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".