Hunter turned 4 months old on September 17, and I actually took the whole day from work to spend with him. NOT. I wish that was the reason! I actually took him to his 4 month appointment, and since we was so miserable after his 2 month vaccines, I wanted to spend the rest of the day making sure he was ok.
Hunter is a whopping 25 inches long and 13 pounds and 12 ounces. He seems so tall, but he is only in the 50th percentile for height. Maybe he seems tall because he is only in the 17th percentile for weight, so he seems long?
Look at my long boy!
Hunter was such a trooper at his appointment, though, and I actually did get to enjoy the remainder of the day with him! He only cried after the 2nd shot, and that was just for a few seconds. We also got the green light to start solids. I confessed that I had already been putting rice in his bedtime bottle, and he was doing well with it. She said that we could start real food! I rushed to the store and bought some carrots, bananas, apples, and green beans. The pediatrician said that as long as there is just one fruit or vegetable ingredient, that it would be ok! We started with bananas, and while he did eat them, he acted like they were kind of sour! When Tim tried them, he said that it tasted nothing like a banana. The next day I tried carrots, and he LOVED them! He ate half a 'tub' (we didn't buy the glass jars because the tubs with lids look so easy to wash and reuse!), and I saved the rest for the next night. You are supposed to only introduce one new food every 3-4 days to make sure they don't have an allergy, but I let that go because he didn't seem to want to eat the bananas the first night, and I didn't want to force it the next night, too! Here is my handsome carrot face boy:
We are also sleep trained! I mean mostly sleep trained. I should have done it a while ago, but I loved him being close to me. We moved him to his crib, and he did great at first, then got worse, then he go sick. Stuffy nose, coughing in his sleep, kind of sick. My. Poor. Baby. He was moved back to the swing so that he could be rocked to sleep and stay in an elevated position. When he finally cleared up enough, we moved back to the crib in his room. We elevated the mattress with a towel so that he would still be propped up a little, and he little sinuses would drain better. I also decided that I would finally try the dreaded 'cry it out' method. While I have been unsuccessful in the past due to my knowledge of him crying, I found a method that works much more effectively for Hunter and I. Trust me, he doesn't cry long, if at all. Here is a pic I snapped after my alarm woke me back up after 10 minutes:
Keep in mind that we KNOW that he can sleep through the night with out food. He had done it for 2 months, and then slowly started waking up more, and even when I would feed him, he was only eating and ounce or two. I still put him to sleep the usual way, with me feeding him while rocking, and gently transferring my sleeping baby to the crib. When he wakes up in the middle of the night, I would usually rush in there and tend to him. NOW I turn off my monitor in the room, and turn my phone alarm to wake me up in 10 minutes. When I wake back up, he is already back to sleep. One night, he was NOT back to sleep and was screaming his head off, I went in there, and all it took was a pacifier and putting my hand on his chest, kind of rubbing/rocking back to sleep. I never picked him up. He was out in about 30 seconds, and slept the rest of the night. So far, so good!!
I mentioned above that Hunter had his first cold. That is more than sad, and all you want to do is blow their little nose for them. Well, actually, I have a nosefrida, so I kinda do blow his nose for him, but hearing him so stuffed up, holding him while he coughs, and feeling his 102.7 fever is so not fun. Now I know what my mom was talking about when she would tell me that she wished she could just be sick for me. Those nights, he would start in the crib, then when he woke up, I would suck out his nose, and then let him snuggle with me in bed. I tried to snap a picture of us cuddling (yes, I am pretending to sleep to 'recreate' the moment....), that was the only bonus of him being sick.
Hunter is still NOT rolling over. He has, I even have it on video, but has not done it since about 7 weeks old. He doesn't even want to try to roll from his back to his belly! Why would he want to do that? He just lays there all lounged out, and relaxes. I have a feeling that he will wake up one day, want to move to something, and roll over and over to get there, but for now, he just wants to lay around and relax. Or cry when he is totally over tummy time.
Speaking of tummy time, Hunter is doing so much better! He can even last 15 minutes sometimes! Look, I even got a tummy time smile:
He LOVES his exer-saucer! We picked one up at Once Upon A Child, and he can sit in there for 30 minutes at a time, spinning in circles, playing with each little station. He still hits most of the buttons by accident, or at least not with a definite, "I want to push this button, so I am going to", but he definitely hits them a lot! It has more of a, "I want to play with this toy, so I'm gonna slide my hand all over it, and try to make it sing to me", kind of feel, lol!
He is so good about being out of the house now. I have been able to grocery shop without worrying about him starting to scream, go to the mall countless times, and have long dinners and lunches out of the house with friends.
Due to a lost camera :( (sniff, sniff...that is for another post), there are limited pictures of this month (and the low quality ones are from my phone):
Here is a picture of Hunter all lounged out:
Some mornings he is just so cute, I don't want to go to work:
Sitting up in the stroller like a big boy:
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I was going to spare you the line where I am in disbelief that Hunter is as old as he is, but.... I just CAN'T believe Hunter is THREE months old! He is no longer a newborn, I have to look at the 3-6 month forum on TheBump.com, and we are only one month away from adding rice cereal to his meals. Oh. My. Word.
Time, please slow down just a tad!
In Hunter's 3rd month, he ended his trip up north in Washington and Montana, came home just to drive all the way to Florida! He is one well traveled baby!
This month has been pretty big for him, not just because of his travels, but he has also been switched almost totally to formula. It started with me eating chocolate cake in Montana, and him having two fussy days after that. Then I started researching fussy breastfed babies, and it could be an number of things: milk imbalance, mommy's bad diet, milk protein intolerance, etc. After more and more gassy tummy and fussy days, I tried Similac Sensitive. After a day, he was a different baby. Happy and content to just sit and watch his world, even out of mommy's hands! As much as love to hold my little man, I need to get some things done around the house, too! I am still pumping, and saving the milk to add to his formula, he seems to enjoy these bottles more, and I still know that he is getting good stuff from my milk. I at least want to get through flu season, since he will be too young for the shot.
He has started playing more, he waves his hands all around and kicks his feet like its his job. Seriously, he has the most serious face, and just kicks as hard as he can! It is especially fun in the bath tub! He can also get his favorite toy right into his mouth!
He can get his fist directly into his mouth and suck away. Like, all day long.
He is also drooling and making plenty of spit bubbles. Check out the drool that hangs from his mouth to my knee.
He is learning to fall asleep on his own.
He wore his first size 3-6 month article of clothing. He still mostly wears 0-3, but I am about to pack them away because they are getting too short for him! Carter's clothes shrink up a bunch!
He got cool new sunglasses.
He is a bumbo-ing fool. One day, he didn't want to sit on the floor in his bumbo while I did dishes (does anyone else feel like they wash bottles ALL. DAY. LONG?). I made a risky move and moved the bumbo to the counter right next to the sink while I did the dishes. He sat and just watched, lol! Keep in mind, I kept my eye on him the whole time, and pretty much did the dishes by feel so I could keep my eye on him. Also, ignore the knife block on the counter right behind him....
He is starting to like his car seat. I mean tolerate it. For short time spans. If he's in the right mood. Sometimes.
He talks like a crazy person.
The boy still loves him some naked time! Seriously, he loves it! I think he gets hot pretty easily, so the cool fabrics behind him and the fan on his belly probably feel pretty good. Like when a dog lays on the cool tile, haha!
He is loving his new tub!
He slept in his crib for the first night, and slept almost 10 hours. I heard him on the monitor (just talking away), and started getting his bottle put together, then I looked at the clock and couldn't believe it! I looked at all the clocks on the way to his room just to be sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me! I was a little sad because I like him being close to me at night, but it was also just one more step in him growing up, and I didn't think I was ready for it. After one night where I got 8 consecutive hours of sleep, and I am singing a different tune! The next two nights was not as successful, he slept in 4-5 hour chunks, but then the fourth night he slept 8 hours. I am hoping to get him back to his normal sleep times by the time school starts (I mean when the students start). We have a week!
He spent his first week away from mommy during the days. I started back to work to set up my classroom, and he spent the day at nana's house with her and their nanny, Elba. It is hard for me to not be there to make even those small decisions throughout the day. I feel like every time I go to pick him up or drop him off I have yet another request for things that I want for him through out the day. I feel like I am coming off as a crazy mom, but there are some things that I KNOW are important to either get done or not happen during the day.
He also LAUGHED for the first time! Lots of times he will smile and make a laugh noise, but one day my mom was sitting him up and talking to him, and he laughed.... then again.... then I got out my camera. Only, something messed up (maybe I accidentally covered the speaker?), and all you can hear me say in a really high pitched voice is. "Make him laugh again!"... then he does... only the video is silent during that part, then you hear us all say, "That was a GOOD laugh!!". So I have proof... kinda!
There are so many more fun things that happened this month, but it is so hard to keep up with it all!
He is still wearing all 0-3 month clothes, but they are slowly starting to get moved to the, "Too Small" box behind his glider. Most of the 3-6 month stuff is too big and looks silly, but I think pretty soon he will move up.
He is wearing size 2 diapers. This is almost partly because he pees so much and the size 2 holds it all much better. They are a tad too big so he will probably wear these for a while! He weighs about 12.5 to 13 pounds, but is still looking pretty long and lean. Don't get me wrong, he has some chunky spots poppin up, but the length is also there for sure!!
I love my little man so much! I still am in the newborn phase where I just stare at him and wonder why and how I was given such a beautiful baby boy.
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