Happy 4 months Caleb!

Last week, Caleb turned 4 months old.  

This month, Caleb has continued to smile more and laugh.  We no longer swaddle him anymore for sleeping.  As my mom said, he is now old enough to handle his own arms.  Maybe it was the 3 months of swaddling and restricted arms, but he sleeps just like that - arms wide open.  

He rolls over now pretty well and loves to reach for toys and put them directly into his mouth.

We think his eyes are changing.  I have brown and Ben has blue.  His eyes were a dark blue when he was born and now they have a hint of brown to them.  So handsome.

One eyebrow up! 

I can't believe we're to the 4 month mark.  It feels like a lifetime ago that I was pregnant.

I couldn't get a good smile out of him this time - only this.  He does this baby talk that sounds like he's doing a car sound and he wouldn't stop!  There's a lot of spitting involved, but its adorable nonetheless.

We were close to nap time...look at those tired eyes. 

Oh I wanted to tell you...

He has the most expressive eyebrows.  

At 4 months Caleb is...

Size: Wearing 3-6 month and 6 months clothes.  Most of the 3 months or 0-3 m size clothes are too short in the torso so they have been put away.  It's sad to put away some of my favorite outfits.  A couple of them I'm still hanging onto and I've even considered cutting some of them and making them into t-shirts but I won't because I want to keep them for Future Baby.  We went to the doctor this week and he is 16 1/2 pounds and 26 inches long.  That is 77th percentile for weight and 84th for height.  Big boy, but not the biggest.

Likes: Sweet boy likes to play in his jumper and has actually discovered how to make it jump.  Hopefully the exercise will help him nap better (more on that below).  Something new for this month is that he loves to grab toys and put them in his mouth.  He used to just stare at things but now he actually has the hand-eye coordination to grab.  It's still pretty shaky but getting more and more intentional and accurate.  Actually anything that brushes by his face - a cat tail, a burp cloth, a hand - he opens his mouth to put it in.  Fortunately we've had no cat tails in the mouth.

Dislikes:  Up until this point, he hasn't cried for much other than hunger and tiredness.  Well, that's changing.  He does not like to be put in his carseat to go somewhere if he is the least bit tired or hungry.  He gets frustrated in some spots and wants to be taken out or held or just moved to something new.

Working on/Milestones: In the last month, Caleb has learned to roll both back to front and front to back.  He mastered front to back one night at 11:30pm in his crib.  We watched him on the monitor cheering!  And then he cried because he couldn't figure out how to get back.

We're also working on sticking to a schedule.  And I say we because its as much me making myself stick to it as it is Caleb fitting into it.  I still look to him for cues and adapt to him but I'm trying to always have the schedule in mind and plan my day accordingly.

Caleb started going to the church nursery on Sundays and does fabulous.  They say he is just the best little baby.  That makes Mama's heart happy!

Eating: Big boy eats 5-6 times during the day and once or twice at night.  He continues to be a great nurser and is down to about 15-20 minutes each time we nurse unless he's tired and then he lingers a little longer.  I've been researching solid foods and rice cereal because the pediatrician said we could start rice cereal now if we wanted to but I'm leaning towards just starting with pureed fruits and veggies at 6 months.  Thoughts?

Sleeping: Caleb is such a big boy and has moved up into his own room.  It was fun to read last month's sleeping post because my wishes came true!  He used to wake up at midnight and once more before morning.  Now he goes down around 7:15pm - 7:30pm, skips that midnight feeding and usually just wakes up once sometime between 2am and 5am and sometime between 7am and 8am for good.

His naps are going much better now that I'm trying to stay on schedule.  His awake time is usually about an hour and a half before he's ready for a nap.  We read some stories and then he goes down pretty well now with not much fuss or crying and will sleep anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half three times a day.  If he hasn't had the greatest naps at home or if we were out for one of his naps, he'll usually take a short one around 5 to get him through the home stretch.

Also, we are done with swaddling thank goodness.  I had stopped swaddling for naps around 2 months because I just got tired of it.  And once it seemed he was waking himself trying to get out of the swaddle, we tried it one night without it and he did awesome.  Now we are in footed PJ's.  I had to stop myself from buying too many.  I'm really the only one that sees them but I just think they are precious.