I missed the 4-month update, but want to take a minute to document what has been going on in Max's world for the past couple months.The surgery has been the biggest thing since his last monthly update. He has continued to recover wonderfully. If it weren't for the scar on his head, I would probably not think about it very often. It seems like a distant memory now, and it was really only a small hiccup in his first few months...he hasn't really missed a beat. One of these days I'll get around to posting the rest of the posts about his surgery (they're all written up but I haven't added the pictures).
Stats
At his 4-month check-up he weighed in right under 19.5 pounds and was 27.25 inches long, both 98th percentile. His head continued to be waaaay off the charts at 18.5". He also has two teeth that just (a few days ago) came through on the bottom. They have seemed to bother him some during the days, but haven't interrupted his nighttime sleep so far.
Eating
He nurses maybe 6-7 times per day. I recall Jesse having put himself on a pretty predictable 5 meals/day routine by this point, but Max has not. He probably eats more often (every 2-3 hours instead of every 3-4) than Jesse did, but then again I have less energy/desire to try every trick in the book to make him stop fussing when he gets a little cranky so I just do what I know is going to work.
Night Sleep
The month of January and the first part of February were a little rough in the sleep department. Considering all that Max went through, his sleep was really not too terrible, but between the sickness he experienced after the holidays and the surgery at the end of the month, he had more issues than previously. Thankfully, those issues seem to have resolved themselves now.
A couple weeks after the surgery we also experimented with putting Max in Jesse's room. We converted Jesse's bed back into a crib and let Jesse sleep on one of our air mattresses on the floor. Max was (mostly) sleeping through the night, but we were still having some issues since the surgery, so we thought maybe he would sleep better in a different room and in a real crib rather than the pack and play. This did the trick and since then Max has not turned back from sleeping through the night again. He also began going down much earlier (6 or 6:30 PM). So now he is going down around 6 or 6:30 p.m. (he really has trouble making it much past this point) and sleeps until 6 or 6:30 a.m. If Jesse naps, he doesn't go to bed until 8 or 8:30, so by this time Max is in a pretty deep sleep and isn't disturbed by Jesse making a little noise flipping through books as he goes to sleep; if Jesse doesn't nap, Jesse goes to bed around the same time as Max and this seems to work just fine, too.
Naps
Naps are still not amazing, but he is on a pretty predictable routine of 3 naps per day. He can comfortably have about 2 hours of awake time before he needs another nap, but it usually works out that we stretch that time a little bit between his last nap and bedtime. He takes naps at roughly 8:30, 11:00 and 2:00, but that varies depending on how much we need to get out and about on a given day.
Play/Milestones
Max enjoys his toys and putting all toys in his mouth. He still loves the bouncy seat, but also tolerates some time on the blanket and under the play gym each day. He enjoys just being held much more than Jesse ever did; I think this is partly because he has lots of activity (aka Jesse) to watch. He loves watching Jesse and will just smile and grin at him all the time. He has the sweetest little smile/laugh and loves to be tickled on his shoulders.
He rolled over once from tummy to back last week, but hasn't done it since. He can nearly get from back to belly, but gets stuck on his arm, so he hasn't quite made it all the way over yet, but he is almost there. He can sit unsupported for about 5 seconds or so.
Temperament
Max is definitely a much more content, laid-back baby than he was the first three months of his life. Ironically, the most content he has ever been were the few days after he got home after his surgery. He was just SO content and hardly fussed at all. I would say that he is somewhere in the middle now. I think he gets bored sometimes and will be happier once he can move and explore a little bit (or maybe once the weather gets warm enough that we can get out of this apartment more often and he can see something other than white walls...ha).
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| Max has recently discovered his thumb. |
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| Max was listening to Jesse "read" Sleeping Beauty. That's some male bonding time for you. |
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| Sweet brothers. |
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| Another picture of Max adoring Jesse (and sweet baby feet). |
