Colson’s Fourth Month

(February 6 - March 5)

We started seeing a glimpse of a schedule. Generally, he would wake up around 7:30am and nurse, and then I would put him back down for a nap at 8 or 8:30. He would sleep for about an hour, then nurse again. Within the next hour to hour and a half I would put him down again for his next hour nap. Throughout the day, he would continue this cycle, with his afternoon nap sometimes lasting two hours. By the end of the day, it was bath, nurse, and then put him down for bed at 9:30pm. He would usually wake up once, maybe twice, in the night to nurse before the morning.

He can sit in the Bumbo! We were very excited for this stage to begin!

A couple of weeks into the month, I started stretching out the time of wakefulness to two complete hours, and then stretching his nursing to every two to three hours.

Colson was so close to rolling from his back to his front at this point. He could easily roll from his front to his back, although it was not always on purpose.

Later in the month, I started moving his bedtime up to 8:30pm. He would usually wake up once in the middle of the night before six or seven. However, after putting him down for the night, he started waking up 30 minutes later, crying in protest. I would leave him in there, though, to soothe himself back to sleep.

He had really bad cradle cap for about a month or so. It really made his hair fall out and made it really thin. I had no choice but to give his hair a little trim. It was getting so scraggly.Once it started growing back in, finally, it came in a lighter color of brown.  

....ah, much better with a little trim around the ears....

Colson started reaching for objects on his playmat. I love getting to this stage! He really enjoyed kicking his feet down onto the crinkley parts of the mat that made noise.

For some reason, he loved laying on hard surfaces, like the counter, a table, or the wood floor. He seemed to be happier there than on the carpet or a blanket.

Dad seems to have magical powers. At night, when Colson had trouble soothing himself back to sleep (before Dad and I went to bed), he could go up there, pick him, and then raise and lower him, up and down, to calm him back down to sleep. For Colson’s naps, Dad could lay him in the swing and sing him to sleep! Those things never seemed to work for me.

I had to train Colson on taking a bottle. For some reason, he would just refuse to take it and his tongue didn’t seem to understand what to do. I knew I had to change that if I ever needed to leave for a day. I started putting in 10 to 15 minutes a day of practically forcing a bottle in his mouth. He may have gotten a little bit better, but the training continued on into the next month or so. Next time around, I am definitely going to start the baby on a bottle much sooner, and offering it a couple of times a week to keep up the skill.

those cheeks!