Aren's 4 month check up

Four Months Old!!

Aren turned 4 months old on Monday, the 19th.  I took him to his check up on the following Wednesday and it turns out he's a wee little thing.

Height: 23 inches (1%)
Weight: 11 lbs 6 oz. (1%)

So 99% of all the other little boys his age are bigger than he is.  He's still in size 1 disposable diapers and size small for cloth diapers.  He wears 0-3 mo. clothes. 

We'll go back in two weeks to have a weight check to see that he's still doing some growing.  When we go back, I'll also have them give the rest of his vaccinations.  I wanted to split them up so he didn't have 3 shots and an oral all at once (like he did for his 2mo. appointment).  As it was, he had 5 different vaccinations (via two shots).  He did get a low-grade fever and was quite sleepy.  He has a hard time napping for longer than 45 min. at a time during the day, so I spent my afternoon (2.5 hours or so) holding him so he could get some rest. 

Despite being so small, he's still hitting his other developmental marks quite well.  He holds his head pretty steady when I hold onto his hands and pull him from a laying position to sitting up.  He has no desire to stay sitting up, though.  He still goes a bit floppy :)  

He's not only giving all of us great grins but he's started to giggle, too.  Love the giggle! 

He has started to roll from his back to his belly.  This meant it was time to get rid of the swaddle.  I tried this a couple of times but he just screamed and screamed so I kept swaddling him back up again.  On Sunday morning I found him on his belly in his crib and I had a little moment of panic.  I quickly checked to see that he was still breathing.  When Biju saw his position, he asked "Is he alive?" So that night we knew we had to just go cold turkey with the swaddle. 

That night was horrid.  He fell asleep and I put him down but he immediately woke up (which never happens!).  He couldn't be consoled.  I held him and it took a good 20 min. to calm him down again.  He slept for about a half hour then was screaming again.  Another 30 min. of crying and then he slept.  We did this quite a bit through the night.  At one point he scream/cried for forty-five minutes and no matter what I did - rubbing his back, patting his bottom, giving him his pacifier, helping him find his thumb, holding him - he just cried and cried.  Then, all the sudden, he gave up and conked out! 

I'm so glad that only happened the first night.  The second night was much improved.  I did have to go in twice to give him his binky but he went right back to sleep.  The third night, he slept solid until 5:45am when he was ready to nurse.  Last night (the fourth night without the swaddle) was more like the second night, but the poor babe had the slight fever from his shots. 

He's such a sweetheart.  He's got a very calm temperment - so I'm hoping he has some influence on his more exuberant older brothers.  He brings such happiness to the rest of the family. 

This is what he was doing while I was typing up this post: