Garrett: Four Months!

Height/Weight: Twenty-five and a third inches, fifteen pounds. Not petite, by any means, but also not as big as they come. He's just right  ;-)

Wearing: Size two diapers (although not for much longer) and mostly 3-6 month clothing. Based on the way clothes fit him, it seems that the length of his torso is not proportional to the size of his waist: anything that snaps in the crotch or has feet in it is bordering on snug (in the 3-6 month size), but most 3-6 month shorts are completely loose around his waist. Whatever. Thankfully I have totes of William's clothes to dig through until I find stuff that fits and don't really have to go out and buy things to keep up with his growth (although I still manage to find plenty of reasons to buy stuff for him anyway)

Eating: Still all breast milk, although we definitely had some major headaches in this department over the past month. Anything (and everything) was a distraction from nursing, so I would have to do my best to completely isolate ourselves to have any hope of getting him to eat (not easy with William, mind you). And even then it was only about a 50% chance that he would nurse well. Not surprisingly, he made up for those lost daytime calories by waking (super) frequently at night, which made for some really rough days. Thankfully, things seem to be improving, although our pediatrician said he doesn't typically hear parents complain about distractibility while nursing until nine months. Here's to hoping this doesn't keep up for the next five months! I also had been pumping once a day since Garrett was about three weeks old, but stopped doing that right around four months because I'm pretty confident that I have an ample freezer supply built up--more than enough for the periodic date night and even less frequent full days/nights away from the boys.

Sleep: Well, if it hadn't been for the fact that he was getting up at least every three hours to make up for lost calories, sleep has been going great. At night at least. Naps are still a crapshoot; at best he is a serial cat-napper. Rationally, I know this is nothing terrible unordinary, especially since he exclusively naps in the crib (when we're home), but I am so ready for him to consolidate them into fewer, longer naps. Especially if I can get one of them to occur while William naps (that's not asking for too much, is it?)

Likes: For reasons that I will probably never understand, Garrett is obsessed with his big brother. Despite the fact that William kicks him, lays on him, rolls over him, tackles him--you name it, he does it. He does know his boundaries and will (usually) back away when Garrett starts to fuss, but most of the time Garrett just smiles and laughs through the abuse. And despite how uncomfortable it looks to me, I have a really hard time telling William to stop when Garrett seems to be enjoying it. Garrett also loves playing with the cute baby in the mirror, and any time in front of one is sure to elicit some squeals of laughter.

Dislikes: Well, the big one this month was that (for the most part) he disliked nursing during the day (or at least that's the only "dislike" I remember because it was such a headache and stressor for me). I did not know how angry this kid could get until I tried to nurse him when he didn't want to be nursed. It seems the stubbornness gene will be strong with this one. Oh--he also dislikes things that he can't get to his mouth. In his world, if he can get his hands on it, he should be able to pull it to his mouth. He's an unhappy camper when that doesn't happen.

Firsts: Garrett did his first overnight with my parents while Darrell and I went away to celebrate our anniversary, and not only did he do well taking the bottle, but he also slept better at night than he had been for us (figures). We celebrated Garrett's baptism at the end of May (that counts as a first, right?); maybe someday I'll get around to posting a few pictures from that. Other notable firsts? Rolled from tummy to back, went to the lake, watched Uncle Mike and the Saints play baseball, dipped his toes in the neighborhood wading pool... I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of others, but such is the life of the second child!