Sweet Pea Corner: Month Four Update

Length: 26 inches (80th percentile)
Weight: 15.1 pounds (50th percentile)

It’s really noticeable now how far we’ve come from the first few weeks. Sweet Pea is getting so solid, alert and strong! We got a Bumbo so he can practice sitting up; it also gives him an excellent opportunity to spit up everything he’s had in the last 24 hours. The first time we put him in it, he started looking at the ground like he’d never seen it before! Now that he knows what it’s like, he is no longer content with laying back – even when he’s pretty much sitting up, he thrusts his head and arms forward like he’s trying to sit up straighter. He’s making the motions like he’s minutes away from rolling over, sitting up and crawling.

His body is chunking out big time now too and I love it! He’s got a cute little belly that pokes through anytime he wears a regular shirt. He looks like Winnie the Pooh. And the Bumbo is a bit of a tight fit around the thighs. His wrists and ankles are nonexistent – just a line where his arm/leg meets his chubby hand/foot. L-O-V-E IT! (I can’t believe he is only at the 50^th percentile for weight!) He is also smiling and talking up a storm. He’s at his most animated during the day, so Jess and I can't wait until the weekends, but he does share smiles in the morning and evening. He was talking up a storm at his doctor’s appointment - so much so the doctor and his staff heard him from outside the exam room. He also started smiling and giggling during his exam – such a sweetie.

As far as sleeping, he seems to be stuck at waking up at 4 am. We tried briefly skipping the 10 pm feeding since we have to wake him out of a deep sleep for it any way but that led us to feedings at 2 am and 5 am. One feeding during the night was much preferable, thank you very much. Occasionally we can get him back to sleep until 6 am, like we were doing before his cold but it doesn’t work every night. Yes, he had his first cold and, thankfully, it was minor – just congestion really but enough that he learned to hate the bulb suctioner. I still have bad memories of it myself so I don’t blame him! We going to start him on rice cereal soon so maybe that will help with the sleeping.

We, also, completed our first month of day care a la Aunt Rachael and it seems to be working out for everyone involved. Rachael was born a mother and it doesn’t seem to matter where the babies come from, she’ll love them as her own. Her husband also has a big heart for any and all kids and their own children are the sweetest in the world. I’m sure they get bored with the baby during the day but they’ve made a game out of begging me not to take him home every evening when I pick him up. Sweet Pea loves all the attention and often looks at us on the weekends like he's wondering where his entertainment is.

Sweet Pea, you’re becoming my little muscle man. You’ve got the strength and desire to start moving to your heart’s content, you just have to put a few things together and get those arms involved. Once you figure out your arms have a purpose other than grabbing things, you are going to be hard to contain. You still do not like baths but perform some sort of deep breathing exercise during them to get you through. Were you paying attention to that part of the labor and delivery class?

Your personality has really started to come through. You are so interested in all that is going on around you. You watch everything now with great concentration, furrowing your brows; we can almost see the wheels turning. You still utterly enjoy meal time but no longer cry when the bottle is removed from your mouth. We think you are starting to recognize that the bottle means food and you try to hold it while eating; you still grab tightly onto fingers though and I love that! And although your bottle is still your most coveted possession, you're now playing with your toys. Anything soft is your favorite - your owls, the monkey rattler or any old and stinky burp cloth. You love to put those over your face while you sleep like your dad does (he uses t-shirts, not burp cloths though, thankfully). Rattles are getting more fun to put in your mouth but nothing beats your fist. Your motto seems to be: why settle for a thumb when I can have all five fingers and my hand in there.

Smiling is still my favorite activity of yours. Getting you to smile is a great accomplishment for me. Your dad and I have a little competition going in my head to see who can make you smile the most. I'm the winner most days (if it is a competition in my head, I'm going to win) but it still melts my heart every single time. The funniest moment in the past month happened last week: your dad was holding you and you started fussing and crying one evening because you were tired. Your face is so cute when you cry that it makes me smile, then I started to laugh (not cool when you are seriously upset, I know, but I think I was a little loopy from being tired too). The more I laughed the harder you cried, until you broke into the hugest smile we've ever seen and started laughing too. I don’t know who your dad thought was crazier. I love you little baby.