4 months [babywise]

4 months [babywise]

 

Another month has quickly flown by and our sweet little Rogue is 4 months!  He turned 4 months on the 9th and once again, time has gotten the better of me and I'm just now posting his update.  This past month has been relatively easy.  He ate well.  He slept great.  He happily played.  At his 4 month check up, he weighed in at 15.13 lbs & 25.75 inches long and took his shots like a champ.

 I love this little ball of sunshine so much.  His giggles light up my world.  His smile melts my heart.  His hair...that hair still makes me laugh.  I get this question several times a week-do you do anything to get it to stick up like that?  Answer is no!

Rogue picked up some super fab skills this past month....grabbing at objects, rolling over both ways, and finding his feet.  He continues to laugh at all of us and loves to stand (with help of course.)

 If Rogue didn't have reflux, he'd be the easiest baby.  He hardly cries and when he does, I know it's a reflux cry b/c he needs to burp to get some junk out.  However, Rogue does cry for babysitters.  Other people just don't know how to deal with a reflux baby like we do.  I feel like I burp him for an hour straight after eating.  It takes a lot of work and you have to know your baby to pick up on those cues.  It's not easy to take a reflux baby out in public b/c he'll spit up everywhere.  I'm not kidding, if we're at a restaurant, Shaun will take Rogue outside to burp him (several times).  I'll be so happy once this spit up/reflux issue is resolved.  Trying to stay positive b/c I know reflux is something he'll outgrow and there are a million other worse things to happen to your baby.  (But watching my friends peacefully nurse with ZERO spit ups doesn't help! :))

Ok...enough of my reflux rant....here's his 4 month summary:

Eating: He eats 5x a day like clockwork.  He is on spit up formula (you can read about the switch HERE).  He takes in 5-6oz a feeding.  After he eats, we work on getting his endless burps and spit ups out.  I wash 5-10 burp cloths, blankets, onesies, and my clothes a day.  He's on prevacid and we are praying that the doctors are right when they say 4 months is usually the peak of reflux.  Rogue is gaining weight really well despite half of it coming out of him!

Waketime: At 4 months, Rogue's waketime lengths are around 90 minutes.  We feel like he made the jump from 60 to 90 minutes just like that.  It's really fun to have him awake longer.  It's so nice to have more time to do things and he's way more flexible now than when he was an infant.  Around 12 weeks, he started being super vocal and cooing a ton.  At 3.5 months, he started rolling from back to belly.  (Uuumm Solis didn't do that till 5 months!)  His waketimes this month were so happy and he loved his play mat, exosaucer, and watching Solis's killer dance moves :)  

Naps: After putting in a lot of work the first 3 months, naps are easy peasy now.  He takes 4 naps a day and I put him down wide awake.  He falls asleep within 5 minutes with no crying.  His first 2 naps are around 2 hours, the 3rd nap is around 1.5 hours, and then one short catnap.

*Update* Once he started rolling from back to belly, Rogue wakes up crying.  Before if he woke early from a nap, he would just lay awake in his crib till I got him.  Now he screams b/c he's on his belly.  He used to roll from belly to back and it's like he forgot how to do it all of a sudden.  Hopefully he'll remember how to do it again and get over this phase!

Dreamfeed: I was super nervous to drop it b/c it meant Rogue going from 6 to 5 feedings a day.  Would he be able to sleep 11 hours instead of 9?  Before starting, I used the advice from this post (dropping the dreamfeed).  We made sure Rogue was consistently waking at our DWT (designated wake time) of 8am for a few weeks before even dropping it.  I know some moms will nurse just one side (or give less in a bottle) and slowly wean their baby off the dreamfeed but we did it cold turkey.  And just like that, Rogue went from going to bed at 11 after the dreamfeed to 9pm without any trouble.

Night Sleep: Since dropping the dreamfeed at 3 months, Rogue sleeps 9-8!  And he wakes up EVERY morning happy.  The only time he woke in the middle of the night this month was when he rolled onto his belly and cried for help.  We flipped him a few times that night but hasn't done it during night sleep since.

Schedule: At 4 months, Rogue's schedule looks like this:
8am-6oz bottle
9:30-put down for morning nap
11:30-6oz bottle
1pm-put down for afternoon nap (Solis's nap too)
3:00-6oz bottle
4:30-put down for late afternoon nap
6:00-5oz bottle
7:30-one last catnap
8:30-5oz bottle
9:00-down for the night

I hope in the next month Rogue can drop that last catnap and drink his last bottle at 8.  We tried doing that a few nights but he was way too fussy to stay up for 2 hours so it's obviously not time to drop the 4th nap yet.

Solis: Solis is still loving on her Roguey!  She is always wanting to help feed him, bathe him, see his poopy diapers, read him books, and tell him everything there is to know under the sun.  Now that he is starting to play with toys, she is always showing him a new one and trying to get him to hold it.  And likewise, Rogue is seriously smitten with her.  I love that he can be entertained by her antics.  Even when she picks her nose and dresses him up like a girl ;)

Happy 4 months, Rogue!  We love you to pieces baby boy!