Little Dude - 4 Months

I finally decided to go ahead and publish Little Dude's 4 month update without his official picture since I'll be published his 5 month update soon.  I've had this written since he was 4 months old and took his picture at the same time.  I'll put the picture in when I get a new cord for my camera.

Age: 4 months

Weight and height: Little Dude is a hefty 12 pounds, 5 ounces and 24" long!  He's in the third percentile for weight (yay, he's finally back on the chart!) and the eighteenth percentile for height.  I'm loving his chubby little legs :)
For comparison, here are the other kids' stats at 4 months:
Princess: 11 lbs, 5.5 oz and 24" long
Little Man: 14 lbs, 11 oz and 25.75" long
Star: 12 lbs, 4 oz and 24.5" long

Wearing size: Size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes which finally fit him pretty well.  

Likes: Being swaddled in his new Aden and Anais muslin swaddles.  His flannel swaddle blankets are still his special blankets, but he gets overheated very easily and so I had to switch to something lighter for swaddling him this summer.  He loves the standing position and has very strong legs.  He enjoys being in the jumperoo for short periods of time with a blanket tucked around him to keep him upright.  He's a very sociable little guy and, if he's in the right mood, will give you the biggest smiles if you talk to him.

Dislikes: Not being held all the time (I've tried different baby carriers for him with no luck), going to sleep.

Eating habits:  His eating habits have improved over the last few weeks, although I'm hesitant to say he's "getting better" since we know from experience that his eating fluctuates a lot.  It has been encouraging to see him actually show hunger cues and want to eat sometimes, even if he still doesn't take enough by mouth for proper growth.  He gets 4 ounces of formula every 3 hours during the day for a total of 6 bottles.  Whatever he doesn't take by mouth gets fed through the G Tube. 

Sleeping habits: He doesn't usually nap well during the day.  If I set him down, he wakes up almost immediately.  He'll stay asleep longer if I hold him, but still doesn't nap as long as he needs to.  Sometimes, he'll have a good nap where he'll stay sleeping for over an hour after I lay him down, but unfortunately, that doesn't happen everyday.  He usually is asleep for the night by 8-9 pm.  Since he's 4 months old and has been gaining weight so well, the pediatrician okayed him to sleep through the night without a feeding.  He usually still wakes up between 1 and 3, but instead of feeding him, I put him back to sleep.  When he wakes up around 4:30 am, I feed him and then we both go back to sleep until between 6:30 and 7:30.

Milestones: He's smiling and "talking" and loves interaction.  He clasps his hands together and brings them to his mouth and will also grab things and try to get them in his mouth too.  He's just started purposely reaching for things whereas before he would only grab them if they happened to touch his hands.  He holds his head up pretty well during tummy time.  He has very strong legs and loves being in a standing position.  Developmentally, he's at about the level of a 3 month old and seems to be making good progress towards catching up.  He will be evaluated for occupational therapy to see if that would be useful to help him achieve the goal of being developmentally on track. 

Miscellaneous:  He can be a sweet little guy, but still a very challenging baby to care for because he cries so much and needs to be held.  After confirming tracheomalacia during a bronchoscopy, the pulmonologist instructed us to "spoil" Little Dude because he has a hard time breathing and often chokes when he's crying.  



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