Five Months Old

Hard to believe that Rosebud is 5 months old already! She was scheduled for a well-check, but I ended up calling and telling the office that both she and Little Monkey Man would be going in instead for a sick call. They both have bronchitis. Poor babies!


Rosebud the day she was born!
At her visit, she weighed in on their scale at 14.6 lbs. As I've said before, they weigh her fully clothed, but at home on the scale we've used since birth, she is 13.12-naked as a jaybird. Her length is 25 inches, same as what I had. She is still in the 50th % for both her length and head size, but has dropped in the weight percentile...50th to 35th.

One Month
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that my milk supply was low. She is perfectly happy to go several hours between feedings-something I should have been more aware of. I was busy busy and not paying great attention to how many times a day she was nursing. She was developing fine, and always a smiley happy girl, but I wasn't happy with her weight gain. Not that she was wasting away mind you. She just wasn't growing as quickly as before, and for a few weeks this summer she was in that pattern.

Two Months

I started encouraging her to nurse more frequently and started pumping after each feeding. I did that for a week. I noticed my supply go way up and she also has gained more weight in the past two weeks than she had in the entire month prior.

Three Months

Note that I am neither a medical professional or a lactation consultant...but I am not a big fan of scheduling (nursing) babies with regimented feeding/sleeping/play schedules. I think that they are growing and changing so fast any sort of "by the book" regimen doesn't do them a great service. Sure, they may sleep through the night faster...but the longer they sleep at night, the lower your milk supply. Feeding at night helps keep your supply up because the more you use, the more you make.

With my boys, I am all about schedules-they function better on them. Technically Rosebud is on a schedule, because our family gets up, eats, plays, and goes to bed at the same times pretty much everyday. She is part of our family, so that naturally falls into her routine too. However, if she isn't ready for bed when the boys are, that is fine. And if she wants to nurse every hour in the morning, that is fine too (albeit a little frustrating-doesn't happen very often).

Four Months

Now that she is gaining better again, I am back to letting her signal when she is hungry...but part of that is keeping her close so I can notice her cues. She can be very subtle and usually isn't too demanding. When she is demanding, it is usually because I have waited too long or ignored her cues. I don't feed "on demand"...I feed before demand.

Today...Five Months Old!

Next week when she goes back in for her vaccine (we only do one at a time and they are W A Y spaced out) she will be weighed and charted. As long as she keeps on her same curve, I could care less what the average baby is doing. The fact that she dropped off her curve some isn't great, but I knew that was going to happen.

We'll see what happens...no matter what she is a sweetheart, developing well, and such a joy to have.