4 Months

Where is the time going? Despite the fact that I detest the newborn phase, I'm somewhat sad to see it ending. Every moment with (what I hope is) the last baby is bittersweet. It's exciting to see him grow and change, but kind of sad to know that this is my last time seeing all these "firsts". Needless to say, I'm trying to soak it all up!

Joel is still our "Jolly Joel". He's an incredibly happy and easygoing little guy. He seems to be taking after his big brother (and Daddy) in the personality department. Joel loves to be around anyone and smiles, coos, and giggles with whoever is paying attention to him. He's also following Caleb's patterns for growth and appears to be a long, skinny baby just like his big brother was. At his 4-month check-up, he weighed 14 pounds 6 ounces (44th percentile) and was 25.5 inches (76th percentile). He has dropped in his percentile for weight, but the doctor thinks that is due to how active he is. 

EATING: Joel is still nursing and doing great with it. He is much faster and more efficient, which is a good change from those first couple of months! We've switched back and forth between 4 feedings during the day and 5. It seems like no matter what, he still wakes up once at night to eat. It's hard to have such an unpredictable baby at this point considering the fact that the other two were on very solid eating schedules by this point. We've gotten a bit more lazy about giving him bottles, which ended up backfiring. He got a little picky with Grandma one day and refused to take the bottle. Needless to say, we're back to making sure he gets bottles more regularly so that Mommy can have a bit of freedom! We're also ready to start solids with him. I really despise baby food and would be happy waiting, but we're hoping solids might help him sleep a bit more at night.


SLEEPING: Joel is so-so in this department. Just when it seems like he's sleeping longer stretches, he's back to waking up randomly throughout the night. There have been days when he has slept 11 hours at night without eating, and days when he wakes up 4 hours into his sleep to eat....there's no telling what each night holds and it's testing every bit of my type-A, needs-a-schedule, personality! During the day, he's pretty much taking 3 naps. The morning and afternoon naps are about 1.5 to 2 hours each and the evening nap is usually less than an hour. He's a pretty good napper, so we're happy about that! He's also grown in his ability to put himself to sleep. There are times when he even fights being rocked and just wants to be put in his crib!


MILESTONES: Joel is definitely a mover! He rolls both ways all the time now and manages to get himself all over the place by rolling. There have been a few times when I've put him down in one spot and then came back to find him quite far from where he started. He is getting pretty good at gorilla sitting where he leans forward and supports himself for a bit before tumbling to the side. Joel loves spending time in his exersaucer and any other place that allows him to be upright with a view of what's going on. He's also become more aware of his hands and feet this month. He is growing into quite the thumb-sucker and seems to prefer that to a pacifier, which is quite the opposite of his siblings.