Micah, the traveling gnome

Have you ever seen those commercials with the traveling gnome? The one that is taken all over the world and people snap vacation photos of the gnome, as if it had a clue that it was on vacation? Well, we officially made Micah our traveling gnome last night. Our traveling sleeping gnome.

Last night for dinner, Micah, Mommy, Daddy and Grammy went to downtown Disney. We ate dinner at Fulton’s Crab House and then wandered around to see the sights. We went in and out of a few art stores, then off to Lego Land. Micah posed for quite a few pictures . . . sound asleep and oblivious. We took a shot of Micah with a Lego bull dog!

After taking on the Loch Ness Monster, Micah was feeling a bit adventuresome, so in we went to the Disney store. Micah felt like trying on some hats . . . or at least, Micah’s Daddy felt like taking pictures of him in a bazillion different hats:

On the way out, we stopped off for some candy apples:


Micah appears to be enjoying his trip to Disney from the pictures . . . although I’m not sure he has opened his eyes at any of the sights!

All in all, we’re doing well. We’re still having some feeding challenges, and I’m feeling a bit out of sorts because I don’t have the scale here to tell me how things are going. He is latching really well, but I’m not sure he is getting enough off the breast each feeding. Sometimes he seems to do really well, and others . . . . not so much. He also sometimes does seem really hungry and the breast does not satisfy him, so we do need to supplement with pumped breast milk at least a few times during the day. Some days, we run out of pumped breast milk, so then we also need to supplement with formula, but we’ve only had to give him about 1-2 ounces max when this happens.

I do think we might be dealing with a case of acid reflux. He does appear to be developing hunger cues! He has been waking up and crying when he is hungry, which is nice for a change. Of course, last night, we couldn’t get him to wake up to eat for almost 7 hours. I fed him at 5:00, and he slept through his 8:00 feeding completely. I got him to wake up and nurse for about 5 minutes at 10:00, and then he finally took a more normal feed at 12:00. He zonked out after that and didn’t wake up until almost 6:00 this morning. I fed him then, and he dozed a bit and was ready to eat again at 8:00 am. He was again kind of sleepy for the 11:00 feeding, but he did get hungry again around 1:00. He woke up, I nursed him on one side for about 10 minutes, and then he fell into an unconscious stupor. I decided to pump to leave more milk for my mom, and wouldn’t you know it, he woke up while I was pumping, shrieking for milk!! We ended up feeding him everything in a bottle, and back to sleep he went.

Our latest feeding challenge is a bit of acid reflux. Micah is not a cranky or crying baby, but he does appear to be refluxing too much – he sometimes does it while he is eating and it causes him to choke. He has been making these odd grunting/wheezing/congested noises for about a week, and I’m fairly certain it is reflux. We definitely cannot lay him flat after eating or he is very uncomfortable (and starts spitting up a bit too much). The grunting/wheezing/congested noises seem to happen most after feedings. I think he’ll probably need some Zantac, but I do not think the doctor will prescribe it over the phone. I should probably call and talk to them tomorrow – the earliest I could go in would be on Monday.

Well, I’m off to do more conference stuff, and tonight we are going to take the traveling Micah gnome around Disney for more pictures. Friday night we plan to drive to Sarasota/Long Boat Key to visit DH’s aunt and uncle. Wish us luck on our presentations and meetings!