4 Month Doctor's appointment, Updates, Milestones, Friends, and Family

Tyler turned 4 months on August 12! Happy 4 month birthday Ty!!

He had his 4 month (well technically 4 months and 1 week) doctor's appointment yesterday and he is doing great! He did have to have 2 shots, but he was a champ!

The stats:

Weight: 13 lbs, 11 oz (25th%)
Length: 25 in. (50th%)...a big jump!
Head Circumference: 16 in. (10th%)....also a jump

The doctor said that Tyler is growing beautifully. She commented again that he is a very strong guy! She also said that Tyler is very precocious because he is already squealing and blowing raspberries.

Expected Milestones:
Smiling responsively: By 4 months (been doing this for awhile)
Laughing: 4 months (loves to laugh all the time!)
Squealing: 6 months (Tyler is doing this already!!)
Blowing Raspberries: 6 months (Tyler is doing this already!!!)

Raspberries:
Ty started blowing raspberries (which is very important for speech development) on Monday (August 16--on his 18 week bday)! I was so excited. He likes to do it a lot in the car. He will alternate talking/yelling and blowing raspberries, while playing with his favorite toy (the Eric Carle Elephant).Standing:
Tyler also recently started standing while holding onto something (a very low futon or a low coffee table). If you place his arms on the table/futon, he is able to balance and support himself for up to 20 seconds! Pretty incredible for a 4 month old. We didn't realize just how cool it was until we looked it up and found that babies aged 6.5 months are supposed to be able to do this skill only for about 2 seconds.....(just had to brag a little bit :) )...we are just so proud of him!

Mouthing:
Tyler has also become obsessed with putting everything in his mouth (his hands, blankets, toys, etc.) We really thought he was teething, but the doctor said that she didn't see any teeth getting ready to break through, and that this is all just a part of typical development. Tyler is exploring the world by way of his mouth.

Yelling:
He has also started yelling a lot and experimenting with his voice. This is very cool to see...although often very loud.

Sleeping:
For the past month Tyler has been sleeping through the night (from 9 pm-6:30/7 am). We have been so thrilled at all of the sleep we've been getting. ....This was until 5 nights ago. Ever since then, he's been up 4-5 times/night. He's not hungry, but just crying. As soon as you go into his room, rub his chest or head and give him his pacifier (which sometimes he wants and sometimes he doesn't), he falls right back to sleep. I guess we should feel blessed that it's not walking the halls with him for hours on end. It's really only a 5 minute sleep interruption. Tyler has very mild reflux and has been taking Zantac since he was 2 months old. We haven't upped the dose since then and it has seemed to eliminate all of his symptoms. The doctor told us at this visit that it is possible that he has outgrown the dosage and so we upped it from 0.8 ml 3x/day to 1.0 ml 2x/day and 0.8 ml 1x/day. She said to give it 7-10 days to see if that makes a difference with the night wakings. (She also did mention that it is pretty impressive that he has been sleeping through the night since 3 months old.)

Ty does seem to be a relatively even tempered baby, but we have been using the Baby Wise approach since he was born, and have found it to be excellent. Ty is on a great schedule and we believe he has been happier because he knows that his needs are being met. Thanks to Lauren and Robert for all the help you guys have given us in implementing this. We are so grateful to you all! Please move closer!! We miss you!

Schedule:
Ty was doing so well with his previous schedule. We started having to wake him for most of his naps, so we knew it was time to move him to a 3.5 hour schedule. We started it on 8/13/10 (17.5 wks) Here's his new schedule:

Feed: 7, 10:30, 2, 5:45, 8
Sleep: 8:30, 12, 3:45, 8:30 bedtime

It took him a few days to get adjusted to it and he is having no difficulty with it at this point. He gets to go longer in between feedings, stay up longer, nap longer and only have 3 naps!

I'm going to try to make a video of some of these milestones.

Pics:
Some time with Uncle Ry and Aunt Allie



Another one of Ty's girlfriends-Eve. She is Adrianne and Jason's little girl. After a nice walk, Adrianne and I sat the two of them together on the couch. I have never seen Ty interact with another baby like he did with Eve. The two of them smiled back and forth at each other, held hands, grabbed each other's shirts...and tried to get a little fresh :) Love that girl Eve!!




I realized that there are hardly any pictures of the people Ty's around the most...namely his Godmommy Fern!