This is a little late, but we were busy with everything that went on with the holidays!
Our little guy turned 4 months on the 22nd of December!
Weight:
At his 4 month appointment, he weighed in at 19 pounds 4 ounces!
99th percentile
Height:
He is now 27 inches long (or 2 feet 3 inches, whichever you prefer!) - 98th percentile
His head was 45.5 cm. 99th percentile
Clothes:
We have said good-bye to 6 month clothes and have moved to all 9 and 12 month (except for a few 6 month PJs that he still squeezes into)
Sleep:
In his 4th month of life, he has averaged right above 10 hours of straight sleep at night. He had only two nights where he slept less than 9 hours, and those were 8 hours and 51 minutes and 8 hours and 20 minutes, so he's rocking it!! (I have started to not like telling other moms how much he sleeps...)
The longest he's slept is 11 and a half hours on several occasions.
He naps okay during the day if someone is holding him. If we attempt to put him down, he will usually last about a half hour at the most, but most of the time it is just a few minutes before he wakes up and doesn't want to lay there anymore on his own. We wanted to have him 'trained' for his naps before starting daycare on the 4th of January, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen... Hopefully he does alright with the whole nap thing there - or at least figures it out fast!
Likes:
Samuel LOVES to put anything and everything into his mouth! He loves to chew on his fingers, on toys, his burp cloth, or anything he can get a hold of. I'm not sure if that's a sign of teeth coming in the near future or if it's just a developmental thing. His doctor said that was one of the signs that he's ready to start eating real food, so at least there's that...
He loves his play mat and staring at the mobile on there and on his swing. He has gotten awesome at grabbing the mobile and anything hanging above him (and trying to get them in his mouth, of course.)
Samuel got a high chair from Trent's family at a baby shower his sister threw for us and he really likes sitting in that and being able to look around while sitting with everyone at the table. I really like having him so close to us, too!
He also seems to love being naked or at least have his pants off while he's being changed. He is so happy and smiley when he's on the changing table, so changing him can take a little longer than it should because it is just so fun to see how happy he is!
Samuel likes to have books read to him. He just stares at the pictures and listens to whoever is reading so well!
Dislikes:
He loves his play mat and staring at the mobile on there and on his swing. He has gotten awesome at grabbing the mobile and anything hanging above him (and trying to get them in his mouth, of course.)
Samuel got a high chair from Trent's family at a baby shower his sister threw for us and he really likes sitting in that and being able to look around while sitting with everyone at the table. I really like having him so close to us, too!
He also seems to love being naked or at least have his pants off while he's being changed. He is so happy and smiley when he's on the changing table, so changing him can take a little longer than it should because it is just so fun to see how happy he is!
Samuel likes to have books read to him. He just stares at the pictures and listens to whoever is reading so well!
Dislikes:
Being burped is still in the dislike column most of the time, especially if it's in the middle of a bottle or while he's nursing. He does alright when you have him standing up on your lap, but then there's no telling where any spit up might go and he's a little harder to hold steady while patting his back... I usually give up on the burping before I probably should because he doesn't like it all that much.
Then there's the usual stuff - he doesn't like to be tired or hungry... he also doesn't like to be left alone for long periods of time without someone paying attention to him. He's a little spoiled with attention :) Not that that's a bad thing!
Milestones/Development:
He has started to try and help his Grandmas and his dad with feeding him his bottles.
He is tons better at tummy time and actually enjoys it at times. It's so fun to see him on his belly with his head held high looking around.
He talks quite a bit and has gotten a lot more coordinated when trying to grab onto things.
Then there's the usual stuff - he doesn't like to be tired or hungry... he also doesn't like to be left alone for long periods of time without someone paying attention to him. He's a little spoiled with attention :) Not that that's a bad thing!
Milestones/Development:
He has started to try and help his Grandmas and his dad with feeding him his bottles.
He is tons better at tummy time and actually enjoys it at times. It's so fun to see him on his belly with his head held high looking around.
He talks quite a bit and has gotten a lot more coordinated when trying to grab onto things.
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Samuel continues to be called Buddy, Buddy Bear, Honey Bear, and Baby (by me) and mostly Stinker or Stinky by his dad. Aunt Kellsey calls him Baby Baluga every so often, which I think is super cute :)
Nana and Papa as well as Grandma Kock have still been coming to watch Samuel a few days a week so he has gotten to stay home rather than going to daycare when Trent and I have been at work. It's so great to be able to have Samuel spend time with his Grandparents and we love that we have been getting to spend time with them in the evenings as well.
This month we traveled to Nana and Papa's and to Grandma's for Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving Day at Aunt Mel and Uncle Russ's house and Mel threw us a great baby shower to celebrate Samuel's arrival (more on that in a later post). We then went to Grandma's on the Saturday/Sunday of Thanksgiving and got to see some extended family at a birthday party for Great Uncle Ted.
At Samuel's doctor appointment on the 17th, the doctor said he was pretty great once again (of course). He is growing like he should and right on track developmentally. She said that since he has started to watch us while we eat, can hold his head up really well, and has been putting his hands in his mouth all the time, that he is ready to start with foods other than breastmilk. She said he won't eat for sustenance now, but it will basically just be practice for him so he can get the idea of how to open his mouth and swallow, etc, while he is in this stage of putting his hands in his mouth all of the time.
He will continue to eat breastmilk as he has been, but we will be adding in prunes once a day. The only thing missing from breastmilk that he really needs is iron, so she gave us the choice of three iron rich foods (prunes, spinach, or red meat) that we coudl pick one from and start feeding him in the next 4-8 weeks. I won't go into our decision making process, but we decided to go with prunes.
So, once a day, when he isn't really hungry (like after he has nursed or been bottle fed) we will feed him prunes!! We are planning to start with the week between Christmas and New Years when we will be home with him, so we can get a good start before he starts daycare.
On the 19th of December, we had our first Christmas celebration of the season with my immediate family where Samuel got to open his first Christmas presents. We went to a Christmas pageant in the afternoon and Samuel did so well. He seemed to like listening to all the music and checking out all the action that was going on around him. He seemed pretty captivated by it all! He will get to experience several more Christmas celebrations in the coming week!
We had our intake meeting at daycare with his teacher, Connie, last week in preparation for him starting full time on Monday, January 4th. She seemed very nice and I think it will all go very well. We went into his daycare room for a few minutes while we were there and it was all a tad bit overwhelming to be around all those babies at once (there will be 8 total in his room), but I know he will be fine. I'm sure it will take a little bit to get into the routine of figuring out what we all need to have ready to go each day and getting used to taking him with me when I leave for work every morning (I think I'll enjoy the extra half hour with him in the car in the morning and evening each day as he gets older!), but I know we'll get it all worked out before too long! I'm sure he'll make lots of baby friends and have a good time - I know I'll be excited to see him at the end of every day, though!
On the 21st, we took off for our week-long Christmas trip to spend the holiday with family. We will be at Nana and Papa's from Monday night until Thursday (Christmas morning) and then at Grandma's from mid day Christmas day until Sunday evening, the 28th. We had to pack the whole house, but hopefully it's a successful trip. It will be quite different to have to incorporate a baby's schedule into all the Christmas festivities, but so much fun to be able to celebrate Samuel's first Christmas (even though he won't really know what's going on!).
Nana and Papa as well as Grandma Kock have still been coming to watch Samuel a few days a week so he has gotten to stay home rather than going to daycare when Trent and I have been at work. It's so great to be able to have Samuel spend time with his Grandparents and we love that we have been getting to spend time with them in the evenings as well.
This month we traveled to Nana and Papa's and to Grandma's for Thanksgiving. We celebrated Thanksgiving Day at Aunt Mel and Uncle Russ's house and Mel threw us a great baby shower to celebrate Samuel's arrival (more on that in a later post). We then went to Grandma's on the Saturday/Sunday of Thanksgiving and got to see some extended family at a birthday party for Great Uncle Ted.
At Samuel's doctor appointment on the 17th, the doctor said he was pretty great once again (of course). He is growing like he should and right on track developmentally. She said that since he has started to watch us while we eat, can hold his head up really well, and has been putting his hands in his mouth all the time, that he is ready to start with foods other than breastmilk. She said he won't eat for sustenance now, but it will basically just be practice for him so he can get the idea of how to open his mouth and swallow, etc, while he is in this stage of putting his hands in his mouth all of the time.
He will continue to eat breastmilk as he has been, but we will be adding in prunes once a day. The only thing missing from breastmilk that he really needs is iron, so she gave us the choice of three iron rich foods (prunes, spinach, or red meat) that we coudl pick one from and start feeding him in the next 4-8 weeks. I won't go into our decision making process, but we decided to go with prunes.
So, once a day, when he isn't really hungry (like after he has nursed or been bottle fed) we will feed him prunes!! We are planning to start with the week between Christmas and New Years when we will be home with him, so we can get a good start before he starts daycare.
On the 19th of December, we had our first Christmas celebration of the season with my immediate family where Samuel got to open his first Christmas presents. We went to a Christmas pageant in the afternoon and Samuel did so well. He seemed to like listening to all the music and checking out all the action that was going on around him. He seemed pretty captivated by it all! He will get to experience several more Christmas celebrations in the coming week!
We had our intake meeting at daycare with his teacher, Connie, last week in preparation for him starting full time on Monday, January 4th. She seemed very nice and I think it will all go very well. We went into his daycare room for a few minutes while we were there and it was all a tad bit overwhelming to be around all those babies at once (there will be 8 total in his room), but I know he will be fine. I'm sure it will take a little bit to get into the routine of figuring out what we all need to have ready to go each day and getting used to taking him with me when I leave for work every morning (I think I'll enjoy the extra half hour with him in the car in the morning and evening each day as he gets older!), but I know we'll get it all worked out before too long! I'm sure he'll make lots of baby friends and have a good time - I know I'll be excited to see him at the end of every day, though!
On the 21st, we took off for our week-long Christmas trip to spend the holiday with family. We will be at Nana and Papa's from Monday night until Thursday (Christmas morning) and then at Grandma's from mid day Christmas day until Sunday evening, the 28th. We had to pack the whole house, but hopefully it's a successful trip. It will be quite different to have to incorporate a baby's schedule into all the Christmas festivities, but so much fun to be able to celebrate Samuel's first Christmas (even though he won't really know what's going on!).
See how much Samuel has grown:
One Month
Two Months
Three Months
Here's some of the other pictures from our four month photo shoot. He had some really good smiles for me this time!
He's just the most adorable little guy! I'm SO glad he sleeps for you. I'm very thankful for Eliana sleeping that long, too, even if I don't really get to enjoy them because our other child doesn't. Ha! I can't wait to see what he thinks of prunes. :)
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