We had our 4 month checkup today with Dr. Bishop. Still very healthy and still 75
th percentile on both height and weight. He weighs 15 pounds 15 ounces (almost 16 pounds!), which is a 3 pound 10 ounce gain in 2 months. He's 25 3/4 inches long.
Will cried most of the visit. I think he was scared of Dr. Bishop's voice. And then came the shots... He got 3 of them this time (the same two as last time plus his 2
nd Hep B - the first one was at birth). He was not a happy camper. The shots were almost worse to watch this time. Even though he's bigger now he's also more aware so every time he stopped screaming he gave me this look like, "why are you doing this to me, mom?". Horrible! All better now, though, and sleeping it off.
They gave me a handout on starting solids, but Dr. B said that there's really no reason to rush them and that if he were me he would wait until 6 months. They're not getting any additional nutrition or calories from the solids at this point so why make another mess for yourself? I like his thinking :-) We actually did give Will rice cereal this past Sunday evening in an attempt to get him to start sleeping better (more on that later). It did not go well. He really didn't want anything to do with it and had a total meltdown after I kept trying. Probably not a good idea to try something like that in the evening, though, when he's not at his best. I tried again the next morning and made a bit more progress, but he still has no idea what he's supposed to be doing with the stuff and I think the spoon freaks him out a bit. I figure we'll just play around and give him a little bit here and there just to start figuring out what it is, but I don't plan on going full force until 6 months. At that point I'll go full force into veggies and fruits anyway.
As far as sleeping, he has progressively gotten worse. At first, I thought it was because he was hungry, but now I really think it's just that he is waking up and doesn't know how to put himself back to sleep. I think before now he wasn't so aware and so it was easier for him just to fall back asleep. He's so much more aware now, though, that when he wakes up he starts looking for us and gets scared or something and can't get back to sleep. It's really quite horrible. A typical night now he wakes up around 11:30, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00. Not fun. Sometimes I can just give him his pacifier and he goes back to sleep. Sometimes I have to feed him. The good news (sort of) is that I'm now so sleep deprived and tired that I don't have much trouble getting back to sleep after I get up. Unfortunately, I think we're going to have a lesson in self-soothing this weekend (when Tim doesn't have to get up for work) that's going to involve a lot of crying.
Mr. Will is 5 months old today. He's getting to be so big! I think he's on the verge of being able to do a lot of new things like rolling and sitting up on his own. It will be time to baby-proof the house before we know it!
Janet bought him a little football for Christmas that he is holding.
unts and uncles. Mommy and Daddy and Santa didn't really help matters either :-) He got lots of new toys and a few clothes (including a Pantera onesie from Uncle Mike and a Santa sweatshirt for next year from Grandma Carol). Aunt Rachel and Uncle Andy got him lots of jungle toys to match his room. He got a stuffed lion, a lion push toy for when he starts learning to walk, and a rolling tiger toy. One of his biggest presents was a toy car to ride from Grandma Carol an Grandpa Mike. It's so cute! The little horn even beeps.
do have to say that it's nice to stay home for once. This is the first time in 8 years we haven't traveled on Christmas or right after.
Not really, but I thought this picture was cute (not of me, but of him). He likes to sit in my lap while I play the piano. I've been trying to play more lately so that he is exposed to it. After I'm done playing a song then I let him bang on the keys. I don't think he really understands that what he is doing actually creates the sounds he's hearing, but he likes to bang on them all the same. It's particularly funny because he looks up at the music while he bangs on the keys so it looks like he is really playing the piano. Unfortunately, daddy chose to immortalize this memory first thing in the morning before I'd had time to shower. Let's entitle this picture: Musical Will and His Hobo Mommy...
Christmas is definitely more magical this year with Mr. Will in the house. He, of course, has no idea what's going on. It's still fun, though. Here's a pic of of Will's stocking hung by the chimney with care :-) His is the Santa one. I'm going to have his name embroidered on the top after Christmas. Hopefully Santa will leave him some goodies in his stocking! The other stocking is for his future brother or sister. I wanted to make sure they match so I bought two of them. Yes, I am that anal.
