Chase'n Our Dreams: CJ at 5 Months Old

Five months ago, this little tiny baby was born. His survival was only given a 70% chance by the doctor. We've been blessed with 5 months of uncertainty, laughs, cries, smiles, but always love.

While CJ was born 5 months ago, he is more like a 2 month old....which he would be if he wasn't born 3 months premature. As a 5 month old, he is behind in the developmental milestones. As a 2 month old, he is right on target!

CJ still spends the majority of his time with Mommy and Lacey at home, in the living room. He remains on oxygen 24/7 but is only on the Apnea/Heart monitor at night. He has not had an Apnea episode since January 8th! His oxygen is on a flow of .25, but we are hoping that at his Pulmonary appointment on Friday he will graduate to only needing to be on oxygen at night time.

As far as weight and height, all I know for sure is that he has almost grown completely out of his 0-3 month clothing and is close to 12 pounds. He has his pediatrician appointment later this week so I'll update with the actual stats after that appointment.

As far as milestones are concerned, he is now sleeping through most of the night. He will take his last feeding around 9:30pm and sleep usually until 5/5:30 AM. We still have the occasional nights where he wakes up at 3 AM to eat, but he is a growing boy after all! He still is solely breast fed, with one bottle a day for his vitamins and his reflux medicine.

He is the most inquisitive baby....even more than his brother and sister. CJ will focus on something and scrunch up his face and eyebrows studying it with such intensity. Once he figures it out, he gets the biggest toothless smile and looks around for the next object to focus on. He is grabbing at and batting at toys, but they only keep his attention for a short period of time. He prefers to be up and looking around. Tummy time goes well as long as the surface he is doing it on is off of the ground. On the ground, there isn't too much to look at, but by raising him up, he lifts his head more due to more being at his line of vision. He is loving the Bumbo seat more and more as his strength is growing in his neck and core muscles. I imagine it is very dizzy sitting in the Bumbo when your head bobbles like a bobble head doll! Oh is smiles...light up his whole face! He is a very smiley baby, usually just catching his eye and saying a word to him will cause a fit of smiles. No real giggles yet, but those are coming close.

Oh this kid tries so hard to talk! He loves when I talk to him and studies the movement of my mouth. He tries to mimic these movements and gets so frustrated when he can't make the sounds come out. He will push with his whole body trying to make a noise.

I still keep him pretty tight under quarantine at our house. Clayton and Lacey have came down with a cold so I am even more strict than usual. It took days...months...to get this little miracle well enough to come home from the hospital and I will do everything I can to keep him from going back. His health and safety will always be the top priority.