Another month has gone by and Victor is now a social, happy and skilled 4 month old! And since I've been terrible at keeping up with his actual baby book, I've decided to use this blog more as a journal to keep track of things, and once his first year is up I'll come back and print off these monthly posts to stick in his book.

So, an update on Victor @ 4 months:

*His eating and sleeping habits have changed a bit this month, and I guess you could say it's for the better.  He can go for much longer periods without eating, and he sleeps for much longer periods of time too (up to 6 hours in both cases!)  Lately I've been having to wake him up to feed at night, I'm not sure he'd get up if it were up to him!  We're averaging waking up 1-2 times at night, so not bad!   He's also much better about being put down to sleep, most of the time he doesn't even have to be asleep for us to put him in his crib, he can go down on his own, which is so wonderful. 

*He has an approximate 'bedtime' (between 9pm and 11pm usually), and a 'wakeup time' (usually between 7:00am and 9:00am), so not a schedule by any means, but he's starting to develop a routine for sure (when doing my Week in the Life, some of his feeding schedules and sleeping schedules were nearly identical on different days).  He eats about 7 times a day and sleeps on average 3-3.5 hours at a time, unless he's doing his 'power naps' of about an hour or so, in which case he has longer stretches in the evening. 

*Breastfeeding is going well for the most part (still using the shield...oops), but in the past couple of weeks he's had a few 'feeding strikes/freakouts' where he just refuses to nurse and has a huge fit when I try to feed him.  On a few occasions I had to pump because he would just not feed from me.  And sometimes he seems like he'd rather be doing something else than eat, he likes to look around a lot while feeding, but that's normal for this age, it's just hard to get him to focus and eat enough.  He only averages about 10-15 mins a feed, it used to be 20 solid minutes, so I sometimes wonder if he's getting enough, but I have to trust that he knows how much he needs.  I'm still feeding 'on demand' so it should be ok.

*Weight: about 15lbs  Height: 25 inches

*For the most part (probably 85% of the time), this boy is happy, smiling with his mouth wide open, big eyes, happy cheeks, but occasionally we do get this face:

Luckily we know what to do when he makes it and he's usually quite easy to soothe.

*He does not like being on his back or reclined for the most part, unless he's on his mat swinging at things (even though he only puts up with this for a few minutes).  He still really enjoys the Jolly Jumper and is it in at least once a day, usually early in the morning when Dan has him (and mama's getting a few extra minutes of sleep).  He also likes his chair for short periods of time, and is just starting to be big enough for the Exisaucer (?), so I'm hoping he'll enjoy that.  He likes to sit propped up on the couch or bed, looking around or playing with a toy, and of course, he likes being in our arms the most.

*He's getting much better with his hands, can grasp toys, and reaches for things all the time (including my hair!)  He wants to have everything in his mouth lately, and has been drooling like a madman.  So of course he's been wearing a lot of bibs, and I recently bought this hazelwood teething necklace to help with the possibility of those little chompers coming out soon.  Not sure if it works/will work, but we will find out in the next couple of months (if not, then it's still a cute accessory!)

Sitting in his high chair, reaching for his Nuby

*He's getting better with bathtime, I think the warm temperatures are making it easier, less of a shock to the skin when getting out (it was terrible in the winter!)  We also got a new baby bath that he seems to like more than the one he had before.  We still don't give him a bath more than a couple of times a week, but I'm hoping to work it into a nighttime routine every other night soon.  I also recently took him to the splash pad at the local park and he wasn't too fond of it, so I'm not sure if a visit to the pool is in our future this summer or not, maybe if the water were a bit warmer, the splash pad was freezing!

*Other activities he is currently enjoying include playing "rocket baby" with Papa (see pic below), reading and looking at books (just started this week), rocking in the glider with Mama to fall asleep (sitting facing out in my lap with a blanket), being tickled while being changed (he giggles and laughs, it's so cute!), being naked (ha!), looking around while going for walks, laying in my lap and 'talking' to me (he makes all kinds of sounds now),  listening to Papa play guitar (he really does, it's so nice to have a musical father!), looking at puppets, gnawing on whatever he can, and just looking around at the bright new world that surrounds him :)

(All pictures taken during "A Week in the Life", except the one at the splash pad and the 2 wearing the baseball cap.)

It's a wonderful age, I'm really enjoying it and can't wait to see what he will be able to do in another month.  It's kind of sad that our journey is 1/3 of the way over already (before Mat Leave is up I mean), but it's been a fun and amazing journey so far, and being a  Mama has been everything I've wanted it to be.

Je t'aime mon beau garçon.

Until next time,

G.