All he does is eat and sleep....

Ethan is 2 weeks shy of 5 months.  I don't think he is going through another growth spurt..... I guess it's possible.  What used to be 8-10 minute feedings has now turned into 15-20 minute feedings.  My thoughts are:  Growth spurt, decrease in milk supply (aka regulated to what he needs, not 3x the amount he needs!), teething or learning to take more milk to go longer in between feedings.  Or maybe he just wants to eat!

Thankfully we have gotten back to his regular night time sleeping patterns.  Bed by 7:30 or 8:00 (tonight was 7pm), wakes at 3:30am and then at 6:30am and 8:30am.  He seems to be losing one nap but sleeping longer in the afternoon (bonus!).  Today for example, he slept 1 hour, fed for 30 minutes, fell back asleep for another hour.  Then two 40 minute naps in the morning (around 10am) and in the afternoon (around 4pm).  I'm so happy we have a sleeper.  I got scared when he wasn't wanting to sleep last week!

Vomiting has become less as well, which makes me think my milk is decreasing/losing my overactive let down... either that or he is tolerating it better.  I think he will be a permanent bib baby but the less puking the better for me!

Other than that we have been having great days.  He is learning so much and interacting so much more.  He is getting heavy to hold (almost 15 lbs), so it's nice that he likes to play independently or just not in our arms.  But don't worry, we still have LOTS of cuddle time :)

We are on no bottles at home now.  It's wonderful.... no bottle cleaning and pumping maybe once a day.  Again - a great thing.  I do just enough to stock up my freezer supply.  We still haven't really nursed in public - just at our parents houses.  I don't have an issue with it, but the opportunity hasn't come up.  I know I am still going to have to bring a bottle with me just to be "safe" but I think it will go okay.

As you can see from these photos, EVERYTHING goes into this little boys mouth lately.  Tonight was especially bad, along with a bit of crankiness.  So I'm pretty sure he is teething.  Thank goodness for Highland's Teething Tabs because they seem to help him.  Almost instantly, within a few minutes, he stops chomping on his fingers (or mine!) and calms down.  There are some natural herbs in the tabs as well (Chamomile) to help calm him from the pain.

Tomorrow we have a fun day visiting some friends and Sunday, we will be joining these same friends for Earth Day at Malden Park.  It should be fun.  Ethan loves nature and kids, so there will be lots of that going on!  I'll be sure to take photos and post them!  (My friend who is going is also a photographer so I'm sure she will have some great shots too if she brings her camera).  Now it's time to finally start re-scrapbooking Ethans book (I'm redoing it because I am not happy with what I did previously - it was very "slapped together" and he deserves more than that!