You are changing so much now and are really starting to show your personality.
You are such a chill little guy - you rarely cry unless you are tired. (or are on a long car ride and by yourself in the back seat!)
You are so very interested in discovering the world around you. You spend much of your day talking and squealing, but when you are in a new place, you become very quiet, taking in the scene and absorbing everything new.
You like being paid attention to. You will sometimes start to fuss if we are not looking at you, but the second we make eye contact, you are all smiles and squeals again!
You move more and more everyday - from rolling to kicking your legs in excitement!
You grab at and hold on to EVERYTHING - your toys, bibs, and blankets, my hair, tablecloths, your legs and feet, other people's faces! And much of what you grab ends up in your mouth :)
Just when we think you can't get any cuter or more fun, you do! And just when we think we can't possibly love you more than we already do, our hearts grow bigger and we do!
Month 4 Recap:
Breastfeeding – Lucas, you are still an exclusively breastfed
baby! Currently, you eat 5-6 times per day. Nearer the beginning of the month,
you were still eating every 2-2.5 hours, but now that I think back on it, maybe
that was just part of your 3 month growth-spurt. By the end of the month, you
were extending your feedings to every 3-3.5 hours, sometimes even 4 (though the
4-hour stretch usually just occurs 1x/day). We give you a bottle of breastmilk
once a day for a few reasons – one, so you can practice taking a bottle and we
can determine which type of bottle will be best once you start daycare at the
end of July, and, two, so that mom can rotate through her frozen milk supply so
it does not expire. One challenge that we are facing with feeding (both breast
and bottle), is that because you are such a curious little guy now, the
smallest sound will cause you to pull away and look to see what is going on.
This usually happens when Daddy enters the room or Darby barks. Also, if you are
in a new place (a friend’s house, park, etc), you are usually more interested
in taking in your new surroundings instead of eating.
Sleep – Sleep this month got progressively worse as time
went on! You slept quite well the first week of month 4 – you would typically sleep
from 7:30/8pm until 8:30/9am, only waking once to eat between 4 and 5am. The
middle of the month, you would cry every time we put in your crib and would
need to be rocked to sleep each night. It occurred to me that you were not
getting enough daytime sleep in the form of naps, which caused you to be
overtired by bedtime, and made it difficult for you to fall asleep. So I
started some nap training for a week where I would lay you in your crib at the
first sign of you being tired (usually you will rub your eyes, and after
keeping a log, I noticed that you wakeful period usually cannot exceed two
hours). If you started to cry, I would come back in and talk to you and rub
your belly at 1 min, 3 min, and 5 min intervals. I would continue with 5 min
intervals until we reached 30 min or you were asleep. If you didn’t fall asleep
within 30 min of fussing, then the nap was forfeited. You actually did very
well with this nap training. We never even got to 5 min, and therefore, never
had to reach 30 min of fussing or forfeit a nap! The only thing that didn’t
work so well was the amount of time you would sleep. You were definitely a fan
of the 30-40 min cat naps. Once in a while, we would get a good 60-90 min nap
out of you, but that only occurred every few days.
During the last week of the month, though, your sleep (and
mine!) suffered due to your newest trick – rolling from your back to your
belly! It was difficult for you to fall asleep without being rocked because the
minute we placed you in your crib to fall asleep, you would roll to your belly
and start to cry and flail! You would also startle yourself awake in the middle
of the night, roll to your belly, and then cry and fuss because you were stuck
and couldn’t fall back to sleep. Our nap training was shot, but at least I
learned a lot about your sleeping patterns. We knew that something had to
change.
Development – As I mentioned in the Sleep Section, you
learned how to roll from your back to you belly this month! On May 17, at
exactly 16 weeks old, I laid you on your back atop your activity
mat in your bedroom and went into the computer room for 5 minutes to write
an email. You was happily squealing and playing with your toys. Then, I heard
you start to grunt and whine - and when I got to your room, you were on your
belly! I had missed your first roll! So, of course, every time I put you on
your activity mat or on the floor on your blanket from there on out, I wouldn't
dare leave the room! And I made sure I was equipped with the camera and video
camera each time, too! Wouldn't you know, I missed your second roll
because I was sitting next to you admiring the photos I had just taken of you
on our camera! ha! Daddy witnessed your third roll, and we both witnessed your
fourth. We've lost count at this point, but let's just say that you is every
intent on practicing his new trick! Now, every. single. time. we place you on your
back, you impresses us with a roll.
Other noteworthy accomplishments this month were starting to
really grab at toys and put them in your mouth. Every single time you grab
something, it goes straight to your mouth!
You have also really found your voice. You are constantly
talking and smiling and laughing.
You LOVE to listen to stories being read to you. Each night
right before bed, we read a 2-3 books from your library. You sit and listen so
intently – touching the pages and staring at them in wonder. We started going
to storytime at Swarthmore Library this month, and the librarian, Kristin, who
runs the Infant Storytime commented on how impressed she was that such a young
baby was so attentive. We are also going to try out Springfield Library’s
storytime one of these weeks too!
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