4 months

I'll spare you all the "how could HE possibly be four months?" and all that stuff that I'm feeling, surprising myself that I am still amazed at the passage of time after 5.5 years of doing this!

Could it also REALLY be 5.5 YEARS THOUGH??? Today is my 5.5 year anniversary of being a mom. And I'm gonna celebrate it! You know, in that going to work sort of way. We did have half birthday brownies though.

Today is a milestone for my oldest and my youngest, and as for my middle one, she feels like she's lost in the middle right now, despite all of my best efforts to give her more attention than the other two combined. We still laugh our heads off at almost every move she makes because she is so damn funny figuring herself out.

Bryson is giving Addie a run for her happiest-baby-on-the-block title. He is SO happy, he is SO smilely, and his laugh, oh that wonderful laugh is plentiful. Just not when I'm prepared to record it. Out of no where he will look at his sisters smiling at him and the laugh comes straight from his belly and loud. He startles him self with the greatness of it. And speaking of startling. Everything scares this little guy. Nothing more than his daddy's sneeze. If he is tired and Lawrence's sneezes while he is holding him, it takes a good 10 minutes to calm him down. Luckily it's allergy season and the pollen count in Portland is particularly high this year! But when he's not startled, did I mention he is SO HAPPY!

I'm trying to think of all the mundane (except not to me!) baby things that I want to remember in cherish and eventually transfer into a baby book...

Drool - this kid is a faucet. He will soak a bib and a shirt through in 10 minutes. He even started to get a little diaper rash under his chin from all the wetness. I wonder if he is getting teeth. The other two didn't get teeth until after 7 months, but he is the size they were then, so maybe. My little brother got teeth at 2 months old! (and no, Dawn, we did not try and pull them! hehe:))

Rolling over - he is SOOOOO close to getting from his back to his belly.

New Toys - It's amazing, if you wait to give a baby toys and equipment that are age appropriate, they really LOVE it. Unlike what we did as first time parents, showing Lily all the toys and devices we had for her FAR before she was ready. By the time she was old enough to lay and look at an activity mat, she HATED it, because we had those music and lights playing for her since a week old! This week I spent $45 and an hour of scrubbing/disinfecting on Craigslist for about $200 worth of new baby gear. His favorites, the bumbo seat, exersaucer, and a play mat. All things we had before but sold or returned to their rightful owners. His new upright position has been a blast for him for a few minutes at a time. Up to now he was a laying on a blanket sort of guy, not much else to do, but watch his sisters and kick while on his back or tummy. He can't get enough of the new entertainment.

Poo - he was having a little trouble in this area. Going only 1-2x per week, and then A LOT. He was soooo stinky all the time. But just like his sisters before him, the exersaucer works wonders. Put him in that for about 5 minutes and he does his business. Now to get it to stay in the diaper, but we are so happy for him to get it out...the blowouts haven't even be that gross. well...

Sleep (you know this will be my longest section!) - He's sleeping really good! Listen, I almost feel guilty discussing the sleep. I've been there a non sleeper. I've worked my BUTT off to do all the "right" things, and she just wouldn't sleep. And I was SO SO SO JEALOUS of the mom's who were all, I don't know, I didn't do anything and he just started sleeping 7-7. Bite me those moms, I'd think. I couldn't even fathom it. I read EVERY book on the topic. I tried every thing, I broke every "bad" habit, but baby Lily still didn't follow the norm. So, I just want credit for my scars. Yes, my baby boy is sleeping mostly through the night (though he gave a a good run last week of up between 3-4ish). But I've been there, so I know it's hard to read if you are in no sleep land. What is the trick? Really? Not much. I've made sure he is on a good feeding schedule and getting plenty to eat during the day (which did require some pumping and bottling and even supplementing a little formula around 2.5 months). Then when he was waking at night around 2.5 months but not really eating, just nursing for under a minute and falling back to sleep, I knew he didn't need me to eat in the night. He was in his own crib by then, and when he woke up for a few nights, he did cry a bit. Maybe 20 minutes one night at the longest, and that wasn't wailing crying, it was just that fussy, I'd rather you come in here and get me, but even though you aren't, I'm not freaking out, kinda cry. I'm certainly not glad that Bryson was colicky for his first 6 weeks, listening to 4-6 hrs of solid crying a night was taxing. I would hold, bounce, rock, nurse, swaddle, unswaddle, burp, dance with all I had in me to soothe him for even a few moments. I would celebrate on nights when he only cried an hour. It kind of broke something in me, but it did make it so that when I decided he wasn't really eating at night, that I could let him fuss for no problem for a few minutes until he went back to sleep. It wasn't his mad cry. I know his mad cry, and I am so sorry he had to go through all that, but in the end, it allowed me to leave him alone long enough to soothe himself back to sleep. So it is one of the battle wounds that I'm glad for. He goes to bed around 7-7:30, I wake him at 10-11pm for a dream feed, and he wakes up between 5-8am, without much consistency there. If he wakes at 5, he'll go back to sleep after eating until 8, but if he wakes after 6, then he's up for the day after he eats. With that said, I should say, he is sleeping through the night, FOR NOW. Both of the girls slept through and then didn't on and off. Lily started at 12 months, stopped at 18 months, started again at 2...she's been sleeping pretty good ever since, with a case of terribleness bedtime battles right after 3 for about 3 months. Addie slept through very consistently until we made her share a room with her sister, and she is still getting up some nights and coming to our room. She started that at about 2.5, so I can't say HE SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT for good, just for now. And for now, I'll TAKE IT.

Nursing - He's nursing much better than he was. In the afternoon and evening my milk supply is usually low. I give him a bottle of pumped milk before bed so I know he had a full feeding (usually supplementing that with other stored breastmilk pumped from earlier in the day) at his dreamfeed I give him a bottle of formula, so that Lawrence can share that with me and so that I can pump at that time and use that milk for Sabine to give him the next day while I'm at work. To both the exclusively nursing moms or the exclusively formula feeding moms this probably sounds insane, but it is working for me. I have sanity that he is getting enough to eat, to sleep well, and that I have exclusively breastmilk to give him when I'm away from him so far. I can't explain why, but that is very important to me. I don't mind giving him formula when I'm there once a day, if it affords me enough supply for him to have only breastmilk while I'm at work.

Chiropractor - He had his monthly check up this month and I'm just simply amazed at what she can do for him. As well as what she's done for him. And what she finds. More and more, I wonder what kids' health and temperament would be like if they all saw pediatric chiropractors. She is so gentle with him, and you can tell when she helps him release tension in his neck or back or CHEEK (???) because he squirms when she touches it and then relaxes with a greater range of motion. All the while she explains why this tightness or that is the reason for his gassiness or constipation or preferring to look to the right or will help his immune system. It's fascinating and exciting to see how much it helps him. He isn't even the same baby that screamed and screamed 2.5-3 months ago. I love to look at his little body kicking in absolute glee!

Bruises - Bryson got his first bruise on his cheek last week. The white noise machine fell off the side of his crib while we were Addie and I were making him laugh, and jiggled it off the edge. OUCH. I know it is the first of many little boy bruises, I just wasn't expecting to be the one who caused it. Boo.

Other good things about today...
Sabine has been here for 8 months
My friend Lynnette had a HUGE baby girl. 9lbs 15oz, and isn't Attalia Justine a beautiful name?
My mother-in-law had a super cool girls only 65th birthday party celebration in NJ!