crew | four months

And just like that, another month has flown by. Each new stage that Crew reaches becomes my new favorite. His personality shines more and more each week and we love that we have such a happy baby!

weight: 18lbs, 1 oz

length: at 4 month appointment, 26.25 inches

clothes: 6-9 months

diapers: size 2 in disposables and wearing OS cloth

side note: I feel like I need to mention something my mom said to me this week. "Have I told you how much I like cloth diapers?" I thought I must be hearing things! She mentioned her initial reaction to cloth was just from not knowing anything about them...and picturing the "old fashioned" cloth diapers. I feel like more people would choose cloth if they knew how great/easy/cost effective/adorable they are!

hair color: blonde!

eye color: blue

eating: still breastfeeding and occasionally supplementing formula if we are out & about. He takes around 6 oz. each feeding. We got the go-ahead to start baby food from our doctor last week. More on that below!

nicknames: crew baby, crew man, crewster, C, crewseph, crew boo, crewdy booty (I'm sure he'll love that one when he gets older)

likes: (loves) baths, riding in the car, talking to you, smiling, being able to look around and see what's going on, being read to, laying on his belly, chewing on his hands, "singing"

dislikes: being hungry or sleepy

When Crew was born, I was so gung-ho on implementing the sleep training that I had read in "12 Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old." That quickly changed. While I'm sure that strategy works really well, the schedule required by that training method just wasn't practical for us. We would have had to began a strict schedule of having him in his crib, asleep by 7:00 PM for it to work. There are a lot of nights that we aren't home at 7 so we just couldn't do it. Yes, we could have put him to bed later, but because he goes to work with me at times that bedtime is what would have been needed to implement the book's training methods. Another part of that book that hasn't worked for us was stretching his feedings to every 4 hours during the day. He hasn't reached this point yet. I'm not sure if he's supposed to be there yet, but I am not worried about it. He eats every three hours and we are ok with that at this point.

While we didn't go by the book's sleep training methods, we did try more of a bedtime routine to help him go to sleep earlier. He had been going to sleep around 11 PM each night and since going back to work, I just could not stay up this late anymore. My days of being a night owl are long gone! We started a nightly routine of bath, reading, and then nursing. It has worked so well. Crew goes to sleep now between 8-9 PM and will sleep at least 8-9 hours, wake up to eat, and then go back to sleep for about 3 more hours. I used to think that keeping him up later would make him sleep longer, but that's not the case. Getting 8 hours of sleep straight has been wonderful!

Crew has become so distracted while nursing sometimes. It mainly happens when I come home to feed him for lunch. It's like he realizes that he hasn't seen me all day and gets excited. Even though it ends up taking him much longer to finish, it's so sweet. He will just pull his head back and turn to look at my face and smile and talk. He's such a sweetheart.

Also this week, Crew stood by himself! Ok, kind of. He has such strong, fat legs so we stood him up against the couch and let go. He stood there all by himself! Go Crewboo!

Crew learned to "sing" this week. It is so funny. He usually does it in the car and it just the sweetest sound you've ever heard. I will have to post a video of him doing it.

He has also become quite fond of his hands lately. He LOVES chewing on his fingers or trying to fit his entire fist in his mouth. We are constantly wiping his mouth of all the drool so he doesn't soak his clothes so quickly.                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

We went to the doctor for Crew's 4 month appointment at 17 weeks, 1 day. He had to get 3 more shots in his poor thighs. He did so good again though. I was more prepared this time and gave him some Tylenol before his appointment and I think it really helped with how he felt afterwards. Will conveniently happened to be substitute teaching that day so he didn't have to be there for the shots. Lolly (my mom) went with us. He hadn't napped all morning so after his shots I was able to hold him for a minute and he went right to sleep. He was a little out of sorts that day and the next, but overall it was much better than the two month shots.

Crew's doctor gave us the go ahead to start him on baby food. I know a lot of people wait until 6 months, but Crew is such a big baby (97th percentile in height and weight) that 4 months is a good time to start. We went to the grocery last weekend and decided on carrots for his first food. I am planning on making his baby food, but if it doesn't work out then it's not something I will lose any sleep over. It is so much cheaper than buying jarred food though. AND it was fun cooking his carrots! Will & I hope that cooking Crew's healthy veggies and fruit will motivate us to eat healthier too. Anyway, I was so sure that he would love eating carrots since he's such a good nurser/eater already. I was wrong! It was such a funny night trying to get him to eat. He spit it ALL out and we just laughed at him. He knew he was being silly and I think he enjoyed having us laugh at him. The second night of carrots went much better - I think he actually swallowed some!