Eating:
Kemper is still exclusively breastfed, and takes bottled breastmilk while at daycare on Tuesday's and Friday.s He made the move this month from eating every 3 hours to eating every 4 hours. When he is bottle fed, he eats roughly 4oz each time. His pediatrician gave us the go ahead to try solids at any time now, however we don't feel he is quite ready, so we may consider it closer to the 5 month mark. Breastfeeding is still going well 99% of the time. Every once in a while, he will get distracted or upset by a loud noise, or not want to eat for some other reason, and its very stressful for me. Its hard for me to let go of the schedule that we have worked to get him on and just let things flow, but I am working on that more and more. Breastfeeding is anything but black and white, and that in and of itself goes against what my personality is naturally. I've had to work really hard to pay attention to feeding cues from Kemper, be ok if he doesn't stick to his feeding schedule 100% of the time, and just let things flow. I FINALLY this month stopped clocking and logging his feeding times and lengths and side of breast in my phone. That was so freeing to finally give it up and looking back I realize I should have done it a long time ago. I have to constantly remind myself to be a baby watcher and not a clock watcher. I'd also like to mention that when breastfeeding is going well with no challenges or anxiety on my part (which really is most of the time), I absolutely love it. I now understand what it means for it to be rewarding and a great bonding tool with your baby. Its such a tranquil, sweet, quiet time with just Kemper and I that no one else gets to share, and its pretty magical. I am very proud that I stuck with it this time around (even given the big challenges we had the first 2-3 weeks). It was all very worth it.
Sleeping:
Once again, we have been all over the board when it comes to sleep this month. One good thing that has evened out this month is his nap schedule. He currently naps twice a day. First nap is almost to the minute 2 hours after he wakes up in the morning. Something about that 2 hour mark for him and he is ready to go down for the first nap. That nap can last anywhere from 45 min- 2 hours. The second nap usually happens between 1-2pm and can last 1-2 hours. Its true what they say about it being harder to keep the 2nd child on a nap schedule than the first one because you are constantly running all over the place with the older child that if you committed every single day to be home for all naps, you'd hardly be able to leave the house because there is such a short window when both kids are awake at the same time for more than 30 minutes. Because of this, Kemper at times will get his first nap when we are out and about, though I try not to make too big of a habit of this. Beyond napping, his night sleep has been anywhere from waking up every 2 hours, to sleeping 6 hours his first stretch and only waking up once a night. If I had to say what his "average" night of sleep is, I'd say that he wakes up twice a night with is sleeping stretches lasting 4-5 hours. His bedtime is always between 7:30-8:00pm and he is typically up for the day between 6:30-8:00am. He's still sleeping swaddled, although we had an adventure with that as well this month. He was constantly breaking out of his Velcro swaddle, and had even rolled over onto his tummy a couple of times. We thought maybe it was time for him to sleep unswaddled. We tried that for a couple of nights-cold turkey with no swaddle, and that did not fair well at all. In fact, we couldn't even get him down to sleep at all sometimes with no swaddle. We decided to look into other swaddles, and finally found the miracle blanket, which works great. He doesn't break out of it hardly at all, hasn't rolled over onto his tummy in it, and it seems to help with sleeping in general. Kemper is still being nursed to sleep at night, and we also have allowed him to sleep with his pacifier, though only if he needs it. I feed him in the middle of the night if he's been sleeping 3 hours or more, however if its less than that and he wakes up, I try to not feed him and just calm him back to sleep with a pacifier, or rocking him.
Clothes:
Our big boy magoo is currently wearing 6 month clothing
Doctors Visits:
Kemper had his 4 month check up this month as was given a clean bill of health once again. He weighed in at just over 16lbs (70th percentile), and in the 50th percentile for height.
Milestones:
This was a HUGE month for Kemper. He has made significant developmental strides during the 4th month. Here's what he's been up to:
- Rolling over from front to back and from back to front on a consistent basis
- Grabbing for toys and holding onto toys
- Holding his head up without help
- He found his voice this month and certainly likes to hear it. Even screams for fun sometimes
- Exploring in his Johnny Jump up. He plays with the toys on it and also does some simple jumping while in it.
- laughing (cutest thing ever!), and its usually Peyton making him laugh
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