This week was the biggest overhaul in Billy's schedule. To be honest with you, I'm still not sure we've figured it out entirely yet. We've been pretty good at developing a routine and sticking with it, but as he grows and develops, our routine no longer fits his needs. The result is that all of a sudden, he'll burst right through that routine and we'll be left scrambling to put the pieces back together into a new routine for his new stage of life.
For example, let's start with his sleep schedule. Having been very excited when he started sleeping 7-9 hours straight through the night, we were shocked when that grew to 9-12 hours straight in just two weeks. If you factor in a quick feeding/changing session that typically lasts 20 minutes, he sleeps 11-15 hours straight now.
Speaking of sleeping, my Mother used to tell me when I was a small boy, my brother and I would fall asleep one way, and in the morning, we would be a jumbled mess with a leg over there, and arm over here, and a head hanging off the bed or something. Well guess what? Billy has learned how to scoot. I doubt it happens in his sleep, but I can't be sure. My guess is that right when he's falling asleep and right when he's waking up, he starts to fuss a bit and that results in the scooting. We'll lay him down one way and when we come to get him when he wakes, he's rotated his entire body 90-180 degrees. We often find him facing the other direction in which we laid him or laying sideways in this crib now.
Back to the schedule changes. Not only is his sleep schedule changing, but so are his napping and pooping schedule. First, the pooping. Billy was doing this every diaper change when we brought him home. Gradually, it reduced itself to every other diaper change. Now, he's lucky if he goes once a day. Reading on this out of concern, I found that its perfectly normal and some babies, due to their increased development in their stomach and intestinal systems, may only go once or twice a week!!!
From a napping schedule point of view, his extended night time sleeps have deteriorated his daytime naps dramatically. Now, we're lucky if he takes 2-3 naps during the day, instead of 5-7 naps. And during those 2-3 naps, he may be asleep anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours, but these days, its a lot closer to the 30 minutes. His body seems to have adjusted well to the concept of night being for sleeping, as well as becoming acclimated to his crib. He's rarely in his swing these days, hardly ever in his Pack N' Play, and as of next week, if he's still doing well, that Pack N' Play is moving out of there. We may also relocate the swing to his room, which would completely remove all of his things from our room. Not bad in less than 4 months.
Billy has begun reaching for things now, too. I wondered when this was going to start and its far more dramatic now. If you touch something to his chest, he'll reach for it with both hands. Without touching him though, he's a bit more reluctant, often just staring at it and starting to giggle. He can see it, knows he wants it, but can't quite command those arms yet. Touching him seems to trigger this response. Part of the reaching out process is that he's starting to bring his legs up toward his head and just yesterday, for the first time, grabbed onto his toes. He's already been grabbing other "stuff" during bath time and diaper changes, but doesn't seem to notice. Toe grabbing though, has arrived.
As the teething process continues, Billy's drooling level is still increasing. While we probably won't see a tooth pop through for month, the transition through the gum line is clearly underway. He has started chewing on everything, including our fingers. And those little gums can clamp down pretty hard. If you are distracted and are letting him play with your hands, you're going to be caught off guard when he chomps down with everything he's got.
Billy is 4 months old already next Saturday. Hard to believe he's growing up so fast. His overall weight gain is still on target, but has slowed some. He's dropped from the 75th percentile to the 65th percentile in body weight at 15 lbs. as of yesterday. That's using our household scale by weighing ourselves and then weighing ourselves with the baby. We both do it twice to check it and all four times we get 15 lbs. Doubling your birth weight is one of the signs that a baby is getting closer to the point of trying some solid food for the first time.
Yesterday, the little guy got to watch his first Bears game with Dad. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. He was confused as to what were probably some significant over reactions from his Father, no doubt. But that being said, once I explained to him that our rebuilt offensive line still looked like it was in shambles, our defense looked like it was in some sort of soft prevent all game, and our pass rush was basically non-existent, I think he understood. Then he calmed me down and told me it was only the preseason. Well, actually he said something like, "goo goo, ga ga, dada, aahhhhh, buh...", but I know what he meant. Point well taken son...
With Billy's 4 month birthday this Saturday, his Mother and I are planning on getting him one of those seats you stand/sit in and can spin around in. Then it has things you can play with on all for sides. We've seen these with a bunch of our friends. His neck control is significantly improved, so we think he should be able to handle it, but we'll see. Another week and we'll get it and see. The 4 month mark also begins a new stage of his life in several areas. We could start feeding him dry food at that point, likely in the form of some rice cereal, and as mentioned before, can throw some sunscreen on him and get him out and about. That should open up a huge window of new experiences and things to do now that he can venture outside these four walls for extended periods of time. It will also mark a whole new level of adapting for his Mother and I as we learn what all that entails for us. Here's to the final week of his "sunscreenless imprisonment" in Florida.
On top of that, right about the time his "birthday" is arriving, so shall Tropical Storm/Hurricane Bill. We have a Tropical Depression off the coast near Pensacola this morning, but that's no projected to head this way. Tropical Storm Ana should miss us to the South, but right behind her is coming Tropical Storm Bill and he's headed this way. He'll be a Hurricane by the time he gets near Jacksonville unless he changes course, so I'd say he's in for some new experiences to say the least!!!
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