Four Months of Locke

I've come to the conclusion that there's just about nothing sweeter than a four month old baby. They are so easy to take care of, so easy to entertain, absolutely melt-your-heart adorable, and so much fun. Locke has really come into his own little personality in the last month. He is "talking" up a storm! He talks when he's happy, when he's mad, when he's hungry, and especially when he's tired. He starting laughing last month and although it takes quite a bit to get him giggling, the payoff is well worth it. He is a baby of definites. He is either definitely hungry or definitely done nursing. Most of the time he is definitely happy unless he's super tired or it's past his time to eat. He is still sleeping through the night, although we have dropped the dream feed and he sometimes wakes up around 5 and talks to himself until he falls back asleep. His legs and arms are getting chunky and I just love the rolls and rubberbands! I get compliments from the ladies at daycare that he is such an easy baby, that he is so happy, and that he is rarely fussy even when he doesn't nap well.

That brings me to our major struggle with Locke and that's naps. While he is a great nighttime sleeper, he's a terrible napper. I tried going to a combo 3/3.5 hour feeding schedule and it was a disaster. Most days I'm lucky if he takes three 45 minute naps and one catnap in the evening. He can do this easily on a 3 hour feeding schedule, but when I tried to stretch that out it did not end well! It's nearly impossible to get a baby to wait for their food when they're not sleeping through the extra time. So we went back to the three hour schedule and dropped the dream feed and it's working great for us right now. I usually start Locke off in his crib for naps but if he wakes after 45 minutes I put him in his swing to see if he'll go back to sleep, because he won't if he's in his crib. This works about 50% of the time. The other 50% we just play and I try to make up the lost nap time by putting him down 15 minutes earlier for the next nap. I've just come to accept that Locke is not a great napper and move on with the day.

At his appointment he weighed 14 pounds, 10 ounces, which is a gain of 3 pounds 2 ounces since his 2 month appointment. He was also 26.5 inches long, which is 2 inches of growth in 2 months. He's already started growing out of the bottom of his 3-6 month sleepers. I can't remember if I mentioned earlier but Locke has something called torticullis, which is a tightening of the muscles in one side of his neck. It's probably due to him lying a certain way in my uterus for so long, and it manifests itself in that he prefers to turn his head in a certain direction. We've worked with him, per our pediatrician, in his tummy time and stretching out the neck muscles on the tight side and forcing him to use them. We got a good report from the doctor and instructions to keep working on it. He also took some x-rays of Locke's head because it's pretty asymmetrical due to Locke sleeping on his back and therefore one side of his head plus with the torticullis he lays on that one side whenever he can. His skull is kind of "bulgy" for lack of a better word around his temple and the x-rays show it's just positional and will correct itself over time. Locke's sutures in his skull are open (this is normal) and will allow for shifting and normalizing of the skull in the months to come. As far as milestones, he is grabbing and grasping objects and putting everything in his mouth. He can roll from side to side but not over, although he wants to and is trying. He is really working on picking his head up and can hold it up very well. He sticks his right arm out when I hold him because I think it makes it easier for him to balance that big noggin! Now on to the pictures!

We had Locke's 3 month pictures done 3 weeks ago but since I haven't ordered any yet we took some pictures before church last weekend. Everyone says how much Locke looks like Erik but I think he favors me a little.

Locke and Daddy.

Look at that sweet face! He sure does love when Momma comes to get him from naps!

And....he's done.

And again, happy baby!

Every day I wake up at 6:45 and although I'd love to sleep in, I really enjoy getting Locke up from his crib. In the past few weeks he has really started recognizing me as his mom and his main caretaker. It's more than that, though. I'm reading a book by Penelope Leach (I highly recommend another book by her, Your Baby and Child) called The Essential First Year and it talks about how babies need that one person in their lives who care about their every need, someone who truly cares if they have a wet diaper, if they are bored, and if they need some cuddling. They are few problems that can't be solved by momma. I love that feeling!