(Getting harder and harder to get these pictures! He kept wanting to stick his hands in his mouth!)
Update: WOW!! Where has the month gone? Seriously, every single time I sat down to start to write a blog post, something else came up. Blogging and having a baby is no joke. I sit here writing at 6:23 AM because, honestly, this is the best time of the day for me (and I have been up since 4:30.....). I am awake because I work out early in the morning, the house is quiet, and I am uninterrupted. I really wish I could make more time for my blog to give updates, but once I get home from work, make dinner, entertain Bennett, try to KEEP Bennett going until bedtime, bath, and put him to bed, we are both so exhausted, the last thing on my mind is to write a blog post. SO many things have happened this past month, and it feels like this month has been the longest/most exhausting one yet.
Some major milestones this month: We had Bennett baptized, we survived the first month of daycare, thankfully free of illness.....so far. We have had a full months of "firsts," He celebrated his first Thanksgiving, visited Santa for the first time, and went swimming for the first time, and even tried cereal for the first time. We also survived our first bout of pink-eye, although I don't think it bothered Bennett as much as it borrowed me to look at him:(
It's hard to believe he is 4 months old. He doesn't have that little baby look anymore, and it's even harder to imagine where he will be in another month!
Likes:
Dislikes:
Getting put into his carseat
Having his neck wiped (seriously, so gross)
Getting his cheeks pinched
Stats: No stats this month, we won't know anything about weight/height until Friday Dec. 20th. I will **hopefully** be able to give a small blog update then. Fingers crossed!
Features: His hair is still dirty blonde, and has grown back to a semi-normal length, but he has this little bald spot on the back of his head where he lays his head. No teeth yet, but I suspect he will start to teethe soon. Overall, his features and appearance haven't changed much this month.
Sleep: Right about the time I went back to work, Bennett started sleeping through the night, usually 10 hours straight (I know, we are SO lucky!!!). We have slowly been transitioning him to an earlier bedtime. He used to go down around 8:45 PM but this last week we have tried to lay him down around 8:00-8:15 PM. He REALLY struggles that last 30-45 minutes, plus he started sleeping until after 7 AM, which is great on the weekends, but not so great on work days! He is so great about putting himself to sleep at night, we usually just feed him a bottle, rock until he gets droopy eyed/drowsy and put him down. We haven't hit that dreaded 4 month sleep regression phase yet, and fingers crossed we won't. He has nights where he wakes up in the middle of the night, around 2 or 3, but he goes down right away after we feed him or change his diaper. That usually only happens once a week, maybe....
Eating: Bennett is slowly transitioning from primarily breast milk, to formula only. After going back to work, my supply took a huge dip, and I cannot keep up with his eating habits! He is down to 3 bottles of breastmilk a day/3-4 bottles of formula. Starting next week he will probably be down to 2 bottles of breastmilk a day. I am almost completely out of my freezer stash I built up while on maternity leave. My supply cannot keep up with his demand:( It is a bittersweet feeling. I went into this, not having a date or amount of time set. I didn't want to feel disappointed if I couldn't make it that long. My goal right now is just take it week by week. Bennett has been taking bottle only for the last two weeks, I have stopped nursing him completely and am only pumping now. He is eating between 5-7 oz. at a time depending on how long he went between bottles. We tried cereal just the other night only because we had a free one in the pantry and we wanted to see how it would go. He did not like it so much so I will wait to talk to the Dr. next week to see what her recommendation is. He tends to spit up quite a bit, which is really started to get on our nerves, we are so OVER the spit up phase.
Diapering: Size 2 diapers, I suspect we will be in those for a while.
Clothes: Love putting him in comfy, cotton clothes everyday. I had so much fun shopping for cute little outfits while I was pregnant with him, but I have quickly learned that those just are not practical for everyday use. Now, I love to have him in comfortable clothes everyday. He is wearing 0-3 and 3-6 mos. clothes.
Social: Such a happy and smiley baby! We never have bad notes about him from Daycare. Don't get me wrong, he has his moments. He tends to get more fussy at the end of the night, but that is to be expected. My favorite part of the day is when he wakes up in the morning. It is so hard to leave him when I know he is in such a great mood. He started to "mini" laugh this month, and we get giggles out of him here and there. He smiles when he sees you smile. It really doesn't take much to get a good smile out of him. And when he smiles, he smiles with his whole face! His eyes and face scrunch up, and it is just the best sight and feeling in the world to see him smile! Bennett will coo at you if you just talk to him, he loves to talk and hear himself talk.
He hasn't been rolling over consistently yet, but I suspect this can happen any day. He rolls side to side, but can't figure out how to maneuver his arms yet. We definitely need to keep an eye on him now that we lay him on our bed, or on his changing table. We look away and the next moment he is on his side!
Mama: This month has been the longest one yet! This was my first full month back to work. So much has happened! A week after coming back to work I was offered a new job at a new company I couldn't refuse, and as much as I hated giving my notice a week after coming back from my maternity leave, it will be a great move for us in the long run. Being a full time working mom is exhausting. Seriously, getting out the door in the morning is the most challenging part of my day. I can breathe a sigh of relief after I drop Bennett off for the day and know that he is in good hands, but I love being a working mom too. I am exhausted at the end of the day and it seems like the housework, cooking, bottle cleaning, etc is never ending but it is all working out. We are developing a great routine and it seems to be working well for us.
Daddy: Josh has done such a great job being supportive of my career move/choice, but also has been helping out as much as needed, whether it be cooking, cleaning, putting Bennett to bed, or giving him a bath. We pitch in where the other cannot. As long as we don't disagree on HOW to do something (ie. what he wears everyday.....I swear, Dad's just don't care how their kids leave the house!) we make a pretty great team.
(playing in the doll rocker at Grandma Kate's)
(First time swimming, and he loved it!)
(Pink Eye-poor baby!)
(This is how Bennett entertains himself while Mom gets ready in the morning)
(Still loves being naked)
(First Thanksgiving with Daddy)
(First Thanksgiving with Mommy)
(Straining to see the tv, just so interesting!)
(Finally big enough to use this new toy! And we get a lot of use out of it!)
(Discovered my feet this month, and now has them in his hands and mouth ALL. THE. TIME.)
(Trying Oatmeal Cereal for the first time)
(Nope, not liking that so much......)
(Didn't mind Santa at all, this year. Santa said it will be different next year!)
(Loving that tree and all those pretty lights)
