Austin – Month 5
Austin has hit the 5-month mark and it feels like a lot has happened in the last month or so. We’ve been back to the hospital for some tests and it turns out that he has a mild case of renal reflux. This is where his urine can flow back into his kidneys. We don’t know much about it apart from what we’ve read, but we do have a follow-up appointment with our consultant very soon, so hopefully we can find out more about it.
For the time being, we’ve been asked to keep him on his antibiotics. That is to protect him should he get another infection. The last thing anyone wants is for him to damage his kidneys and then this to cause him problems in later life. Luckily he doesn’t seem to be having any side effects on the antibiotics, apart from not being a fan of taking them. But it is only once a day and we have to just get on with it.
Sleeping
Austin has been sleeping really well the last few nights. He did go through a bit of a blip for about a week where he was waking up super early (4.15am ish) and generally would only go back off towards 6.30ish, which was pretty tiring for me as he’s a very chatty baby when he wakes up. But most of the time this doesn’t happen now and if he does wake up early doors, he generally goes back to sleep quite quickly. I’m guessing that this was a very mild sleep regression which everyone talks about at 4 months. I feel like we got away lightly.
He took quite well to the clocks changing, and there was minimal disruption to his patterns. His naps have moved to about ¾ of an hour later in the day, which actually now I’ve got used to this seems to work a bit better. He’s also regularly sleeping for longer at lunchtime, which allows me to get some housework done and do some blogging. He seems to be going a bit longer between his morning and lunchtime naps too. His normal nap routine is –
Morning nap – 9am – 9.30am
Lunchtime nap – 12:30pm – 2/2:30pm
Afternoon nap – 4:30pm – 5pm
He’s been going down really well in the evening too. We can pop him in bed, after his bath and bottle with a goodnight kiss and he’ll chat for a few minutes to himself and then fall asleep. We rarely get tears before bed at all these days, which is lovely as I hate the thought of him going to sleep unhappy.
If we are out and about, he will pretty much guaranteed fall asleep in the car, so I just adjust his naps accordingly.
He now sleeps until about 6am from 7pm, which is great.
Feeding
We’ve dropped the dream feed. We noticed he didn’t seem to be that hungry in the morning and wouldn’t finish his bottle. So one night we decided to see what time he would wake up for a feed, rather than dream feeding. He didn’t wake up until the next morning, so we tried it for a few days and he hasn’t woken up for it once. He also now pretty much finishes his morning feed, which he gets at 7am.
He now has 9oz bottles, which means we’ve had to buy bigger bottles, but he only has 4 feeds a day. 7am, 11am, 3pm and 7pm. I did debate with myself at first if that was enough milk, but he nearly always leaves ½ an ounce or so in each bottle and he doesn’t cry out of hunger so I feel like he’s drinking enough.
Nappies
He’s now moved on so size 3 nappies during the day and overnight. They fit really well and we haven’t had any leaks, especially since we’ve dropped the dream feed. My washing load has eased immensely!
Mental Development
He’s still thoroughly enjoying his baby classes and until recently he was only ever noticing the adults. Now he looks at the other babies too. He loves looking at people and I think he’s going to be a real people person.
I’ve noticed that he now smiles at strangers a lot more. I think he’s worked out if smiles at people, they talk to him and smile back. He used to only glare at people, now he’ll smile at pretty much anyone.
He’s a very chatty baby and he mimics the tones of our voices. We’ve had a couple of sounds which were tonally perfect for the words we spoke to him. One was a ‘hiya’ and the other was a ‘wow’ at the fireworks. I’m really looking forward to him chatting away more, as I think he’s got a lot to say.
Physical Development
We haven’t had any teeth pop through yet. The dribbling has continued but he has seemed less grizzly over the last few weeks, which makes me think we haven’t had as much teeth movement.
He started to sit up (aided) which I think is a welcome and refreshing change for him. I think he was getting bored laying on playmats or in his cot and he wants to see more around him. He only needs light support at the bottom of his back and he has great control of his head. We’ve bought a highchair and we’re going to try him in this shortly. He likes sitting in the newborn seat on the highchair, so I’m hoping he’ll like his highchair.
I’m going to swap the pram part of his buggy for the stroller seat which I think he will really like as he can’t see much out of his pram. It’s a little early as he won’t quite be six months, as the recommendation, but I don’t really have a choice.
He’s so tall for his age, he’s completely outgrown his pram – both his head and feet touch the ends. Our stroller attachment doesn’t lay flat, but I’m not going to buy another stroller just to use for a month. He’s got great head control and a strong back, so I think he’ll be fine and I can use my sling as well. He can now go front facing in the sling which I think will be great for his nosiness.
Keep posted for the next update. There will be a lot in that one including weaning as he will have hit the 6-month mark. Both my husband and I are really looking forward to that and I’ve just started making and freezing purees in preparation for this milestone.
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