Carter - Four Months

**Can we just stop the post for a minute and talk about how ADOARBLE my baby is?!?!  I’m biased, I know, but he is so happy and sweet!!**

Carter at Month 4

Diapers

We started out the month with Size 1 diapers, but eventually moved to 2’s towards the end of the month.  The size 1 diapers are for weight from 8-14lbs.  Carter reached 14lbs when he was 3 months 1 week old.  Size 2’s are for 12-18lbs. 

Clothes

Still wearing 3-6 months, although we’ve had to put up several of the 3-6 month clothes that ran too small.  I’ve started trying to shop for non-onesie outfits.  I really like Carter in overalls or cute little plaid shorts with a shirt.  Anything he could wear to church or out and about.

Nursing

Carter still loves to nurse.  He prefers it over a bottle any day of the week.  I’ve noticed this month that when I have him all day (weekends or days that I have off work) and I nurse at every feeding, he can go longer between feedings.  He usually goes 3 hours when he’s bottlefed.  But when I nurse, he goes 3 1/2 to 4 hours.  With this timeframe, he ends up dropping the last nap of the day, which he should be doing around this age anyway.  Also, I absolutely 100% DESPISE pumping at work.

Sleep

At 10 weeks, Carter was sleeping through the night, no less than 7 hours a night.  But right when I went back to work, he stopped.  Justin and I tried everything under the sun to make him sleep through again.   Finally, on the night of April 17th I decided to drop the dreamfeed (the feeding between 10pm-11pm).  Babywise says to do a dreamfeed because a lot of times, “tanking them up” before you go to bed helps them sleep longer.  It totally worked for Carter for a while, but all of a sudden he was waking up again.  I remember reading that after a while, the dreamfeed should be dropped because waking them up for them to feed can be disruptive to their sleeping.  I finally decided that I would try to drop that feeding and see what happened.  Usually, I feed Carter around 6ish, playtime and bath and down for the night by 8pm.  That night, I fed him at 6:15, played and bath (doing everything I could to keep him awake) and then fed him again at 8:45pm and put him down after.  By feeding him at 8:45, I wouldn’t have to wake him up at 10 to feed him.  I was so sure he would wake up around 1 or 2am starving.  Nope.  He slept from 9pm-6am.  9 Hours!!!  Turns out that waking him up was hurting his sleep more than helping.  He did it again the next night too.  I put him down at 8:30pm and he woke up at 6 again.  Ever since then, he’s gotten anywhere from 9-11 hours of sleep every night.  This morning, for example, I had to wake him up at 7:30 when he was at 11.5 hours of sleep!!

Feedings

Carter eats 6 times a day on average.  On a good day when he goes longer between feedings (see “Nursing” above), he’ll eat 5 times a day.  When he gets a bottle from daddy or from Nana, the bottle is about 5 3/4oz. 

Naps

Carter’s best nap of the day is by FAR the morning nap.  Which is actually interesting.  I wouldn’t think he would want to take such a long nap right after sleeping 9-11 hours.  According to Debbie (and myself on the weekends), Carter’s first nap is rarely less than 2 hours and will sometimes go as much as 2 1/2 hours.  His shortest naps are 30-45 minutes, but for the most part, he averages from 1-1.5 hours.  He’s still taking 4 naps a day unless he eats 5 times instead of 6, in which case he’ll take 3 naps. 

Statistics

Carter’s 4 month appointment was today, April 30th.  He had his second round of shots (which still hurt me more than him) and he got weighed and measured.  He weighed 14lbs 14oz which is the 55th percentile.  He measured 26 inches which is the 85th percentile and his head circumference was 16 1/2 inches which is the 50th percentile.  I decided to work from home today so that he can have me here on his traumatic day.  Between getting 4 shots and teething, my poor sweet boy is very unhappy. 

Abilities

He still reaches for toys all the time and he’s been sitting in his bumbo seat with the tray for longer periods of time.  He can even sit up for a brief period of time without support from me, but he has to be leaning forward in between his legs to do it.  He can’t fully sit upright with a straight back just yet.  Also, if we make him try to sit up too soon after he’s eaten, he’ll spit up a TON.  He’s also rolling from his back to his tummy now.  It’s estimated that they do this between 4 and 5 months.  He started it at 3 1/2.  He was just 2 months old when he rolled from his tummy to his back (which is the easier of the two).   Momma found out this skill the hard way.  He woke up at 6am and started grunting and making all kinds of noise so when I looked at the monitor, he was on his stomach.  I had a freak out.  He did it probably a million times that day.  I’ve heard that once babies learn that they can do a new skill, they do it ALL the time.  This is such a true statement.  Due to this, we’ve started unbuttoning the woombie to have his arms out so that when he rolls over, he can roll back over if he gets in a position where he can’t breathe.  Here’s the hands out version:

In the next month or so, we’ll probably start using sleep sacks instead of the woombie.  I’ve also started to notice that when he’s on his tummy and I put a toy in front of him, he tries SO HARD (to the point that his face is blood red due to concentration) to crawl to get it.  He just can’t figure out how to make his legs and arms do what he wants them to do.  I think it’ll be a few more months before we get to the crawling.

Other Notable Things

Easter weekend was ROUGH.  On Saturday we drove to Tuscaloosa for a bunny breakfast with our family and then we went to our church on Sunday and to Justin’s parents house after.  It was two straight days of Carter being off his schedule and not getting enough naps.  This really hurt us the following days when it came to nighttime sleep.  We will no longer be getting him off his schedule like that again.  I don’t mind adjusting schedules, because let’s face it, babies can’t be on constant schedules with no deviation.  But I highly doubt we’ll be doing a two day event like that any time soon.

Carter got baptized yesterday, April 29th.  It was such a special occasion.  See my post on  his baptism here.  Poor baby had such a long day.  His nap after everyone left our house was close to three hours.  After I had to wake him up from that nap, we tried to take him on a walk, but he was NOT having it, so we came back home, gave him a bath and put him to bed at 8:30.  He’s been sleeping ever since.  I’m writing this post at 7:40am the next day.  If I let him, I know he’ll sleep for 12 hours, but I’m about to have to wake him up to take him to his pediatrician appointment to get his second round of shots.  Boo.

Hello TEETHING!  Carter has been drooling like crazy lately, but I thought it was too early for him to be cutting teeth.  Apparently not.  He hasn’t cut one yet, but he is DEFINITELY teething.  He drools all the time, his fists are constantly in his mouth, he’s slightly fussier and I can tell it’s because he’s in pain.  We’ve just now started using Orajel and will begin using Tylenol if need be, depending on what the pediatrician tells us today.

Likes

Carter still loves to watch TV, staring at mirrors, lights and ceiling fans and is still kicking like crazy in the bathtub.  He LOVES bathtime.  He even knows that when it’s night time and I take off his diaper AND his clothes that it’s bathtime.  The second he sees the bath towel that I usually wrap around him to take him to the tub, he smiles the biggest smile I have ever seen.  He knows what being wrapped in a bath towel means and he can’t wait.  He also is still a big fan of going for walks.  I’ve noticed he prefers them around sunset where the sun isn’t in his eyes and he can see things without squinting.  His new favorite position is holding onto his feet while laying on his back.  Carter does this ALL.THE.TIME.  See this post.  He even stretches out his legs so far that he’s doing a baby toe touch!!  And apparently, he like sleeping on his stomach, which made me a nervous wreck to begin with, but I’m used to it now.  He also loves when I go to pick him up from Nana’s when I get off work.  I love seeing the smile on his face when I get there.

Dislikes

He still doesn’t love the sun, but he LOVES being outside in the shade where he can see trees and cars and things he doesn’t normally see inside.  He REALLY doesn’t like having his bottle taken away. When bottle feeding, we usually stop every ounce or two to try to get a burp out. He HATES when we do that. He starts screaming…and I mean SCREAMING. Eyes closed, mouth open, holding his breath screaming. The bad kind. Side note - he still gets mostly breastmilk even though I’m back at work. I pump and I have enough of a supply stored up that he always has breastmilk.  We very rarely give him formula.  Finally, he HATES the period of time between the end of his bath and when we put him down for the night.  He screams bloody murder.  He knows he’s about to go to bed and REALLY doesn’t want to.