BEYOND THE OVEN: Baby Update (4 months)

Yup, you read that right. Elliott is four months old already. He is growing too fast … what happened to my baby?? And since it’s been a while since I gave you an update on this little one, I figured we could catch up.

He’s a happy 18 weeks boy! At his physical earlier this week he was 15lbs 6oz and a whooping 25.5 inches.

We are finally in some sort of routine with daycare and work schedules but it has been the hardest transition we’ve had so far. Mainly on us as he is a happy camper with the babysitter and her little girls. We get so little time with him during the week which was a big change when I went back to work. I feel terrible for missing so much of his days and only having to spend time with him at night and early in the morning. We try to make every second count when we have him home especially over the weekend when it’s all day. How do you working moms do it? I know this past few weeks have driven me to be even more efficient and effective at work as I don’t want to miss any minute with him.

He is now ‘talking’ a lot and always trying to engage whoever he is with. His skills involve chewing anything that he can get into his mouth, grabbing and pulling my braids (and trying to eat those), laughing hysterically (the BEST sound in the world), grabbing his feet and trying to pull them to his mouth and trying so hard to roll over. He’s almost there. We have no teeth yet but considering how much he drools, I am guessing we are not far from that milestone.

He is fairly regular with his eating and sleeping schedule now. We go through 8-10 feedings a day and he takes 1-2 good naps. He is more awake and alert during the day which is fun because we get a lot of play time (and little housework on my part!). At night, he goes down by 9pm after a bath and only wakes up once, around 2-3am for a quick feeding and sleeps through till 7am when he wakes up as a cheerful baby. His morning ‘talking’ is what wakes us up every day between 7 – 7.15am.

What else? He is still only doing breastmilk but I am getting tired of pumping around the clock especially at work as it cuts into my already busy hours there. But I’m trying to stick with it for as long as I can. We are considering starting him on solids soon, probably next month. We got the clearance from his doctor this week at his four month physical. I think we will do purees starting out and transition to solids around 6 months if he can grab them himself then. I am excited though to make his puree food and I bookmarked these suggestions from Christina to try. What did you guys start your babies with??

It’s our first Christmas with him!! We are visiting Santa this weekend and I can’t wait to see if he reacts. Probably not, given he is so little. We also took some pictures for our holiday cards, which we sent out this week. We got them again this year from Minted.com. I love their selection and quality of holiday cards with unique designs from indie artists. Have you sent out your holiday cards yet? If not, be sure to check Minted.com for all things holiday cards, art and gifting.

Here’s a screenshot of ours from Minted.com:

That’s all the updates for now. From my family to yours, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!