Graham: 4 & 5 Months

Graham's very favorite pose, appropriately titled in the yoga world, happy baby pose. . . perfect, for our happy little baby.

I better get this post up fast because soon our Graham will be 6 months! My return to work has obviously made spare time a little harder to come by! While I didn't get my stuff together earlier enough to do a 4 month post and a 5 month post at the appropriate times I will be backdate these post with the things I know and remember about our sweet boy in the last few months.

Graham at 4 months

• Graham's stats were:height 26 cm (70%), weights 16 pounds 5 ounces (57%) and head circumference 44.8 cm (99%, note that he is now actually on the chart in head size).

• His hair is blondish, but still not sure if it is going to be white blond like Grady, strawberry blond, or dark blond.

• His eyes are still a mystery too.  If I had to call them something, I think I would call them hazel leaning towards green.  Some days they look blue, some days, green, and some days gray.  

• I refer to him as Mr. Happy Pants because he really is one of the most smiley babies I have ever seen.  He lights up our world every single day with his sweet little grin and contagious giggle. 

• I was a little worried about his development because before 4 months he could hardly lift his head up.  We blamed it on his big head (see above), but I was secretly a little worried.  Then, like clockwork at 4 months exactly he learned how to lift his big old head up!

• At his 4 month check-up, the Dr. noted that he had a tooth.  I acted like I'd noticed, but I really had no clue.  His second tooth grew in shortly after.  Those gummy smiles left us far too soon! What baby gets teeth at 4 months?!?!?

• Along with the teeth came the drool.  Graham can soak a shirt in 2 minutes flat.

• He was making good progress about sleeping through the night until I went back to work.  Once I went back to work, he decided that he and I needed a meet up at 3:00 a.m. every night.

• He loves the baby in the mirror and having his little neck kissed.  He erupts in the sweetest little giggle ever. 
• He found his toes and especially likes to put them in his mouth when naked.  We pull off wet socks from his all the time and look at each other and ask, "How did his socks get wet?" only to realize that he has been sucking on them
• He learned to roll over from tummy to back.
• He is in 9 mos clothes and quickly outgrowing them.

Here are some shots of sweet Graham baby at 4 months.

My favorite picture of him to date, taken at 4 months to the date.

He is so content, he will just fall asleep in his little chair.

My ski lodge buddy, while Grady tried out his skis.

The beginiings of his head being up!

Visiting dad's work.

Cool dude taking his first ride as a big boy.

His cousins LOVE him.

 

Graham at 5 months.

• He eats real food, well baby food.  He has tried pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, and rice cereal.  He is a good and extremely messy eater!  He now weighs in at 17.7 lbs on the Johnson scale.
• His hair is fuzzy.  Especially the day after a bath, he has the cutest little duck fuzz going on. He doesn't have much hair but certainly more than Grady did, but that really isn't hard to beat. 
• He started sleeping through the night again - Knock on wood!   Sometimes he wakes up and just babbles in his crib happy little noises, but most nights lately he has been able to put himself back to sleep.
• He refuses to lay on the ground on his back.  He automatically rolls over to his tummy, but hasn't learned to scoot or how to roll back over so gets "stuck" and frustrated.
• He is still so sweet and easy going.  If he catches anybody's eye, he'll share the biggest smile.
• In the bath he just kicks constantly.  I don't think he likes it, but he doesn't really cry much ever so he just kick kick kicks until we get him out.
• He handled his first 4 hour car ride like a champ.  We didn't even need to stop once on the way home.
• He is officially in the "I want to put that in my mouth" stage with everything he can get his hands on and if you get a hand near him he will pull your fingers in and leave you covered in his drool.
• He  now loves to stand with us holding him up.   He doesn't seem as physically advanced as Grady, but I think part of this is just that he is a more content baby who is not in a rush to move on to the next thing.  It is a nice change up. 

Here are some shots of Graham at 5 months

Morning cuddles

 He now reaches for the Bells and seems to notice her when she is around.

Getting ready for his first feast!

Favorite pose

Sweetest pic 

My second favorite photo.  He freely gives smiles all the time. So so happy.

Making friends with Sophie the giraffe.

And for the brotherly comparison, you can read about Grady at 4 months and Grady at 5 months.  Below are some comparison pictures.

Grady at 4 months.

Graham at 4 months.

Grady at 5 months.

We also received some disappointing news about sweet baby Graham in early February.  He was sick with what ended up being RSV and when I took him to be seen at a clinic on a weekend, the urgent care doctor pointed out an abnormality in his sternum where his sternum grows inward a bit forming what I can only describe a bowl at the base of his sternum. I didn't think much of it because Graham had been seen by 4 pediatricians since birth and none had mentioned it.  But then I looked it up later that night and my heart absolutely sank.  It is called Pectus Excavatum and is a fairly common and typically hereditary birth defect.  I waited until his 4 month appointment to ask his pediatrician about it but I read every piece of information that I could get my hands on about it before that appointment (both a blessing and a curse, but probably more of a curse).  What it comes down to is that this is an abnormality that can be a cosmetic deformity at best.  At worst, it could impact his heart and lungs and his ability to participate in physical activities.  The defect will likely grow worse as he gets older, but nothing can be done until he hits puberty because growth spurts can trigger the worsening of the defect.  If it is severe or impacts him physically (or frankly even emotionally), he'll likely have surgery.  The surgery is significant and would involve putting two bars across his sternum for a period of two years.  It is unfortunately a painful procedure with a lengthy recovery. Science is changing quickly and new technologies are being developed to deal with this defect all the time.  We have an appointment with a local specialist at the end of this month to speak about the recent developments and to establish a baseline for Graham.  It is never easy to hear unexpected news about your baby.  I wish that there was a quick fix and that we wouldn't have years of waiting to see how this will all play out, but I am sure we will get through this just like many families do who are dealt much more difficult circumstances.  We'll continue to count our blessings and work to raise two confident boys who accept their own differences and the differences of others and hope that somehow this will have a silver lining that we'll discover along the way.

Before this all happened, our nanny would tell me every day that there is just something special about Graham and you know what, there really is.  Yeah he is "special" because he has this abnormality, but  there is also just something inexplicably wonderful and unique about him. He is destined for great things, whatever they may be. I am sure he'll take this all in stride and teach his old mom some things along the way.  If you are curious about more information, you can learn more by clicking here and here.