Today Matthew turns four months old, and somehow I feel that he is in the midst of a huge transition, one that places him somewhere in between being a sweet newborn and a feisty toddler. He’s on the brink of being able to move on his own accord, but is still very much a baby who needs his parents to attend to his every need; he still chokes on his own drool, spits up what seems like most of what he eats, and requires swaddling and bouncing in order to fall asleep.
Here he is next to the penguin at 1 week and at 4 months. He’s grown so much!
So much has happened since my last update from when he was 2 1/2 months old. Yes, life has been so filled with activity that I have not been able to update about him in a month and a half. The biggest highlight would be that the day after he turned 3 months old, I went back to work. Or, I should say, I started working. I began a new career, and it’s been one big adjustment. I hate leaving Matthew in the morning and hearing him scream in the background when I call my husband to see how things are going. It’s not that Brian isn’t good with Matthew while I’m at work; I think he’s better with him than I am. It’s just that I seem to always check in when he’s being fussy. Mom instinct, I guess. I’m also not the biggest fan of pumping several times a day while I’m at work (it feels like I pump alllll daaaaaay loooooong). But I’m learning a lot at my job and am so thankful to have a new career despite theses tough economic times.
Other than me going back to work, some other recent highlights include taking our baby boy on his first road trip (to Santa Cruz…our car suddenly and mysteriously broke down in the middle of nowhere, and he slept right through the entire crazy adventure) and his first airplane ride (to Northern California).
He also experienced his first Halloween, Thanksgiving, and trip to the snow!
Matthew’s personality is really starting to emerge and, when he’s not screaming, he’s a very happy baby. We’re not sure if he’s starting to teeth yet, but regardless, he has been waking us up several times per night with his seemingly random screaming for the past week or so. That’s been fun. One thing we’ve learned is that the second we are able to articulate what Matthew’s sleeping or eating patterns are, they change. He never stays in the same pattern for more than a week or two, but I guess that’s good because it means he’s growing and developing.
We love playing and hanging out with him because he’s such a goofball…even at this early age.
(This video was from when he wasn’t quite 3 months old)
(This video was from right before he was 4 months old)
I would say that Matthew’s biggest news is that he can now push his chest off the ground during tummy time! This has been a big struggle for him because he despises tummy time (I don’t blame him) and will cry and cry after more than a few seconds in the prone position. Now that he can push himself up, he’s SO close to rolling himself over to his back. One swift move of the legs and bam!, he’ll be there.
Another milestone that Matthew has stumbled upon is his uncanny ability to suck his thumb (or anything else attached to his arm, for that matter). He’s always been a hand chewer, and even a multi-finger sucker, but he’s now able to isolate his thumb and go to town on it. However, he’s not really the most graceful of thumb suckers. I’ve caught him in some quite funny positions, including one time where he figured out how to multitask by sticking his thumb in his mouth while also sticking one finger up his nose. What a goober…
Though I don’t have much else to say about our little guy, I do have one mental picture to share. It’s about the time of day with my little guy that I cherish most. Here it is.
As I lay in my bed early in the morning, my body fighting to stay asleep and my brain straining to listen to the rustling baby that I hear over the baby monitor, I consent to the fact that my baby is awake and, now, so am I. I’ve nursed him a few times in the middle of the night and have not had more than 2-3 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I’m exhausted. As I drag myself out of my bed, down the hallway, and into his room, I can hear him wiggling and kicking — an indication that he’s awake and ready to take on the day. I enter his room and look down into the crib at this (except that his eyes are open):
My little boy, all swaddled up, his eyes darting back and forth as he looks around his crib and waits to be freed from his Sleep Sack. I look at him over the rails of the crib, and there I receive the biggest, sweetest, happiest smile a mother has ever seen. He is genuinely happy to see me. And no matter what struggle we had in the middle of the night, no matter how sleep deprived or rushed to get out the door I am…I stop. I stop and I stare straight into his bright blue eyes and I smile back. I can’t help it. I speak to him sweetly as I undo his swaddle and as soon as his arms are free, they come up by his head and he immediately engages in the biggest and most satisfying stretch of the day. When he’s done stretching, I gently remove his arms from the armholes and pick him up. He molds into me. That moment right there, the one where I place him on my shoulder as I greet him good morning and he settles right in — that’s a moment I never want to forget. The feeling of his body melting into mine as I take him from his crib and carry him over to the rocking chair so that I can nurse him and hold him for the first time that day. It’s beautiful. I love it. I want to capture it and hold onto it forever.
Happy 4 months, baby boy.
