Peter is 4 months old

Hey, sweet P! You are 4 months old. I would say I can't believe it, yet I remember so vividly the time flying by with your brother as well.

Peter is a very sweet, very smiley baby during the day. He will, of course, have occasional moments of fussiness, but, for the most part, is a sweet little guy. He is cooing and doing lots of "gahs" and "guhs". Just this a.m. I heard him making new noises with different high and low tones. He is definitely chattier than Spencer was at this age. He will say something and then wait for you to say something back and then make more noises, just like a "real" conversation. I love it! He is also full on laughing now and it's fabulous. He does it at random times and not always for the same reasons, so it's super fun if you happen to catch him in the act. He's starting to interact with toys and loves looking in the mirror too.

 

No rolling over yet and he doesn't seem interested in trying either. He will roll if he is already laying on his side but he certainly can't get from back to front or front to back. He did scootch around on his tummy the other day to look in a new direction. He is sitting well in the bumbo (as evidenced above) and likes the exersaucer at daycare. He's great in the car- it's a great sleep tool!

It's a shame he is in daycare all day as he, like so many babies, can get fussy in the evenings which is the only time we have with him. It's hard to have a baby who is happy when being held but fussy when out of our arms while we are trying to make dinner, attend to both boys' needs, talk to each other, and wind down from our work day in general. Don't get me wrong, I love holding the little guy, but holding babies and chopping veggies for dinner is a little, shall we say, tricky and, I'm certain, not advised by the American Academy of Pediatrics :)

Love these ears!!!!

He is gaining weight very well and growing in length too. No stats since drs apt is next week, but he is outgrowing clothes left and right. The other day I put him in a 6-12 month sleeper and it wasn't too big at all!! Yikes. He takes 3 5oz bottles of pumped breastmilk while at daycare and occasionally will take 1-2 more oz while there from the extra bottle we send. He nurses in the morning, in the evening twice and, lately, like crazy overnight. I'm amazed I'm keeping up with him to be honest!

See this smile? Are you madly in love? Yep, me too. Would you like to see it mulitple times overnight? Yea, me neither. It's hard to say whether or not he is in the 4 month wakeful period or if his reflux is getting worse, but his sleep for the past 12 days has been awful. He certainly has never been the greatest sleeper. He's only had one 8 hour stretch in his little life, most nights he is up 1-2 times to nurse (usually around 1 and then around 4). For the past 12 days, he has been up 3-4 times every single night fussy and not wanting to go back to bed unless he is nursed. Apparently this is not uncommon, and Spencer did this too for two weeks around this time. Not uncommon, but NOT appreciated either. I honestly can say that I have never, ever been as tired as I have been in the past two weeks.

 

He's always had reflux- very spitty, coughs when lying down, you can hear stuff gurgling around in his esophagus, etc, but it seems to be getting a bit worse lately. We started Prevacid this weekend (which takes about two weeks to really take effect). We'll see if this helps him over the next month and then decide if it is worth continuing. At night, we have noticed that he is often comfort nursing rather than really needing to nurse, and I think it is due to wanting to swallow/suck to get the burning from the reflux down as the pacifier is no longer cutting it and that used to be his soothing mechanism. I'm hoping that if we can cut down on the acid, he'll have an easier time at night when lying down. Only time will tell!

 

I feel badly as this post seems to be more negative than positive. I truly adore my sweet boy and wouldn't trade him for the world! We're just have a rough go right now which I don't want to sugar coat as I think people really appreciate knowing that other moms out there struggle with infants just as much as they do. Plus, as any mom will tell you, lack of sleep is incredibly wearing, and at some point in time, it's impossible to be smiley, perfect, happy pants when you are so gosh darn tired. This too shall pass- it did with Spence and it will with Peter. We're incredibly lucky overall, and all the goos, gahs, smiles, laughs, and bright eyed moments of wonder make up for everything else!

If you need any proof that my babies do not look alike at all, here it is! They really could not be more different. The only similar feature are their sweet noses :) (Click here for Spencer's 4 month pics to see how different their baby pics are)