20 weeks

Almost 5 months old! Can’t believe how fast the time has gone since Tate’s been home. It’s almost like none of it ever even happened (his time in the NICU), it seems like it was so long ago. Tate is growing and getting cuter every day! There have been several big changes in the last few weeks.


The biggest change for me these past few weeks has been that Tate is now exclusively nursing! Yeah! After his 4 month check up when the pediatrician said it was fine to quit bottles if we wanted, I started nursing him more during the day. After a week we had gotten to the point that he was only taking bottles at night. This worked well for me because I knew he was taking full bottles at night so I knew he was getting a set amount, plus I could make Jamie feed him some. :) We could tell it was causing some nipple confusion though because first, he started refusing his pacifier. Not a huge deal since he didn’t use it all that much and Hudson never took one either. Just means one less bad habit we have to break when he’s older! But he was also having a hard time switching back and forth from breast to bottle. But it was backwards from what I thought nipple confusion would be. Instead of having a hard time latching he started having a hard time taking the bottle. Worked for me, we just started nursing more. But I might have created a monster because last week, he totally refused the bottle Jamie was trying to feed him. We haven’t tried again since then. I’m sure we could eventually get him to take it but I am enjoying the breastfeeding right now (and Jamie is enjoying NOT having to feed Tate a bottle!).

The other big change that comes with the exclusive breastfeeding is less pumping! It’s wonderful. I am ready to pack the thing up and never look at it again but I am still having to pump about twice a day, since Tate doesn’t eat as much as I am producing. So in order to sleep at night, I usually pump before bed and then again in the morning after I feed him. Or sometimes at 5 am if I’m that uncomfortable! However, it is totally freaking me out that the fridge isn’t filled with milk anymore. I just have to keep reminding myself he is getting it direct from me and that’s why, but it’s weird to not have to do it anymore.

And another huge change is that for the last 3 nights Tate has been sleeping a 8-9 hour stretch! That has been nice, but worrisome. The doctor didn’t say anything at his 4 month checkup as to how long we could let him go in between eating. So the last time we had talked about it he said to not let him go more than 5-6 hours. Until this week he never did, so we weren’t sure this week if we should be waking him up or to just let him sleep. So that, combined with the fact that we started the exclusive breastfeeding we were worried about how much he’s actually eating, so today I took him in for a weight check. He’s up to 13 pounds 2 ounces. That’s a gain of 1 pound and 2 ounces in a little less than 3 weeks. The doctor said he was impressed with the weight gain and that the 8-9 hour sleeping stretch was fine – enjoy it! So we will.

I’m still a little concerned about his eating. He’s having plenty of wet diapers, and now I know he’s gaining weight but he doesn’t nurse for very long. Sometimes he only will nurse on one side and be done, sometimes it’s only for 7-8 minutes and then he’s done. I am assuming this means he is just a very efficient nurser. Hudson nursed forever, but I also think part of that was the fact I didn’t have another kid to take care of, so I had the luxury of sitting and reading for an hour while he nursed away. So I’m still worrying about it, but the weight gain did relieve some of the worry, plus he isn’t acting hungry in between nursing (he goes 2-3 hours between eating). So all should be fine. I’m just a worrier.

Tate is starting to talk and laugh more every day. He can hold his head up all on his own now and likes to be sitting up so he can see what’s going on. I think he’s getting close to being ready for the bumbo chair. He tries to pull himself up to a sitting position when he’s reclining. He loves watching Hudson and tracks him all around the room. He also smiles at him a lot. Hudson has a hard time not getting right up in his face and scaring him, but we’re working on that! One other thing I realized a few weeks ago is that his right ear now lays totally flat against his head like the left one! His eyes are still a light blue/grey color. I’m still waiting for them to change to brown but so far they haven’t. His eyelashes are starting to grow in and get long like Hudson’s. His hernia is looking even smaller now than it did a few weeks ago at his doctor’s appointment so I am still hoping it is gone for good.

Since it’s now April we are going to slowly start getting out of the house some. RSV season should be winding down, the weather’s warming up, hopefully the colds and coughs are going away – it is time to introduce our little man to the world!