I was wrong

I think any other time that I’ve chalked Brady’s change in behavior up to a growth spurt, I was wrong. Either that or they’ve all been growth spurts and each one has it’s own unique set of indicators.

Friday didn’t seem like Brady was acting too differently than normal. In retrospect, it was just a preview of things to come. She followed her normal routine but started refusing the bottle and then fussing because she was still hungry. I’d nurse her and that seemed to satisfy her. She wasn’t doing this at every feeding but it did happen more than once.

Saturday morning my mom came over bright in early (before 7) to watch Brady so we could get some sleep. Brady had already nursed twice before she got here and then took a bottle for her. Around 10:30 my mom brought Brady upstairs so she could nurse again. She seemed to eat on her usual schedule but she started taking less and less from the bottle when offered to her and only wanting to nurse. Now don’t get me wrong, I want her to breastfeed but I also enjoy that other people can help feed her too (like in the morning when Casey lets me sleep in after getting up with Brady all night or my mom or whoever).

Today is what made me start thinking she was going through a growth spurt. She was up three times before 7 and could not seem to eat enough. I’d put her down and she’d sleep for just a little while and then be up again ready to eat and fuss when she wasn’t actively eating. Casey got her to take between 2 and 3 ounces when he first brought her downstairs but she started crying again around 10 but would only take an ounce from the bottle so he brought her upstairs to nurse. This was the story of our day. I offered her two more bottles throughout the day today but it was the same kind of deal – the most she would eat was around 2 ounces and then she’d want to nurse. I did manage to get her vitamins in her so at least that’s something (the stuff looks and smells pretty nasty so I mix it with .5ml of milk to dilute it some). Then she’d sleep for only an hour or two and be up again to eat. All day long when she was starting to sleep for 4 hour stretches at a time.

Even this evening after she was done eating she fell asleep when I was burping her. We decided we should probably go to bed while she was asleep so I put her in her basinette and went back downstairs to get the rest of our stuff for the night prepared. Casey made it up there a few minutes before me and she was already awake and making her sucking face no more than 30 minutes after I finished feeding her the last time. Now she just finished nursing on and off for the last hour and a half (she threw up once during that time period so it was like starting all over again).

Does this sound like a growth spurt to you? Does it sound like she’s sick (she’s had more boogers than usual, is sneezing more than usual, has red eyes)? I’ve been thinking it’s allergies because the weather is starting to warm up and pollen counts are extremely high according to weather.com and I’ve been feeling my allergies act up too. I’ve checked her fever several times and she’s running perfectly normal so I just don’t know. Hopefully this is just a short term thing and things go back to normal because today has been pretty exhausting.

All of that aside, Casey made BBQ for the first time this year. He felt he needed to make it up to his stomach for subjecting it to the crappy BBQ we had on Thursday. My parents came over and joined us for some (3 full slabs) of tasty ribs, baked beans, fried okra, and chocolate chip cookies (I didn’t have time to make a cobbler). It was so much better than any of the restaurants around here and was cheaper too! He told us that brisket will be his next conquest.