Journaling Time: Sam, 4-5 months

Sam is five and a half months old now. He has grown so much and has become such a cute little guy. For the first four months of his life, he seemed to cry a lot. We couldn't put him down without him crying within a few minutes. I could hardly get anything done. He always wanted to be held. While I was in Utah, my sister talked to me about Sam's symptoms such as his dry cough, his arching back in the middle of the night, sleeping on his stomach, and his need to always be held. The biggest symptom was that he cried every time we drove in the car. He would scream like crazy. On our five hour drive to Michigan in August, I had to ride the entire trip in the backseat to try to keep him happy. My sister's boys have all had reflux, and she pointed it out that it sounded similar to what she had gone through. I had never put all the symptoms together, but at his four month appointment I decided to ask the pediatrician. The doctor decided to try putting him on a medication called Axid. In the month that he's been on it, we've noticed that he seems like a much happier baby. His crying has greatly decreased, especially in the car. He's all smiles now and I feel guilty it took me so long to realize that reflux was the problem.

He is such a snuggler. He loves to be rocked and wants to be rocked to sleep most nights and for naps. I am trying to teach him to go to sleep on his own in the crib, but he fights it so I end up getting him out of the crib and holding him until he falls asleep. Not the greatest habit, but I enjoy snuggling and holding him. He is already growing up too fast!
He's such a happy, smiley baby now. I've been told several times that he is such a flirt, giggling and smiling at the people behind us at church. He seems to think he is pretty funny because several times, he'll start laughing for no particular reason. He'll giggle stop, then start giggling again. It's pretty funny.

He is fascinated by Ainsley and Daddy. Whenever they are in the room, he will follow them like a hawk and watch their every move. He smiles and laughs at everything they do. He loves it when Ainsley plays with him and she is such a good big sister. She sits and plays with him on the ground. The other day I heard him laughing and walked in the room to find her sitting on him. When I yelled at her to get off him, she said, "But he likes it, look he's laughing." I had to explain that even though he may be laughing at it, it is not good to sit on him, he can get hurt. Poor kid.

Milestones:
4 Month Appt.
8/10/11
Weight 16 lbs 4 oz.
Height 26 1/4 inches
Head 16 7/8

5 Month Appt.
9/8/11
Weight-17 lbs. 3 oz
Height-27 1/4 inches
Head-17 1/4

He's been rolling front to back, and back to front since about four months. We have always swaddled him since he was born, when he was barely four months old I went in to check on him at night and noticed he was face down. It freaked me out, and I immediately flipped him over. The next night he did the same thing. So we decided he was done being swaddled. Now he won't sleep on his back at all. I put him in the crib and within seconds he rolls to his tummy and stays there all night.

He is sitting up on his own now. His balance isn't the greatest and sometimes he'll lean too far forward and then he can't get himself back upright or he'll tip over completely.

He is just learning to hold his own bottle. He can feed himself for a few minutes, which is really nice. He struggles keeping it titled high enough to keep the milk flowing, but he is beginning to catch on.

He has been eating solid foods for about a month now. He started on rice cereal, and now has had barley cereal and peas. He doesn't seem to like the peas very much yet. He has two meals of cereal a day and a meal of veggies. We are ready to start a new veggie this week.

This is how he sleeps every night, on his stomach with his hands tucked under his body.

He loves his musical sea horse, sleeps with it every night. Thanks Nikki!

Just learning to sit in the highchair at restaurants