his crib. Sometimes he is already asleep, sometimes he's wide awake. If he's awake sometimes he is content to watch his mobile and fall asleep on his own, sometimes he needs his pacifier. When I get up in the middle of the night to pump, I wake him up for a bottle. There have been a few nights that I slept right through my alarms and Cooper sleeps on through the night. If I let him, he would sleep more than 8 hours, but the pediatrician recommends waking him at about 5 hours since he is still small for his adjusted age.

Last week, Cooper got another synagis shot. He was weighed and was 8lbs 11oz. He is still in newborn size clothes, but we finally started using size 1 diapers. Let me just say that we absolutely love our pediatrician, her nurse, and the immunization nurse. Any time I have a question, I am able to call the nurse on her personal office phone. If she doesn't answer right away, I always get a call back within an hour. I know they are very busy and have lots of other patients, but they all remember us and remember Cooper's health history.

I have been working on a weekly cleaning schedule and now that Cooper is able to spend more of his awake time entertaining himself, I'm able to get more chores done. Still not as much as I would like to get done, but enough for now. Jake's mom will be here in a couple of weeks and I know she will be glad to entertain Cooper so I'm planning to get some big organizing projects done. I'll end this post with another adorable picture of Cooper.