4 months old!

Evan had his 4 month doctor appointment this morning. He weighed in at 16 lbs 10 oz! That nudged him just above the 75th percentile. He also grew to 26 inches long, just under the 90th percentile. He must get that from his dad! He had a couple of shots and of course hated that but calmed down pretty quickly - my brave boy.

I've been working on Evan's sleep habits. The biggest one is teaching him to fall asleep on his own. I have been reading everywhere to put the baby down when they're tired but not asleep yet and they'll learn to self soothe and fall asleep on their own. In my mind, that's what I had been doing but when I really stopped to think about it, I realized I had been putting Evan down when he was almost asleep anyway. By the end of the night he'd be so tired from waking up before he was ready that it took every trick in the book to get him to fall asleep. So for naptime one day, I decided to try a "no-cry" method I had read about. With this method, you start by putting the baby down when they're tired but not asleep yet. Each time he starts to cry, pick him up and comfort him just long enough until he's stopped crying and put him down again. He'll know you're there to comfort him, but you're not putting him to sleep. The woman who wrote the book on this started by having 126 up-downs the first night, 30 the second night and by the 4th night didn't have to do it at all. I didn't count but it took about half an hour the first time I tried it (and a few bangs of my head against a wall!). The next day he was falling asleep all on his own without having to pick him up for any nap. I miss rocking him to sleep but he seems to be sleeping much better at night now that he can put himself back to sleep when he rouses. He's still pretty much a cat-napper although he napped for an hour and a half yesterday without any help from me! There really must be something to this "put the baby down when they're tired but not asleep".

Laughapalooza

Jack got Evan laughing so hard that all he had to do was snap his fingers to get him to laugh more! He laughed more this one time than he has in his whole life so far!

Laughapalooza from Jennifer McDade on Vimeo.

Fun at the Circus

No, we didn't go to a traditional 3-ring circus. We had our very own circus on the changing table yesterday. Instead of a clown spritz bottle, well... I'll just let you finish that thought.

Evan was having a rough morning and afternoon yesterday - never figured out why but he woke up from very short naps screaming. Very uncharacteristic of him so I felt really bad. When I was trying to calm him down in the afternoon I decided to check the diaper even though I hadn't detected any rumbles from below. It was pretty wet, but no reason for him to be so distressed. He had peed through the diaper a bit so I changed the onesie and the crying began again so I tried to nurse him. That worked for a little while and when he was done it was back to the changing table because I felt his outfit was a little wet too. When I laid him down there was a sudden burst in seismic activity so I grabbed another diaper and tossed his outfit in the hamper. Once the cold air hit the nether region however, the showers began. Fortunately it didn't get me, but unfortunately for Evan, his perfect arch landed right in his face! In my rush to block the flow, I grabbed the soiled diaper and ended up smearing his leg. So there he is with a fresh wet onesie, a new wet outfit behind his head, a puddle in his eye, and a poop smear on his leg...... and a HUGE smile on his face. I could only stand there and laugh. This was a job for the bathtub. So one bath later he was in diaper #4 of this fiasco, onesie #3 and outfit #3 (although outfit #2 never made it on him!)

Evan ended up crashing on the couch for 2 hours (first time he's napped that long in WEEKS!)



And then he was such a happy boy when daddy came home!

They Grow Up So Fast

Every new parent will hear that hundreds of times before their baby is even born from every older parent, yet you never understand the extent of that statement until you have one of your own. I feel like I just transitioned the 0-3 month clothes out of Evan's wardrobe and now he's transitioning into 6-9 month clothes (at 3 1/2 months old!). He seems to be a goldfish - growing as big as his container. I keep thinking "he just got all these clothes for Christmas and he's already outgrowing them?" Well that was 7 weeks ago! And that's longer than the previous size lasted. Thankfully we got a huge addition to Evan's wardrobe from our little friend Ashton!

It really hit us how fast Evan has grown when we met little Lydia Jaeger, who at less than 3 months younger than Evan was less than half his size! It was the first younger baby we had met since we had him.

Evan's first haircut

We attempted his first haircut over the weekend. His stringy mohawk was about 4 inches long and he was rocking the Benjamin Franklin do for too long! I put him in the bumbo seat on the bathroom counter with a backwards bib and he looked like he was at the baby barber shop! I started by trimming the mohawk... not too bad but Ev was a little wiggly. Then I moved to the base of his head with the clippers. Erring on the side of caution, I went with a really long setting which didn't really trim anything. Jack suggested I try something much shorter and when we tried that, he burst into tears! Apparently the prongs were a bit much for his sensitive scalp. We did as much as we could and it's a little patchy but most of the excess hair is gone!

Changing table Evan

For some reason, Evan is almost always in the most wonderful mood on the changing table... even if he was an utter grump in the other room.

I'm a little late in posting this one from almost a month ago, but this was when Evan started gaining more voluntary control over his limbs and loved "dancing".

Dance, Dance, yeahhhh from Jennifer McDade on Vimeo.

And this one is from last night. More giggles for silly daddy! Again, really digging the sounds he can make with the back of his throat!

Changing table Evan from Jennifer McDade on Vimeo.

Some new sounds

Evan has been experimenting with some new sounds in the back of his throat and seems to have picked up on how to impersonate a Wookie! Wonder where he got that one from... Daddy!

Our little wookie from Jennifer McDade on Vimeo.

Accomplishment!

Evan rolled over for the first time last night! Jack and I were both there to witness it. He wasn't in the best of moods since it was evening and he was running out of steam, so once our applause and congratulations started he burst out crying. But he's an old pro all of a sudden and rolled over 5 times this morning as soon as I put him on his belly, and he was much happier about his accomplishment!

Rolly Polly from Jennifer McDade on Vimeo.