Compare and Contrast

They are starting to look much more alike, my two kiddos!

Ava at 4 months

Grayson at 4 months

Grayson: 4 Months

Four months gone by in a blink of an eye.

• Grayson is beginning to giggle!
• He seems close to sitting and LOVES to stand on his feet.
• He is quite the little mover and loves to roll and do 360s on the floor.  Diaper changes are becoming more and more of an adventure.
• Is showing interest in holding toys but isn't able to hang on to them for long.
• Blows lots of bubbles and talks our ears off with oohs, ahhs, ows, ehs and ahems.
• Took his first long trip, down to the Philly area to see two of his great grandparents and lots of family.
• Before said trip he was napping relatively well, 4x a day for 1-2 hours each.  Since traveling he has been hardly napping and having a lot of reflux symptoms again but hopefully this will pass quickly.
• He is weighing in at 15 lbs on our home scale, the official reading from the doc is to come.
• Wearing size 2 diapers, size 3 at night.  Squeezing into his 3-6 month outfits but the 6 month ones are a little big.

Schedule of the moment:

6:30a     Wake and eat (switched to an hour earlier than before)

7:45a     Nap

9:30a     Eat

10:45a   Nap

12:30p   Eat

1:45p     Nap

3:30p     Eat

4:45p     Nap

6:30p     Eat

6:45p     Down for the night after a diaper change and lullabies (took away much of the awake time here in an attempt to lengthen his night)

9:00p     Prevacid

10:30p   Wake to feed and right back down

2:30a     His usual middle of the night feeding time

Photos of the 4-Month Old:

He sleeps.

Not every time I want him to but at least he's doing it.  Three and a half months later, he is finally sleeping soundly enough in his crib that I had an opportunity to showcase our boy at rest.

The Mr. must be swaddled and since his turning and rolling days began we've been slaves to this, a borrowed Woombie from Grayson's someday-best-friend Brayden.  An invaluable sleeping companion that we couldn't do without!  We have tried, and he can fall asleep with his hands swaddled up by his face, but when he wakes he has a difficult time falling back asleep while his arms are flailing endlessly.

He also still starts his sleeps with a pacifier but usually loses it shortly thereafter.

A week or two ago I started letting him cry more, now that I am confident his acid reflux is under control. After only a day or two he was sleeping so much better and much longer and was able to get himself back to sleep during most naps.  I am so proud of him!  He presently is suffering from his sister's cold so there is more crying and we've been giving into it more frequently, but I'm definitely seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of constant holding.

That said, he is still not even close to sleeping through the night and I'm about at the end of my rope.  Currently I'm sleeping on the couch upstairs, closer to his room, and he's still waking every 2, 3 or 4 hours.  Occasionally we'll get a longer stretch and occasionally I can get him back to sleep without feeding him but regardless, it's an exhausting effort.  Moving him into his crib full-time and putting some distance between us at night was a good thing I think but I had high hopes that it would be the ticket to a good nights sleep.  Unfortunately we're still waiting on that.

In the meantime, I am thankfully he's at least sleeping well for some naps, getting himself to sleep and back to sleep sometimes and is in general a happy and alert boy when he's awake no matter how much sleep he's gotten.  Love the little dude.

Anyone remember my post about seeing his big pouty lips at our 20 week ultrasound?

"We got to see the baby swallow twice and got to see it move its arms and hands in real-time.  By far the most special moment for me was when the tech scanned the front of the baby's face (it was facing up as opposed to curled on it's side like Ava was) and I got an almost 3D looking view of it's hand over it's eyes, it's cute button nose and big pouty lips.  What a treasure!  I will cherish that moment from now until I get to kiss those lips in person!"

Ladies and gentlemen, there they are, and I'm the lucky girl that gets to kiss them.

S'mores

We've been trying to do some fun Ava-only activities when we can since she is still getting used to this big sister thing and is feeling a little neglected.  After dinner one night we decided, during a break in the summer thunderstorms, to make a fire in the fire pit, roast marshmallows and treat Ava to her very first s'more.

She was a little baffled by the whole thing at first and probably would have rather just dug right into the bag of marshmallows.  She wouldn't go anywhere near the fire so I roasted hers while daddy captured the whole thing on camera.

Her face says what she was thinking, "Mom, are you really going to let me eat that?!"  A rightful question for this mom of fruits and veggies.

Finishing this sweet sandwich is serious business.

Love this picture and sharing a special moment with my favorite girl.