It's so hard to believe Holden turned 4 months old today. Time is flying by so fast that I feel like tomorrow I'm going to be watching him graduate high school. I love watching him grow, I just wish time would slow down a wee bit.
Sleep
Oh boy, it seemed like we took one step forward, two steps back in this category for the first part of the month. Holden started to stretch out sleep between bottles at night, then all of a sudden he was waking up three times a night. We hit the mecca on January 14, when he slept 11 hours from 7 pm to 6 am. He hasn't pulled off another night like that, but he is consistently sleeping until at least 4:30 am now, which is so much better than where we were for awhile there.
We had a very scary episode on the night of January 1st. For whatever reason, I woke up and noticed that Holden was in distress. He was completely silent but his little arms were flailing around like crazy. I scooped him up quick and gave him a couple quick whacks on his back. He started gagging really hard and then started to breathe regularly again. My best guess is that he was basically drowning in his spit-up. I definitely feel like we had a guardian angel watching over us that night because if I wouldn't have woken up right then, I hate to think what would have happened. After that night, we bought a Levana monitor for him to wear at night. It will alert us if he does not have any movement for 15 seconds. I have slept much better since he started wearing it and thankfully we have not had any more scares.
Eating
This is another area that things were a little wonky in this month. When he was having his worst sleep, he was also wanting to eat 5 ounces every 2 hours during the day. We decided to give rice cereal a try, as he was obviously not staying full enough, especially at night. On January 14 (3 months, 3 weeks old), we tired rice cereal for the first time. He did really well, but he wasn't quite sure what to think of what he getting.
We also tried a couple different formulas this month. Early in the month, we tried soy formula to see if it would help clear up some of his stuffiness. Holden was only on it for about a week though, as it seemed to give him acid reflux. He would fuss every time just before he spit up so we put him back on his regular formula. Just this past week we tried a formula that is made to reduce spit up. He had been spitting up so much that we gave up on burp rags and just started using dish towels. This formula didn't really help either, so Holden's doctor recommended that we try adding rice cereal to his formula to thicken it up a bit with the hopes he could keep it down. So, tomorrow we'll be going back to his regular formula and start adding rice formula.
We tried putting bigger nipples on his bottle too to help the spit up (Dave read that this could help) and it helped for a day or two and then he was right back at it.
We were lucky with all the formula changes as Holden handled all of them like a champ. We didn't have to do any mixing of old and new, he would just take a whole bottle of the new stuff without any trouble.
Clothes
I've already had to pack away some of Holden's 3-6 month outfits. He has a lot of 6-9 month outfits that he's been wearing. He has received several 12 month winter outfits as gifts that I'm hoping he'll be able to wear yet this winter because he's not going to fit into them next winter at this rate. He's still wearing a size 2 diaper.
Last summer I went to some rummage sales to stock up on baby clothes. I didn't buy much past 6-9 months thinking that that would get me through until garage sales started again the following summer, He's definitely going to outgrow everything I have before the garage sales start again though so I guess he's going to have a brand new wardrobe to wear for 9-12 month clothing. He's happiest when he's naked though so maybe I won't have to buy too much. ;o)
Health
Well, other than having a stuffy nose most of the time, Holden has been very healthy (knock on wood). I'm terrified he's going to get the flu or the measles now that they are going around our area.
He did develop a bit of a rash on the trunk of his body early this month. We narrowed that down to a new sleep sack we'd been using (that was 100% polyester) and as soon as we quit using it the rash went away.
We went in for Holden's 4 month check up yesterday (January 23). He weighed 17 lbs 12 oz (95th percentile), was 26 inches long (86th percentile), and his head was 17 inches around [76th percentile, which the nurse told us means he's so very smart ;o)]. He got another round of an oral vaccine and 3 shots. He sure chewed us out when the shots were over but he's handled them much better than last time. It took about 48 hours after his 2 month shots to get over being crabby but this time he's hardly been crabby at all in the first 24 hours after.
Likes
-Holden likes to suck on his thumb. He's always been a little bit of a thumb sucker but he's been doing it even more over the past month. Sometimes he sucks on his thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger all at the same time.
-He loves to splash in the bathtub. We removed the sling from his tub this month and he has been so excited to sit in the water and splash around.
-Holden is finally interested in books. I had tried to read to him several times prior to this month and he never had the patience to sit and look at/listen to the book. This month he has taken quite an interest in books and his favorite book is Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.
-He is so vocal now and likes to shriek and squeal when he's happy or really getting into telling us a story. He also makes a funny noise that we call his elephant noise when he's getting into his stories - he takes a big breath and then blows it through his nose.
-Holden also likes to stick his tongue out and play with it by moving it around in all directions. He likes to suck on his lips too; mostly his bottom lip but he will sometimes suck on the top too.
-Holden really likes to lie on his changing pad and tell stories, kick his legs, and squeal. This isn't new this month but I don't think I've written about it before.
-He likes to hang onto the dish towels that we use as burp clothes. He whips them around and buries his face into them and squeals. He likes them so much that we call them his friends. ;o)
-Holden has really taken an interest in toys this month too. He loves his playmat and grabbing onto the various toys that dangle down. He really likes to play with the activity cube we got him for Christmas, the huge stuffed puppy my brother gave him for Christmas, and his Sophie teether.
Dislikes
-Holden doesn't like to sit in his car seat for more than an hour. This make trips to my parent's house not so fun as it's a two hour drive from our place to theirs.
- He doesn't like waking up from a nap in someone's arms. He's usually pretty cranky if he wakes up and hasn't been put in his cradle.
Firsts/Milestones
-Holden hit another big milestone just two days before his 4 month birthday. He figured out how to roll from his back to his tummy. Last month he started rolling from his tummy to his back, and exactly a month later he started rolling the other way. I was pretty excited when I saw him roll to his tummy. As I cheered him on, he just looked at me like "What? I do this everyday." ;o)
-He got control of his head early on this month. He's just so darn cute sitting in his Bumbo.
-He is starting to get ticklish in his thigh crease, armpits, and neck. Sometimes you barely have to touch the area before he starts to squirm and laugh and other times he looks at you're crazy and is wondering what the heck you're doing to him.
-His first little dimples started to show this month. He has a little dimple in his left cheek and one near his chin on the left side. Oh, how I love his dimples!
-Holden has his first Christmases this month. He got to celebrate with his Smith relatives on the 25th, Lannings on the 26, and we had our Christmas on the 27th.
gosh, I love his eyebrows :o)
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