Little Baby PAW: 4 months...just a little late.

We went to a new doctor here in California for your 4 month well check and shots. I already had in my mind that I wouldn't like the new doc just because I loved Dr. C so much. But I was very impressed. Your new doc is Dr. N. He's a male, which I didn't think I'd like. For some reason I like female doctors. He's been practicing pediatrics for 33 years and he's Egyptian. Dad came with me to this appointment because I don't like doing the immunization ones alone and he was very impressed as well. You seemed to love Dr. N too. You were all smiles. Which I have to say something that I mean in the most un-racist way, you've been a little sceptical here in CA of people with darker skin. A lot of the shaky bottom lip, fearful looks at me and even a few tears. I think its just because there's a lot of that here and you probably never saw it in Utah now that I think about it. I'm sure you'll get used to it. But Dr. N was great with you and you seemed to like him as well. He had dad and I laughing to the point of tears a couple times, which for some reason, humor in a doctor is important to us.

You're 13 lbs. 2 oz. and 24.5 inches long. Still skinny, but when I lift the car seat I'm thankful for that! The doc says you're growing fine, so that's fine with me. We're going to start you on some solids soon, so we'll see how that goes. We got a great plan from the doc for introducing foods and the timing of doing it. I think we'll stick to that plan and see how it goes.

We got referred to a therapist for your torticollis and we're also going to go get your head scanned for a shaping helmet. We won't know if you need that for a couple more months, but we're just getting some ideas about what might be happening in the near future.

You handled your shots like a champ. You only cried for a minute and you calmed down really fast and took a good nap. When you woke up you didn't seem like you were in any pain at all, just your normal happy self.

You've been sleeping well. My plan for bedtime before 10PM hasn't happened yet. It's usually closer to 11:00 that you go down and then you sleep for 8 or 9 hours. There have been a few nights where you wake up around 4AM just to play with your fingers and talk. You never cry, so sometimes I just turn down the monitor and go back to sleep. You've fallen back to sleep one your own sometimes and others I finally get up and shush you back to sleep or feed you a little and you fall right back to sleep. On those nights you usually sleep til 10AM or so, (and I do too). We (I) get enough rest but I'm not a fan of you waking up so early, (like normal babies do, I'm told).

I've come up with what I think it might be. This is mostly for my reference so I can see if I was right on any of it.

Being hungry. You're eating more at feedings and I'm feeding you less often. At bedtime you fall asleep pretty fast, sometimes before a full feeding. I'm wondering if you wake up hungry, so I need to start earlier and get to go be full before you fall asleep.
Your room. It doesn't have windows, which I thought would be great because it would be dark all the time. It worked the first few days, like 10+ hours a night, but now I'm wondering if you're smart enough to know that your room isn't going to be light in the morning like your old room was, so you wake up and have no idea if you should be awake yet or not. (I don't know how to fix that one.)
Sleep position. You really hate the swaddle now. We stopped a month ago and you've slept fine. We wrap you with your arms out because you like your arms up, in the 'I surrender' position. You've always fought the swaddle, most babies do, but you were starting to wake up mad early in the morning, grunting and squirming, trying to free your arms, and as soon as I'd help you get them out, you'd put them above your head and be back asleep in seconds. You've also slept on a sleep positioner, a little wedge with bumpers on the sides. I think I'm done with that as of tonight. You're way too big for it now and it also says to stop using it when baby starts rolling over. The bumpers also seem to get in your way when your trying to 'get comfortable'. You try to roll over on that and you can't, but I don't want you on your tummy, so I don't know how it keep you on your back when the wedge is gone...hmm...
The temperature. Your monitor tells us the temperature on your room, and it usually stays in the normal range, (it changes colors if its too hot or too cold). But I still think your room in Utah was always warmer than your room here. We don't have central heating here and it hasn't been bad. We have 4 space heaters throughout the house that do just fine when we need them. You're room is too small and has no ventilation to have its own heater in there so I usually just have one in the hall. I need to figure out how to make it a little warmer, but not turn it into a sauna.

That's all I got for now. This only happens every 5 nights or so, so I'm not super motivated to figure it out. I think maybe a "normal" daily routine will probably help too. Things are finally starting to settle down in our new home, so hopefully that will help you as well.

And some 4 month pictures...

Greenhalgh Family Pictures.