4 months old

John is 4 months old today and had his appointment. He was a good boy for his shots - he only cried a little, but it always makes me cry too.

We stopped using the Zantac about a week ago after noticing that John seemed to be agitated and have trouble sleeping about 4 hours after taking it. Sure enough, when I called the pharmacy, the side effects include agitation and insomnia. Perfect for your baby, right?!?!

The doctor seemed pleased about how he was doing on just Prevacid, and we adjusted his dosage for his weight. He's 17.5 pounds (90%) and 26 inches (90%). At least he is proportional now, last time he was 95% and 50%!

I also talked to him about John's sleeping. It has definitely been better since dropping the Zantac, but I wanted to know what the doctor thought was normal. He said that a 6 hour stretch is considered sleeping through the night, and anything after that is just gravy. I thought that was really interesting.

Then I told him that John isn't quite there yet, most nights he only goes 5 to 5 1/2 hours. It could be the pacifier or it could be hunger. The doctor recommended that we start solids to help him with his reflux and sleeping. The rice cereal in his bottle is doing wonders for his reflux by thickening the formula, but isn't really calorically enough for him, so we'll start yellow veggies this week.

He also had a middle-of-the-road suggestion regarding John's pacifier, since we're a little hesitant to let him cry for too long until the reflux is definitely under control. He suggested to let him fall almost all the way asleep with it, and then take it out just before he falls asleep. That way he can still soothe himself some, but won't expect it to be there when he wakes up. We'll give it until the end of September, if this doesn't work by then, I have a 4 day weekend that I'm going to use to go paci free!!

Then we had a helmet appointment. He goes in every week for adjustments. 2 weeks down, 4-6 to go! It was a busy day!

(New helmet pics posted in our online photo album)