Graham - 5 Months Old

Graham is now five months old and getting more and more fun every day.  He sits up on his own pretty solidly now.  He loves to play with toys (and by play, I mean drool and gnaw on).  He smiles all the time and loves to laugh at his big sister.

We had a rough patch in the middle of the month, where Graham's cold & cough morphed into trouble breathing.  His teacher from daycare called at 4:20 on a Friday and said he was wheezing.  Our pediatrician closes at 5:00, so I called and they said they would stay open for us.  I grabbed everything and left the office, picked up the kids, and got to the Dr right about 5:00.  We ended up staying there until 6:45.  Graham's oxidation levels were OK, but he was breathing a little more rapidly than they liked and definitely wheezing.  We did a dose of albuterol with the nebulizer, then another dose after that didn't work.  Then a third round with a stronger med and a dose of prednisone (steroid).  His breathing was finally better and we were sent home with the nebulizer and prescriptions for the albuterol and prednisone.  It was a pretty rough weekend, with some even rougher nights.  We took him Graham back on Monday and he was better but still needed the nebulizer on regular basis.  For those who don't know, a nebulizer is a machine that turns medication into a mist that can be breathed into lungs.  It has a little mask to hold over the nose and mouth.  As you can imagine, this is not the easiest thing to do to a 4 1/2 month old baby.  Sometimes Graham did fine with it (full belly, tired), but other times he was scream the entire 10 minutes of the treatment.  We learned it was best to wait until he was asleep and just hold the mask in front of his face then.  We took him back to the Dr again that Friday and he was much improved.  Another weekend of neb treatments twice a day and he was back to normal.  It may have been that enterovirus that has been going around, but they don't know unless they test for it.  We were lucky that it was not worse.

Other than that week, Graham is a happy little guy.  He still loves to be held and gets mad when you leave him alone for too long.  He even will grab your face and do the open-mouth "kisses"!

Here are some other random photos from the month:

Graham is only having formula now; the breastmilk is officially gone.  This was causing a bit of constipation in the little guy so the Dr said to start giving him solid foods, starting with pears or prunes.  So far we have tried pears, prunes, sweet potatoes, peaches, & apples and he has not been much a fan of anything. He is so interested in our food, always grabbing plates, that I have a feeling he will be a much happier finger food eater than baby food.

Graham has pretty good dexterity.  He holds the bottle himself and can even grab a pacific and (usually) put in back in his mouth if it falls out.

Some more videos: