Mmmmm....Thumb!!!!

Drew starving for attention and showing Kayley what this thumb thing is all about.

Kayley's favorite thumb.

Trying to wake Kayley up to eat late at night...it's not working too well.

Chris, Jenny, Macie, and Kayley

Kayley is 5 1/2 months old now. She is a very good baby. She sleeps through the night without any problems. We normally don't hear a peep from her between midnight and 7 or 8 am. And, I have a very hard time waking her up for her last feeding around 11:30 pm. There's a possibility she'd sleep from 9 pm to 8 am if we let her. Too bad we can't do that because we can't afford to have her miss another feeding during the day. The more calories we can give her during the day, the better.

Kayley loves her swing which makes Megan happy. She smiles a lot, talks quite a bit more, and is even starting to giggle a little bit. The biggest development since the last post though is that she has found her almighty thumb. At first we thought maybe she'd be a finger sucker because they generally made it to her mouth first, but as soon as she found her thumb that's all she goes after any more.

My last post mentioned that we changed bottles for Kayley and it seemed to do wonders. Well, that didn't last too long. I guess the newness wore off and Kayley got bored again. Feedings began to get hard and long again. She was taking about the same amount that she always had but it puts such a strain on us when a single feeding could take an hour or so. The trend has been somewhat upward since then so we're hopeful that she's getting better. She was taking an average of around 80 cc's 6 times a day. Now she's closer to the upper 80's. We're still a little concerned so we are planning on seeing a specialist to help determine what the problem is. Sometimes she just doesn't seem hungry and sometimes her suck is just really weak. Hopefully the specialist will be able to figure it out.

Kayley's last weight check was November 14. She weighed 11 lbs 4 ounces. That's between a 1/2 ounce to an ounce a day gain since the previous weigh in. It's good that she's gaining weight but her pediatrician would like to see it more consistently around the ounce a day range. Kayley is still in the bottom 3rd percentile for her actual age. She is between the 50th and 75th percentile for her adjusted age. The developmental nurse is coming again today so Kayley will be weighed again. Hopefully she gains a bunch.

We've had a number of visitors since the last post. Megan's college roommate and her family were in the area so they stayed with us a couple of days. The day before they left, Drew caught the flu. I was at the Monday Night Football game when it all started so Megan had to take care of him. Needless to say, she got it right away also. Kayley and I stayed as far away as possible because as you know, it would not be good for Kayley to get sick. That's why we don't take her out in the public much and try to keep her away from kids with runny noses and colds as much as possible. Thankfully, Kayley pretty much got through unscathed. She has had a touch of diarrhea but hasn't acted sick at all. Kayley also had her first Synagis shot on November 4. That will help protect her from RSV during RSV season. The shot works for 28 days. Our insurance company approved her for 5 shots so she'll receive one every month through March.

The next weekend, my brother Chris, his wife Jenny, and their daughter Macie came to visit. They brought more of Macie's clothes for Kayley. It's like Christmas for Kayley every time they send us a package or bring an extra suitcase full of Macie's clothes. Too bad all we did was give them some of the flu. Last I heard, Chris and Macie both came down with it.