Levi at 4 months

Let me start by saying that 4 months is one of my least favorites. He can't sit up on his own but he wants to be sitting up, he can't grab toys to play with them yet, he wants to be entertained by someone at all times, and naps are short and horrible. But I certainly love this little boy through it all and look forward to better months. The smiles at this age are generously handed out and light up his whole face.

We go to the doctor on Monday so I'll update with his stats then, but he weighed 14 pounds at 3 month, 6 days. He is wearing mostly 6 month clothes, but still fits in a few 3 month sleepers. Some of his 6 month clothes fit great, some are nice and roomy, and some still swallow him whole. Exhibit A:

Let's jump straight to it with the eczema. It was bad. Isaac went to the doctor on November 4th for his 3 year checkup so I called to see if they could see Levi at the same time. They had no problem fitting him in. I talked to the doctor about how we treated Isaac's eczema (he saw a different pediatrician for his first year), and she was able to write me a prescription for the same steroid oil that we used with Isaac. It worked great for the first few days, then not as much, but it's definitely better than it was. We'll see what she says next week when she sees it again. And it should be noted, even though I thought his skin looked awful when I took him in, she said she had seen much worse and wasn't as concerned as I was. His cradle cap still looks bad in places and the oil hasn't helped that much at all. He may just need to outgrow it.

Sleep. It's decent. I really shouldn't complain. He still needs the pacifier replaced a few times per night. We recently switched pacifiers to the next size up and he does keep it in better, but now the swaddle is our biggest problem. He is starting to show that he doesn't want to be swaddled, but he definitely still needs to be swaddled. Some nights he fights and wiggles all night, but there is no way he would sleep not swaddled. He flails his arms and legs like he's fighting a bear in his sleep.

He sleeps every night in the pack n play still in our bedroom, and takes his naps either in the rock n play, swing, or crib. He takes more swing naps these days because it (usually) helps him get past the 30-40 minute naps that started right on time at 3.5 months (just like his brother). I try to give him one nap a day in the crib, but it almost always lasts 30 minutes. In the 2 weeks we've been doing one crib nap a day he has taken 3 naps longer than 30 minutes, but that's ok. I'm just happy he's sleeping there by himself. Typically he takes one long morning nap in the RNP, a second medium nap in the RNP or swing, a third 30 minute nap in the crib, then a fourth 30-45 minute nap in the swing (or sometimes he skips this, or gets a catnap in the car while we're out after dinner). He goes to bed around 7:15 and wakes up around 6-6:20. It has been that way since the time change and I really hope that lengthens a little bit soon. I have stopped rocking him all the way to sleep. I rock him for a few minutes to soothe him and make him drowsy, then set him down and he falls asleep by himself.

Levi started showing many symptoms of teething a few weeks ago. One day he went from casually putting his hands in his mouth like a normal 3-month-old, to full on gnawing on one or both hands at all times. I don't see any teeth below the gums, but they've got to be there. Time will tell. We introduced Sophie the Giraffe this month to help with the "teething". He still can't hold onto her yet, and he doesn't really chew, but he does love for someone else to hold her while he makes out with her.

He rolls to his sides frequently, but still no rolling from belly to back or back to belly.

The spitting up became much more frequent this month, but that is all relative compared to how little he spit up his first 2-3 months of life. Seriously, he might have had one tiny spit up once or twice a week. Now it's not uncommon for him to go through two (or three) outfits a day. I'm going through more laundry myself, too. I've learned if I'm going somewhere later in the day I shouldn't put on the shirt I want to wear until right before I leave.

Levi is ticklish and you can almost always get a laugh out of him by tickling, but I feel so bad doing that. It's adorable, though. He also loves when you use his hands to play pat-a-cake. Watching Isaac run around the house and play is also one of Levi's favorite things.

Who needs to grab at toys when you can wiggle your way around to see the tv?

He is tolerating the car seat much better these days. We can actually take him out places now and feel confident that he won't have a total meltdown in the car seat. I was getting antsy to move him to a convertible seat to see if that helped but now we'll probably stick with the infant seat for a couple more months.

We tried him out in the exersaucer last week for the first time. He enjoys looking at the toys, but he can't really reach out and play with any of them yet.

Favorite baby items this month:

Returning favorites...

Derma Smoothe oil (rx) for eczema

Fisher Price Soothe and Glow Seahorse. Isaac always loved the seahorse and we're using it with Levi the same way we did with Isaac. Seahorse gets turned on when we put him down for nap and bed, Levi stares at it and drifts off to sleep.

Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive diapers. We had to switch to sensitive diapers when Levi was just a few weeks old due to some irritation, and we recently ran out so I decided to try the regular Swaddlers again since we had some in the closet that we received as gifts. It took a week or two for the irritation to show up again, but it did. We love the Sensitives!