Elijah is four months old! He’s had a pretty eventful month, for such a young little guy, that is. He is such a fun little baby because he’s always quick to smile and giggles are easy to come by. He’s very content, easy, and great at falling asleep with little to no help when it comes to naps. Sometimes I feel guilty about that, but most of the time there just isn’t the opportunity to have a drawn out naptime routine. I have to carve out special time for him in other ways. His big “flaw” has been staying asleep, though that has improved dramatically this month, as you’ll see below.
The big change for Elijah this month is the ability to roll from back to tummy, but he’s also grabbing the toys he wants, touching his feet, and is in the beginning stages of learning to creep. Yes, I said creep. It seems early to me, but I haven’t checked the books. I keep finding him inching off his blanket. Now that he’s rolling so much he has taken a liking to sleeping on his sides – it’s too cute!
Elijah has gotten the nickname “octopus,” first used by my mom to describe him after she volunteered to change his diaper and put him in his PJ’s one night when I was busy. It fits him well because he latches onto your arms and you can’t do anything. If you manage to free yourself you still have the challenge of getting the diaper on right as he repetitively pulls his knees up to his chest and the abruptly and forcefully straightens them and clenches them too close together to maneuver the diaper. The good part about the nickname is that Josiah can say it, though he usually calls him “jijah.”
As I mentioned, we have have had some sleep issues to solve this month. We’ve battled reflux, gas, and mobility. He has always taken nice naps, but at night he’d cry multiple times after being put to bed, sometimes inconsolably. Finally after his late night feeding he’d sleep fairly well, and while some nights were perfect, often he’d still wake multiple times but be happy with the paci, then eventually poop, then sleep well until morning. I had been dealing with it ineffectively as a sleep problem. It finally dawned on me one night that this symptom, along with occasional LARGE volumes of spit up, gagging, and dry coughing, was typical for reflux. I should have caught it much earlier. We visited the pediatrician, got some meds and mostly resolved those issues, but the middle of the night problems remained. I decided to try some Mylicon again (it helped him greatly in the first month) and that seems to have cleared up the rest of our issues. Somewhere in there when he was mastering the rolling over and before I got the breathable bumper, we struggled with stuck arms and legs waking everyone up, but he now sleeps beautifully at night. I don’t like doing long term medications, so after we are well established in our nights I’m going to try to wean off at least the Mylicon.
Just a quick little side story related to sleep that I want to remember: The other morning we needed to get out of the house at a reasonable hour and we had heard Elijah making noise, so we headed to his room to get him up (for some reason both Jacob and I went). He was on his belly cozied up to the corner of the crib so I rolled him over and he immediately rolled back without ever opening his eyes. I rolled him again and he looked at us both and just smiled the biggest smiles, then rolled back over. I tried him one more time, but back over he went and was still. We finally got the hint to leave him alone for a few more ZZZZ’s. We joked that he was like trying to wake a teenager and left his room. So sweet!
Most recently we’ve dealt with yet another eye infection as well as a little cough. I had thought we cleared up the blocked tear duct issue, but in just one day he went from perfectly clear to infected. He has 2 more months to clear it up on his own, then he has to get a surgical procedure. Yuck! Yet another visit to the pediatrician confirmed my suspicion that the cough was related to worsening reflux. This came along with a couple nights of interrupted sleep. Since we used up his 4 month well check with a sick visit, we’ll be going back to the pediatrician next week for his official checkup and vaccines.
Elijah has become such a special part of our lives. We all love him in our own way. He’s my little guy to love and care for and be thankful for in those few quiet moments we get together when I can just absorb his preciousness. While I’m sure those things apply to Jacob as well, he is more focused on getting laughs and is very good at it! They are great entertainment for one another. Jacob is also a great medicine-giver. It tastes terrible! For Josiah Elijah is a great companion. Josiah loves for Elijah to come everywhere with him. He gets very distressed if he thinks we are leaving him behind. He also loves to plant himself in front of him and get laughs, usually either by fake laughing or by blowing on Elijah’s tummy. We have enjoyed Elijah thoroughly and look forward to who he will become.
(I had thought he seemed to have a lot more hair all the sudden, or at least I noticed it suddenly, so I looked at 3 month pictures and sure enough he has quite a bit more. He’s becoming more of a carrot top!)
1 comment:
I agree.. they look nothing alike, now funny! I'm always amazed at how different siblings can look sometimes. Love that his little personality is coming out. Maybe he and Henry spend the days smiling and giggling at each other at Cindys!
Post a Comment