Four Months!

It’s official.  E has turned four months old!  I can’t believe how much my life has changed over these last four months, but I can tell you that I wouldn’t change anything.  E is so precious to Hubsters and me.  We love him so much.

Growing

In only a few short months, E has gone from a newborn to a full-fledged, growing baby boy.  It is amazing to see him grow and change and learn new things.  And when I say grow, I really mean grow.  At birth, E was just under 7 pounds and about 19 inches long.  The last “informal” measurements that Hubsters and I did at home E was a smidge over 15 pounds and 24 inches long!  He has gone from drinking 1-2 ounces of formula at each feeding to guzzling down 6 ounces at each feeding.  And he burps…like a man!  At four months he wears 6 month size clothing and there is no end to his growing in sight!  So much more has happened in the last four months…here are just a few highlights:

Smiles

At 8 weeks, E started to smile.  He is a very smiley baby and smiles all the time.  He especially lights up when Hubsters comes home from work and has Daddy-time with him.  E loves it!  He just smiles and smiles and smiles.  He also loves to smile at the quilt that we have hanging on his wall.  It has a rocking horse on it that is many different colors.  He just looks at it and grins, which is great, except when I’m trying to feed him, because he would rather smile than eat.  So I have to turn him in the opposite direction when I feed him in the nursery so he doesn’t get distracted.  I love to see him smile.  It makes me smile.  It warms my heart to know that I can make him smile.  Now we’re just waiting on that first laugh.

Sleeping

Not only is he smiling, but he is also sleeping though the night!  There was some magical moment when he hit 13 weeks that he decided he could sleep for 9-10 hours without needing to eat.  This has been wonderful for me now that I am able to get a full night’s sleep.  With the exception of a few days here or there, he has been really consistent with his night time sleep.  Naps, on the other hand, are not his favorite.  He is at the point he is too old for his eating and sleeping every three hour routine, but not quite old enough to go every four hours.  So I try to stretch him out to every 3.15 or 3.30 hours, but some days it just doesn’t work.  He doesn’t fuss too much when I put him down for a nap, but it’s the staying asleep part that he has trouble with sometimes.

We have also successfully broken E from his swaddle!  He went from using his miracle blanket to using a Halo sleep sack.  The switch in swaddles was due mainly to the fact that E grew so much that he didn’t have enough leg room in the miracle blanket.  His legs hit the bottom and he was uncomfortable.  So at the suggestion of my friend Jenn, we switched.  E has loves his Halo sleep sack and it has helped us make the transition to not being swaddled a good one.  Now it’s a happy night sleep for all!

Play Time

E is also awake for longer stretches.  He can go about 1.5-2 hours before he starts to get grumpy and yawn (his signal that he needs a nap).  He is a joy to play with.  He has started to unfurl his hands and grasp at toys that are in hanging in front of his face.  He has also started to try to hit his toys and swats at them to make them swing.  We’re still working on those grabbing skills, but he’s getting there.

Tummy time is improving!  He no longer screams his head off, but will enjoy tummy time for 15 minutes before getting fussy.  I think it’s because he can see the world in new way.  He is very strong and holds his head up well.  He has also discovered that he can roll over from his tummy to his back.  He has done it on his own, but seems to forget how from day to day.  Some days he rolls over, and other days he just lays there until I roll him over.  We’re working on it!  Before you know it, he will be rolling all over the place.  Along with his continued fascination with kicking, he has learned that he can stand and push himself up.  He can’t do it on his own, but if I hold him up and give him the balance support, he will stand on his own.  He LOVES it!  He looks all around him and is using that stepping reflex to learn to move those legs in the right direction.  While it will be exciting when he learns to walk, we have to learn to crawl first.

E likes to talk.  Not that I know what he is saying, but he is very verbal.  He just babbles away and seems to make new sounds every day.  I tried to capture it on camera, but every time he sees the camera he becomes quiet…I guess he might be camera shy?  Here is the best one I’ve captured.

Other Neat Things

In just four moths E has visited 10 states and the District of Columbia!  That’s what happens when you do a Virginia to Maine road trip.  In in case you are geographically challenged, here are the states he hit on the trip:  Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and the District of Columbia.  Soon we will add North Carolina to that list when we go visit Hubster’s aunt and her family.

One thing that made Maine a great visit was the opportunity for E to meet his great-grandmother, who passed away a week later.  It was beautiful to see Grandma meet her great-grandson and to have four generations together in one room. 

It has been a wonderful 4 months.  Motherhood is great and exhausting all at the same time.  I never thought I would be satisfied to spend hours upon hours just looking at my son and marveling at him, but I do.