Baby Paul: 4 months

The 4th month of Paul's life was another more challenging month, all because of sleep. He hit the dreaded 4-month sleep regression when he was around 3.5 months. During this regression, the baby develops adult-like sleep cycles. Us adults might not realize this, but we awake after our sleep cycles but it's so brief that we fall back to sleep without even realizing we are awake. But when babies wake up from a sleep cycle, they don't know how to get themselves back to sleep. We had a couple of nights where Paul was up every 1-1.5 hours for most of the night and every 45 minutes towards the end of the night. It was EXHAUSTING. Additionally, he started to take really brief naps - like 25-30 minutes! 4-month old babies can only handle about 90 minutes of awake time, so when Paul takes short naps that means I spend all day putting him to sleep as he could take 4-5 naps during a day. I also no longer had any idea when his long nap of the day would be so I wasn't able to really get anything done during his naps.

I know you want to take my picture but I'd rather chew on my sleeper!

He doesn't sleep well but he sure is cute!

I'm really hoping that his sleep improves in the next couple of weeks as I return to work in about 1.5 weeks. I'll be working half days in the afternoon for the first week and then I go back full time after that. Paul's daycare spot doesn't open until 1.5 weeks after I return to work so he'll be watched by friends and family for those first 1.5 weeks. I'm hoping that aids in the transition but I know it's going to be hard no matter who is caring for him!

Here's how his 4th month shaped up.

Growth:

- Paul weighs 11 lbs 13 oz (1st percentile), is 24" inches long (6th percentile) and his head is 44 cm (98th percentile). He gave us quite the scare at his 4-month appointment. His doctor was slightly concerned that his head circumference went from 85th to 98th percentile so she ordered an ultrasound to make sure there wasn't any fluid in his head. Luckily we were able to get in that afternoon and she called with the results around 4pm - his head is just fine, it’s just really big!! But it was quite the stressful day! Other than worrying about his head, she was really happy with how he's doing with developmental milestones and thought he was a really social, charming baby. He's definitely very small for his age but she isn't concerned as he's following his curve and meeting all his milestones.

- He wears size 0-3 month clothes but is getting a little bit long for some of them. He wears cloth diapers except overnight when he wears a size 1 disposable diaper.

Loves:

- his daddy! Phil gets the biggest smiles when he comes home from work each day. We usually put Paul in the boppy lounger between us and he just smiles and smiles and smiles at his daddy. It's so sweet.

- his activity mat. He probably spends at least 30 minutes under it throughout the day. He can grab toys and now that he's rolling and more wiggly, he can spin himself around 90-180 degrees.

- being sang to. He will stop crying as soon as I start to sing. It doesn't matter what I sing. I often make up songs. Maybe he will take after his mama and love music!

- playing with toys. Now that he can grasp things, he's more interested in toys so I picked up a few new ones for him last weekend.

- laying on a blanket so he can kick his feet and play with his toys. Oscar is getting a bit more interested in him and Paul has started to notice her, too. Oscar still keeps her distance, though!

- the swing at my parents lake home. We don't have a swing at home and after I saw how much he liked it at the lake, it made me wish that we had one but it's not worth getting one/borrowing one from a friend at this point since he'll likely outgrow it soon. He loved looking at the toys that hang over the swing. When we'd put him in the swing, he'd look up right away even before we moved the toys above him. I think it's pretty cool that he knew to look for them before they were there!

Dislikes:

- He still has a touch of stranger danger and will stick out his bottom lip and start to cry when a new person tries to peer at him in his car seat. He seems to do better with new people when we are in our house, though, as long as he isn't overtired. A new/unfamiliar place + new people is a bad combination!

- He doesn't like tummy time anymore and he can escape tummy time by rolling over.

- He's still adjusting to sleeping on a flat, firm surface. We moved him from the rock-n-play style bassinet into the halo bassinet this past month and it was a pretty rough transition. But he was outgrowing the rock-n-play bassinet so it was time to make this move. He transitioned into a mini crib over the weekend, so there have been lots of changes for our little man lately.

Firsts:

- He sleeps in his own room now. We moved him into the guest room around 3.5 months. I know it's recommended to keep him in your room for 6-12 months but the guest room is so close that it's almost like he's still in our room as we can hear any peep he makes.

- He learned how to roll over the day he turned 3 months but he got better at it over the course of the month and can roll over much more quickly/with less effort.

- He also learned how to roll from back to stomach but he doesn't do this very often. Most of the time when he rolls from back to stomach, one arm gets stuck under him! He rolled from back to stomach in his sleep once last week so I am glad we had already transitioned him out of the swaddle because swaddles aren’t safe once they start to roll to their stomach.

How do I get my arm free?

- We had our first outdoor play date with his buddies Gus and Anja (we didn't get a picture with Anja). Gus was way more interested in Paul than Paul was in him. Gus (who is seriously the happiest baby) kept grabbing Paul's hand which was so cute. Paul seemed a bit oblivious to the fact that there are other babies besides him. Ha. Gus and Paul are only 5 weeks apart (7 gestationally) but they are on VERY DIFFERENT growth curves!

The beautiful blanket we brought to the park! My friend Mandy's mom made it for us. It's perfect for this cat-loving family!

***

This month presented some challenges but it was also fun to watch him grow and change. It's so exciting when he learns something new like how to roll over or how to grasp toys.