Developmental update: four months.
Jun. 16th, 2009 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaColin turned four months old last week, and yesterday he had his four-month well baby visit. He is in fine form: happy, healthy, sociable, strong.
He is such a cheerful, amiable baby. When he wakes up in the morning he just beams at me. He loves to make eye contact and smile. He loves having people talk to him - not just familiar family members, but total strangers. He laughs a lot, an irresistable gurgling chuckle. He rarely cries or fusses, unless we're cruel enough to ask him to ride in the car.
He's a very vocal baby. Still not a great variety of sounds, of course - it's mostly lots of big open aaahhs and ohhhhs, with some /g/ and /b/ sounds thrown in. But he vocalizes a lot. He'll make a lot of noise even by himself, playing with his baby gym, but if you hold him face-to-face he coos away conversationally with great intensity.
Of course at four months he can grab and hold things and put things in his mouth. Baby toys have finally become objects of interest. He isn't particularly adept at handling things, but he does have a killer grip.
He's got great muscle tone. He loves to "stand" on our laps and makes frequent attempts to scale the north face of Mount Mama. When we put him on his stomach, he lifts his whole upper body with ease. He can roll over front-to-back. And he's got a powerful kick. Last night at dinner I had him nursing in the sling, and he kicked out one leg hard enough that it knocked Alex's water glass clear off the table.
Speaking of nursing, it's so easy now. In normal circumstances during the day he nurses for maybe 15 minutes every two hours. He latches himself on with verve, drinks until he's full, and then either unlatches and smiles at me to let me know that it's playtime again or else falls peacefully asleep. I do have to be careful, though, because he is not fussy about the targets he chooses for his remora-like latch and he's been known to give me painful hickeys if he misses the nipple. (I know, TMI, sorry.)
Sleep is starting to fall apart a bit, as we've hit the four month sleep regression, but even so it's not too bad. He usually goes down "for the night" around 9:30. I swaddle him tightly and keep him swaddled until morning. From 9:30 to around 7:30, he wakes only to nurse and goes straight back to sleep after he nurses, and during that time he can usually be easily put down in his swing or the cosleeper. Before the sleep regression he was giving me one 5-6 hour stretch and then sleeping for two-hour stretches until morning. Now, I'd say that I get one 4-5 hour stretch and then one- to two-hour stretches until morning, with at least one episode per night of being hard to put down. Which, again, is not so bad. I think things might go a bit more smoothly when the giant-but-thin-muslin swaddling cloths I ordered arrive - they should be more suitable for a larger baby and for summer sleep.
He's working on cutting a tooth. Or teeth. Drool flows copiously, and he likes to chew on things. He keeps his fingers in his mouth a lot, and chews on our hands and on toys. He hasn't seemed to show a lot of teething pain - just drooliness and chewiness. Let's hope that continues.
He loves Alex. She often makes him laugh, and he likes to lie on a blanket and watch her play. She has a special talking-to-Colin voice - hilariously, she will often repeat things I tell him using the special voice, as if she's translating - and hearing it really makes him smile. Unfortunately, one of the things he likes most about Alex is the way he can grab her hair in a death grip. She is remarkably tolerant of him... although she did suggest to me this morning that we put him up for adoption.
So, all in all, we're having a great time with babyhood here. Yay.
He is such a cheerful, amiable baby. When he wakes up in the morning he just beams at me. He loves to make eye contact and smile. He loves having people talk to him - not just familiar family members, but total strangers. He laughs a lot, an irresistable gurgling chuckle. He rarely cries or fusses, unless we're cruel enough to ask him to ride in the car.
He's a very vocal baby. Still not a great variety of sounds, of course - it's mostly lots of big open aaahhs and ohhhhs, with some /g/ and /b/ sounds thrown in. But he vocalizes a lot. He'll make a lot of noise even by himself, playing with his baby gym, but if you hold him face-to-face he coos away conversationally with great intensity.
Of course at four months he can grab and hold things and put things in his mouth. Baby toys have finally become objects of interest. He isn't particularly adept at handling things, but he does have a killer grip.
He's got great muscle tone. He loves to "stand" on our laps and makes frequent attempts to scale the north face of Mount Mama. When we put him on his stomach, he lifts his whole upper body with ease. He can roll over front-to-back. And he's got a powerful kick. Last night at dinner I had him nursing in the sling, and he kicked out one leg hard enough that it knocked Alex's water glass clear off the table.
Speaking of nursing, it's so easy now. In normal circumstances during the day he nurses for maybe 15 minutes every two hours. He latches himself on with verve, drinks until he's full, and then either unlatches and smiles at me to let me know that it's playtime again or else falls peacefully asleep. I do have to be careful, though, because he is not fussy about the targets he chooses for his remora-like latch and he's been known to give me painful hickeys if he misses the nipple. (I know, TMI, sorry.)
Sleep is starting to fall apart a bit, as we've hit the four month sleep regression, but even so it's not too bad. He usually goes down "for the night" around 9:30. I swaddle him tightly and keep him swaddled until morning. From 9:30 to around 7:30, he wakes only to nurse and goes straight back to sleep after he nurses, and during that time he can usually be easily put down in his swing or the cosleeper. Before the sleep regression he was giving me one 5-6 hour stretch and then sleeping for two-hour stretches until morning. Now, I'd say that I get one 4-5 hour stretch and then one- to two-hour stretches until morning, with at least one episode per night of being hard to put down. Which, again, is not so bad. I think things might go a bit more smoothly when the giant-but-thin-muslin swaddling cloths I ordered arrive - they should be more suitable for a larger baby and for summer sleep.
He's working on cutting a tooth. Or teeth. Drool flows copiously, and he likes to chew on things. He keeps his fingers in his mouth a lot, and chews on our hands and on toys. He hasn't seemed to show a lot of teething pain - just drooliness and chewiness. Let's hope that continues.
He loves Alex. She often makes him laugh, and he likes to lie on a blanket and watch her play. She has a special talking-to-Colin voice - hilariously, she will often repeat things I tell him using the special voice, as if she's translating - and hearing it really makes him smile. Unfortunately, one of the things he likes most about Alex is the way he can grab her hair in a death grip. She is remarkably tolerant of him... although she did suggest to me this morning that we put him up for adoption.
So, all in all, we're having a great time with babyhood here. Yay.
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-16 04:14 pm (UTC)N.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-16 05:34 pm (UTC)That made me laugh!
My goodness, is he really four months old already? Of course, I'm having a hard time with how quickly Alex has grown, too. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 05:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-17 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 04:51 am (UTC)