4 Month Check Up

Bradley got his four month vaccinations the other day and I must say that I have a great little man. He was chatting away to the doctor all throughout the checkup and only got three seconds worth of crying in on the second shot. What a big boy! He now is 25 3/4 inches long, his head is 17 inches around, and he weighs just over 15 lbs now. The visit went really well considering I didn't even have to wait in the waiting area but got to go right back to the room. That made me feel good not having to be around all the sick people that are at the doctors office. However, I had to stop back at the desk to make his six month appointment and in comes this lady who proceeds to stand as close as possible behind me and hack out a lung. Luckily, I had a blanket over Bradley's carrier so hopefully the germs didn't go through there but I was not covered myself so wouldn't be surprised if I ended up with that cough. I will never understand how people can be so rude as to cough on others.

There is no change in the elusive tooth that I can see at this point. I am starting to wonder if it is ever going to come out. It is still bothering him and making it difficult for us to sleep but it still hasn't cut through. Thank goodness for Baby Oragel though! He seems to be in a good mood during the day though. Bouncing around in his Jumperoo he makes all sorts of noises and seems to be in a competition with himself on how loud he can make his little voice. Sometimes it is a shout, others it is a squeal, and sometimes he just talks to himself in his own little baby language. He loves when we try to duplicate the noises he makes and he loves playing peek-a-boo. He played so hard in his Jumperoo that he gave himself a blister on his baby toe. I got a cream from the doctor to put on it and it is almost gone now but I don't think that I will let him play barefoot anymore in that toy.

Baby's First Tooth

I have been wondering if there is a reason behind Bradley chewing on his fingers and drooling and with him not sleeping or eating well and being fussy. Is he actually getting some teeth in? Well, yesterday he started crying out of the blue and when I went to comfort him I could see he had a white line on his bottom jaw in the spot of one of his center teeth. I thought I felt a bump there a couple days ago but couldn't be certain considering before he started teething it never occurred to me to feel him gums to know what was normal. I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was a tooth though so I ran over to Melissa's house across the street to show her. She has a 8 month old little boy that has several teeth in so I figured she would know what to look for. Bradley was still bawling so it was easy for her to see that sure enough, there is a little tooth just below the surface ready to come out! Now we just have to wait for it to actually break through so he can have some relief. I bought Baby Orajel to rub on his gums and it seems to work for a little while but the nights are still rough. He keeps waking up not necessarily hungry because his eyes are still closed. I think he is just in pain and cant sleep through it. I took pity on the poor guy last night (and myself) and let him sleep on my chest like the old days and he relaxed quite a bit. Halfway through the night I made him go back to his bed though. He kept waking up still but at least I had a couple hours of sleep so I was better able to get up and soothe him. Tonight if he is still unable to settle, I am going to try some baby Tylenol to take the edge off of the pain. I don't like using medicine more than what is absolutely necessary but I think this is one of those times that will be helpful. Since he hasn't yet mastered the art of holding a teether in his own mouth I get to do it for him! I am hoping he learns that soon though because if he doesn't I will never get anything done around the house or he will end up chewing his own fingers off.

Sleeping

I have been trying to get Bradley to fall asleep on his own without me rocking him first. Yesterday, I decided I would just put him down in his crib and let the mobile and music help him fall asleep. He was fussing for about 5 minutes when I decided to go in there. I know, that isn't a lot of time, but to a baby it is. I walked up to his crib and he looked up at me, got quiet, closed his eyes, and fell asleep. He just needed to know I was there! For his next nap I got him all wrapped up and was holding him while he settled down a bit. He just kept opening one eye to make sure I was there so finally I put him down and smoothed his hair and he immediately fell asleep. It was so nice to have him fall asleep pretty much on his own but for him to also still be comforted by me being there was even better. Sweet boy!

Time for an Upgrade

I am starting to think that Bradley has grown out of size 1 diapers. I don't think that it is possible for me to go through anymore Dreft stain remover than I have been recently. He had a recent mishap that went up his back and down his leg. Now, I am not sure how it goes in both directions but it did. In the process of changing him, he decides it would be a good time to empty his bladder. I jumped aside as to not get used as a target and even though he missed me, it all ended up puddled in the change pad and all the way in his hair. Well, I suppose that a bath would not come amiss at this point. Juggling my naked baby and filling a bath tub is no easy feat but I somehow managed and without fail, the phone rings. Whomever it is will have to wait. Bath time is getting a little harder, surprisingly. Without the use of the bath sling (which he outgrew) he tends to float up off of his seat or tip over or both simultaneously. After all the hard work of bathing, Bradley was tired out and falls asleep almost immediately. After that ordeal and having to get up every couple hours during the night still, I could really use a nap too but I refrained. After all, I have to now wash the seat of the Jumperoo where the above mentioned mishap happened. I will never understand how baby toys are so impossible to take apart. They seem simple enough to assemble but trying to remove a circular, three pronged seat is apparently above me. I did eventually manage and once it was washed, put it back together with a sense of accomplishment just to realize that I put it together backwards. Well, there goes my free time during Bradley's nap!

Night 3 of No Sleep

OK, this waking up every hour thing is getting a bit old now. So far, we have tried swaddling him differently and keeping him awake longer during the day. I figured that if I let him wiggle his arms out of the blanket he could suck or chew on his fingers as needed and he might be able to soothe himself back to sleep that way. Nope! Night 4, I think that I might try some more white noise in the room and see if that helps. The funny thing is, he isn't showing any signs of being sleep deprived. He is as happy as a lark during the day making noises and smiling at me. It is just me that is sleep deprived.

Need More Sleep!

Bradley had been sleeping pretty good lately. He is in his own crib and only has been waking up once in the middle of the night around 5:00 to eat. That is a huge improvement from the time he was a week old and slept only during the day or later when he did learn to sleep at night, he didn't want to sleep alone. I don't know what it is but the last two nights he has been waking me up every hour or hour and a half. When I go in there he isn't awake but he isn't necessarily sleeping either. His eyes are closed but he is making fussing noises. I don't normally give him a pacifier but I do when he seems to want it so in this circumstance I tried it. It seems to calm him down and he goes back to sleep just to wake up again in another hour the same way. I don't know if he is getting tired of being swaddled or he might be teething. He is drooling and chomping on his fingers all of the time so that could be the problem. Either way I hope that he starts sleeping longer through the night again. I almost started to forget how it felt to be a sleep deprived new mom.

Last night before we put Bradley down for the night he was playing in his Jumperoo. Both of his feet now touch the floor so we dont need to put a cushion under him anymore which is nice. I was watching TV and imitating this girl on American Idol that claps funny and Bradley started laughing. Apparently he loves clapping. It is funny how the small things are the things that babies love the most.

Sometimes you have to go for it

We had our workout class yesterday and it was weight lifting day. On Tuesdays we do more cardio so we use the stroller and do a lot of jogging and walking with it which means that Bradley tends to sleep through the entire class. During weight lifting class though we don't need the strollers so Bradley doesn't get lulled to sleep by being pushed around. He sat really well on his own for about 20 minutes in his car seat but then let me know he had enough sitting still. I took a mat and laid his blanket down on it and put him on his belly. He was so happy looking around and seeing all of the different things going on in the room. I think that is the longest he has done tummy time to date. After class, we went swimming and Jen and Mackenzie met us at the pool along with Scott and Mike because they wanted to see the babies in the pool as well. Jen decided she wanted to try to dunk Mackenzie in the water so Mike pulled out the video camera and caught it on tape. It is so scary to dunk a baby because all you do is blow in their face really hard so that they suck in air and you pull them under. They are really only under water for a split second but it is still freaky. Mackenzie did great and when she came up she just looked a little surprised but that is all. Scott and I weren't sure if we were ready to try it yet but I figured it was the best opportunity to do it if we were going to since there is a lifeguard at the pool and Scott would get to see it. I finally, after blowing in Bradley's face a dozen times to make sure he was sucking in air properly, went for it. My heart was pounding and I feel like I was more watching someone else do it than me actually purposely pulling my 3 month old baby underwater. I blew in his face, pulled him under, and pulled him back up so fast that it didn't even seem like it happened except that when he came back up he started turning red and looked like he wanted to cry. We were all laughing and saying "you're OK" and "good job" so he decided he wasn't so upset after all and began just looking around, taking everything in again. I am glad that I tried it but it was a little frightening too.

Bradley has been "talking" a lot more lately. I swear the other day he said, "I want milk" and he is saying "Mama" more often when he is hungry. It takes us by surprise each time because it is so unexpected. I know that he isn't saying anything on purpose and it just sounds like he is saying something but it is still funny each time. He is developing by leaps and bounds these days. He is also grabbing toys and putting them in his mouth. That seems so fast to me considering it was really only about 1 week ago that he started being able to grab anything in the first place but now is doing that AND putting it in his mouth. It is pretty cool to see him turning into his own little person. He has so much personality and it keeps growing everyday.

Across the Border

Yesterday, Bradley and I packed up the diaper bag and headed across the border to visit my sister Tabitha. The 3 of us and Tab's dog, Red, headed up to the outdoor mall in Rochester to walk around. It was really nice weather and we made several laps around the mall. Poor Red was too distracted to care that I hit him about 5 times with the stroller. Bradley didn't seem to notice either as he was too busy catching up on his sleep. I think he was dreaming about eating because he was suckling in his sleep. The mall is pretty small so we decided to head back to Tab's house to walk around her neighborhood. I had went to Babies R Us to get some baby supplies that I cant get in Canada, including a walker. In Canada, they don't sell walkers for babies because of the stair hazard. In my opinion, you should be responsible enough to use the walker in a safe area instead of having them taken away altogether. Anyway, I decided I would take a shot at getting one home that day. Tab helped me assemble it and load it into the car underneath the stroller so that it wasn't so obvious what it was. We also left the wheels off of it for the time being. They let me through no problem and I was so relieved. He is too small for it right now but it will be really nice to have it for him later.

About a month ago, my good friend Lindsay got engaged and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. Today we got to go wedding dress shopping for her. Her maid of honor, Carrie, has a 4 month old little girl named Evie that she was planning on bringing with her to go shopping and since Scott couldn't take work off, Bradley had to come too. He slept in his stroller for a little bit and then decided he had enough of sitting by himself so I had to try to hold him while taking pictures of all of the dresses and help Lindsay make decisions on the dresses. She was so understanding and didn't mind at all that we weren't able to be as attentive as we could have been without babies. We were there for about 3 hours before Bradley started getting a little fussy. I decided to head home instead of going to the second dress store since it would be another 30-40 minutes away and 1 1/2 to get home after that. All in all, it was a pretty successful day shopping and Bradley did pretty good considering how long we were there and him not being in his normal surroundings or able to play in his toys. I am realizing how tough it is to take babies places where you cant just lay a blanket down on the floor and set them down to play with their toys. It might get easier with age but right now he cant hold onto toys in order to occupy himself yet.