Friday, February 25, 2011

Ava is 4 months today


Ava weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds, 9 ounces today at her four month wellness check at the pediatricians. She is consistent with her head growth as well, so she's literally just growing up. If we were to look at her corrected age, she'd be off the charts (over the 100th % in growth). This is great news for us. As a result of her weight gain, we've been given the green light to change from her premature fortified formula to regular formula, which will hopefully help in her digestion. She has major colic. The Dr. noted that she doesn't have preemie head (aka "toaster head") and in fact her head is quite shapely. Usually preemies will favor one side to sleep on and their head will become flat on that side. You know why she doesn't have any flat areas? Because I am CONSTANTLY holding this child. Which brings me back to her colic. She has a really hard time processing everything, so while she will suck down a bottle in record time, she will spend at least an hour suffering from her feeding. Once the formula has been digested for the most part, she'll then start grunting and groaning while it works its way through her intestines. And just when she's starting to get settled, it's feeding time again. This is particularly hard in the middle of the night. It results in very little sleep for us all. I really hope the new formula will make a difference with this, because I am running out of options with trying to find a place that Ava will sleep. I've found that she sleeps best on me. I don't sleep best with her sleeping on me, but this is usually the result after hours of holding the pacifier in her mouth with one hand, stroking her head with the other, and whispering "shhhhhh" in her ear. For hours on end. And when I slowly remove everything, she'll look peaceful for about 5 seconds and then start to grimace and then wail, and it starts over again. I'm not sure why she'll sleep peacefully for moderate stretches during the day. Anyway, we'll survive this. And I have coffee to lean on until then.

1 comment:

Betsy said...

Oh do I feel your pain! I never understood why Addy's favorite place to sleep was on my chest either. Hopefully the new formula will help and she's "grow" out of this soon!