Austin at four months old

This little man is four months old and he suddenly seems so big to me. Playing with toys, using his voice for more than just crying. Even that—I was telling Chris the other day that somehow he lost his newborn cry and has this actual baby cry now and I don’t know when that happened. And in a few short months, he’ll be sitting up and eating solids and babbling more.

It’s crazy, how this feeling of being sad for the newborn you’ll never have again doesn’t go away after the third baby. It’s still all, oh my baby, what happened to my little newborn???

Stats

Nicknames: Austie, Little Man, AJ

Weight: 14 lbs 1 oz (14th percentile)

Length: 26 inches (74th percentile)

Diaper size: 1

Clothing size: 3-6 months, but can fit into some of his 6-month clothes for the length

Eating

It oddly feels like a lifetime ago when we struggled to nurse. Six weeks of around-the-clock pumping and unsuccessful nursing sessions feel like a lifetime ago, even though when I was in the thick of it, it felt never-ending.

Now that we’re on the other side, nursing is…easy. I’ve hit that point where nursing is finally easy, even if there’s the occasional hiccup. I’m still leaking when nursing (though the leaking randomly after not nursing for hours seems to have gotten a little better). I don’t pump at all anymore except for last night when the baby fell asleep before nursing on my left side and had no choice but to pump before bed because it was uncomfortable. I got a little over 5 oz just from that breast which was both alarming and satisfying.

And there was another early early morning recently where he had woken around 3 and I nursed him but fell asleep and then when I woke again a few hours later, I couldn’t get him to nurse anymore because he was snoozing away, so I had to put him back in his bassinet and go out to the living room to pump which sucked.

He’s also hit the distracted stage of nursing where everything else is exciting except for nursing. Makes it challenging when there are two older sisters and a dog to distract him constantly. I know I’ve had two other kids, and they did the same thing, but somehow I forgot and it surprised me when it started happening because he still seems so little.

But overall, things have been going well for him with eating and his pediatrician said at his 4-month appointment that he’s gaining weight appropriately.

Sleeping

While it has started taking him seemingly forever to actually go to sleep for the night, once he’s down, he only wakes once a night. For a few days he slept all the way to 5:30 am and once to 6:30 am (that was a good night). But most of the time it’s around 4:00-4:30 am and I can’t complain because he’s the best sleeper of all my kids.

We moved the baby camera into our room and I started putting him to sleep for the night in his bassinet, rather than starting him off in the crib. With him getting older, he started waking too much when Chris would transition him from his crib to bassinet when we went to sleep for the night.

So now, I nurse him sitting up in bed, as I did with the girls, and then gently try to transition him to his bassinet. We start the process for bed anytime between 6:30 and 7:00 pm, when he’s showing signs he’s sleepy, but it can take 40 minutes to get him to fall asleep and 90% of the time, I have to go back in a second time, because he woke up. He’s definitely starting the 4 month sleep regression.

We still have him swaddled at night. In fact, he’s so long that he grew out of his newborn sleep swaddle and I had only one 3-6 month size. Luckily, I found another (just one, and it was pink with rainbows) at the kids consignment sale last week (I’m not paying $30 for a new one for him to wear for a month), so we’re good for a bit longer, but his 6-12 month fleece sleep sacks for the cold months don’t have the velcro swaddle, so we need to get him transitioned to sleeping with his arms free.

He was previously doing okay taking naps in his crib, but now he has been popping awake as soon as I lay him down, or he only sleeps for 10-15 minutes and then he’s crying. So we’ve been doing a lot of naps, the majority of naps, with him sleeping on us again.

Milestones

This baby smiles and laughs All. The time. Everything is seemingly hilarious to him. His sisters. Belly kisses. Weird noises. Diaper changes. He loves it all.

He also loves sucking on his fingers constantly and found his feet so he’s always reaching down to grab them, but he can’t quite get his toes up to his mouth to suck on yet.

He’s getting more tolerant of tummy time (mostly) and has great head control. He lifts his head up and leans on his arms periodically, which I remember Emelia struggling with. His PT appointment isn’t until next week, but he seems to be doing pretty good, and dare I say his head doesn’t look as flat with all the tummy time and near constant making him turn his head the other way.

He’s also holding onto his toys and bringing them to his mouth. We gave him toys for the first time a few weeks ago and he’s alllllll about them now. And of course, Emelia loves to provide him with plenty of them.

He’s making cooing noises and “MMMMMM!” and even gave me a “MMMMMOOOOOMMMMM!” one day.

Personality

So yes, the smiles. He continues to be a happy, chill baby. He definitely seems the most easy-going of my kids.

He also does this face quite a bit where he’s staring at something new and exciting and gets this look of pure fascination. Like, not smiling, or looking particularly joyous, but just very intently staring at something new with his eyebrows raised. He doesn’t quite have the seriousness that Olivia had as a baby, but he still has this inquiring look on his face.

When of course, he’s not breaking out into a huge smile.

Health

He handled his 4-month vaccines pretty well. That evening, he became inconsolable and we gave him a dose of Tylenol around 4:30 and he calmed down. I decided to not give him any more OTC pain meds before bed and just waited to see if he’d need it in the middle of the night, but he ended up doing fine.

Otherwise, he’s been doing really well when it comes to minimal gas pain and reflux. Drooling a ton, but we haven’t seen any gum swelling where there may be a tooth coming in.

Likes

Going for stroller walks (when it’s not too hot) sitting in the actual stroller without the car seat. Sitting with us at the table with a toy to suck on. His toys. His fingers. Grabbing his feet. Watching his sisters. Being held. Nursing. When Grandma and Grandpa come over. When anyone comes over to visit and interact with him. Being held facing out when Chris carries him around on the Tushbaby.

Dislikes

Being startled. When Daddy innocently pops in his face with a smile and a “Hi!” Bottles. Falling asleep on my chest. It’s very rare when he falls asleep nursing and I can quickly flip him up onto my chest to breathe him in for awhile. Otherwise, he has NO time for sleeping upright on me. Same with skin to skin. Has no patience for it anymore.

Undecided about

Tummy time. His car seat.

Looking forward to

I’m looking forward to September when the girls go back to school and Chris has his last month of paternity leave. It will be just the three of us again with a quiet house. Though I’m going to have to figure some things out for when Chris returns to work (though thankfully still from home) in October and I have this baby with me all day and I’m somehow supposed to work.

So I guess I’m also looking forward to getting Austin to sleep consistently on his own.

See also:

Austin at 3 months

Austin at 2 months

Austin at 1 month