Movin' and Groovin'

Cayden will be five months adjusted age tomorrow.  I haven't had a whole lot to report here lately:  he has been eating and sleeping well and there haven't been any major events.  I think we've even managed to overcome his aversion to napping in his crib, finally!  He takes one good, long nap from late morning to early afternoon, then usually takes at least another one in the late afternoon and/or early evening.  Being able to put him down in his crib and get SOMETHING done has been so nice!

In the past few days, Cayden has found his feet.  He loves playing with them with his hands and using them to kick at toys and stuff while laying on his back. 

Speaking of laying on his back, he seems to have decided that he doesn't care much for being on his back anymore and has been rolling over to his tummy on his own a lot lately.  Over the past couple of months, he had been rolling from his tummy to his back (which is easier and usually comes before back to tummy), but he didn't do it very much.  Now, he's all about rolling to his tummy!  He's even doing it while sleeping, which is sort of concerning with all of the warnings about putting baby "back to sleep" and wanting them to sleep on their backs to lessen the chance of SIDS.  I talked to the nurse at our pediatrician's office today and she assured me that if he has the strength and head control to roll onto his tummy, then he should have the ability to move his head so that he can breathe while he's sleeping.  I sure hope so!

My days of pumping breast milk may be coming to an end very soon.  One week ago, I went to bed with a slight buzz in my right ear.  Three hours later, I woke up to pump at 2:30 in the morning and could not hear anything out of that ear.  I went to see an ENT specialist that day and started a course of three steroid injections into the eardrum as well as an oral dose for three weeks.  While my lactation consultant assured me it was safe to take steroids while nursing, I'm not so sure my body agrees.  Within one day of starting the oral medication, my milk production dropped about in half, to the point where I'm barely producing enough to make one bottle's worth of milk for Cayden in an entire day.  I think it's my body's way of telling me to stop pumping, and as much as I hate to give it up, I think it's inevitable.  So I will be dropping a pumping session every few days and within a couple weeks, I think I'll be done.  It sucks, but it will be nice to have those extra hours back in my life, and now maybe I can start making up for the past eight months of sleep deprivation!