davis jeffrey | four months

GROWTH

WEIGHT: not quite sure, we go to the doctor next week so I'll update when I know for sure! I'd guess around 15-16lbs.

CLOTHING: We're in 3-6 month clothes! Some footed sleepers are a little snug since he's tall but other things are still a bit big. Some of his hand me downs might have been stretched out by his chunky brother!

DIAPERS: We are finishing up size 2 and heading for size 3!

LOVES

• faces
• mama
• standing up
• watching beau/everyone/everything
• 'jumping' up and down on my lap
• being kissed on the cheek
• picking his legs up really high and then SLAMMING them down on the ground
• grabbing onto blankets, my hair, and his bottle/my hand when eating
• blowing spit bubbles
• music

FIRSTS

• he's definitely grabbing things now and I'm guessing he'll be more actively reaching by next month
• blows spit bubbles and buzzes his lips
• laugh/giggle. he is being stubborn on this!

EATING

It's so hard to remember where I left off so I totally have to refer to last month's update. So Davis was having some issues and we were referred to the Gastroenterology clinic at Cook Children's in Fort Worth. We went, I explained all of the issues, and without doing any tests or anything more than a quick feel of his tummy, the doctor came to the conclusion that the nutramigen was still bothering him. So, he's now on Neocate, an amino acid based formula. I'll talk more about this in the 'health' section of this post. Now, however, he is eating 4-6 ounces every 2-3 hours and we are pretty happy with that!

SLEEP

The first night on Neocate he woke up every 3 hours and I about died. It was like he was a newborn again! Apparently the Neocate is thinner and broken down kind of like breast milk so it can cause him to get hungry more often during his sleep. Luckily it got better, though and he has slept through the night a few times since switching. It's up and down but nothing too horrible. He always goes right back to sleep after eating! Mark and I think it's so cute because when he is done, he will close his eyes and once we take the bottle out of his mouth he purses his lips together and lets out a sigh. Even if there is some left in the bottle, he won't open his mouth again to eat. He's also starting to show signs of a pattern and he sleeps for longer stretches around 2 or 4pm, depending on the day. We're so close to developing a schedule, I can feel it!

HEALTH

Oy. So, he's been on the Neocate for a little over 3 weeks. The first few days were ROUGH and almost worse than the Nutramigen side effects. I even called the GI doctor back and asked if it would be okay for us to try out Nutramigen again. They said yes, but after ONE bottle of that, I could tell it was still bothering him. He wouldn't finish the bottle and cried in pain for about 30 minutes. So we went back to the Neocate for good. Here's the thing though: it costs more than double what the Nutramigen did. It's $46 for a 2.5 day supply. It's ridiculous. And painful. The good news is that Texas has a mandate requiring insurance cover amino acid based formula for milk protein intolerance. Great, right?! No. Because our insurance policy was purchased in Illinois and follows their laws and mandates, which doesn't cover it. MAJOR bummer. Right now we are applying for assistance through Neocate. Cross your fingers we can get a little bit of help with this! Thankfully, he seems to be doing much better and is a happy baby on Neocate. Our only side effects are major debt and major stinkiness from our sweet boy. ;)

SOCIAL/PLAYING

He's starting to play more! Tummy time is lasting longer and he's been grabbing things and taking them to his mouth. Beau is learning that Davis likes toys now so we've entered a new stage of toddler hood: "MINE!" Insert eye roll and big sigh here.

PARENTING

We've been relieved of the emotional roller coaster that was all of Davis' issues and now we're just working on parenting Beau and monitoring their brotherly relationship. It's ROUGH, y'all. I about had a heart attack about a week ago. Mark's back was hurting so he asked me to lightly stand on his back to relieve some pain. We were about 6 feet away from Davis as he was doing tummy time and we were watching him most of the time. Next thing we know, I look over and Beau is standing on his brothers back. Oh my gosh, y'all. How do you know if you need to seek medical care for something like that? It was just for a second and Davis just fussed, no tears. I was shocked, though. We just can't do anything that Beau would want to copy AND he's in the hitting/throwing/kicking/stepping on things phase so we have to CONSTANTLY protect Davis. Ugh. This too shall pass.

I think that's about it, so here's your photo dump!