I am NOT going down this road again...

We had Failing to Thrive issues with Micah. It was a nightmare. You can read about it here. Basically, he had weak cheeks. No, I'm not making that up. So he wouldn't drink very much, because he would get tired. But then he was still hungry, but too tired to suck. And then he wouldn't nap, because he was hungry. So no naps and no food for four months. He was a skeleton. An occupational therapist finally figured out what was going on and got me some specialized bottle nipples. She also had me do this thing where I fed Micah for ten minutes, and he rested for half an hour. Then fed for ten minutes, then rested for half an hour. Around the clock. It was exhausting, but it bulked him right up. However, because of those first nightmarish four months, he is still approximately four months behind in every milestone. He's had occupational and developmental therapy ever since he was four months old. And he still struggles with certain kinds of foods. Stuff that is crunchy (a.k.a. carrots, celery, etc.) or exceedingly chewy (licorice, beef jerky) is difficult for him. He often pockets those kinds of foods in his cheeks.

Gage and I had a WIC appointment on Friday. He was supposed to be measured and weighed, and I was totally excited. I thought, Oh, I can totally tell he's grown. No more failure to thrive business for us, no siree.

They weighed him, and he weighs one pound less than he should right now. (He weighs nine pounds, 13 ounces. He's three months old.)

Sigh. Not again...

Here's what I think is going on. He was always a bit of a spitter-upper, but he wasn't projectile vomiting like Dylan had as a baby, so I thought it wasn't that bad. He got the flu a month ago, and he had diarrhea and more spitting up that week. His diarrhea cleared up, but his spit-up has been crazy bad ever since that week. He was soaking like three burp cloths per feeding, but I thought, "Oh, it always looks like way more milk coming up than it really is."

Well, apparently, more is coming up than is being kept in. I know this time it's not a weak suck - he sucks those bottles down in fifteen minutes flat. So that's a relief. The WIC lady asked how many ounces I'm giving Gage, and how many feedings in a 24-hour period, so I told her, and she said that should be plenty of food for him. She suggested that we try that specialized formula that Similac makes, called Alimentum. I told her that Dylan drank that, and that it really helped him with his projectile vomiting. She gave us some checks to get one month's worth of Alimentum, to see if it helps. If it seems to be helping, we need to get a note from Gage's pediatrician saying that Alimentum is a medical necessity, and then WIC will continue to pay for it. Which is a dang good thing, because one teeny tiny little can of Alimentum is $25, my friends.

We are going to nip this thing in the bud. No more skeleton babies. Operation Chub Up Gage is underway.

And so far, the Alimentum seems to be helping A LOT. He hardly spits up at all anymore. He stinks now, though, which is sad. His breath and face and body smell like instant potato flakes. And his poop... ugh. Don't even get me started. Toxic. Nasty. I don't remember Dylan being so stinky on that stuff. But today, when I asked Nat and Pete if Dylan had been stinky, they said, without hesitation, "Oh yeah. He stunk." Sad. But I'll take a stinky chubby baby over a sweet-smelling, failure-to-thrive skeleton baby any day.

So that's our situation right now. Let's move on to something more pleasant. Pictures of him! He's soooo cute.

Gage with my momma:

Deep Thoughts by Gage:

He has the best smile ever. It looks just like Dylan's smile:

He is such a lover:

Look at those luscious lips:

His big barrel chest. All of my kids are barrel-chested:

Could he be any cuter? Nope.