Just a quick note

Locke had his 4 month visit with the pediatrician yesterday. He weighed in at 12lbs 8oz, almost 4.5 lbs heavier than he was 2 months ago. He was 24 inches long (2.25 inch increase) and his head circumference went up to 40.5 cm from 37. On the growth chart my pediatrician uses, he was in the 15th, 4oth, and 15th percentiles, respectively. (I have to specify that he only hits those marks on my pediatrician's growth chart...apparently there's more than one chart out there, because I plotted him on another chart with these stats and got <5, 10-15, and <5.)

He also got 2 shots, and I'm happy to say he took them like a champ. He just looked startled after the first one. After the second one he got all red and started shrieking, but as soon as I was able to scoop him up off the table and hold him, he quieted right down. He was totally chill by the time we were back in the waiting room to set up our 6 month appointment, and other than sleeping longer during his naps, they really didn't seem to affect him at all. Go Locke!!

Also, it's too early to say whether this is a permanent change, but the last 2 nights he dropped his 1-2am feeding. He has slept about 5 straight hours before waking up to be fed both nights. Very cautiously optimistic. :)

Four months already??

Locke is going to be four months old tomorrow.

Everyone told me that the first few months of his life were going to go by so fast, but the individual days seemed so long. When we were fighting the breastmilk colitis, and awake equalled crying, and every single diaper had blood flecks and I felt like the worst mother alive...yeah, those days didn't exactly fly. 1 AM feedings never did seem to pass quickly enough (and since sleeping through the night is a distant dream for us, I'll go ahead and say that they still don't go by quickly enough. Heh). And still...looking back on the last 4 months...

Yeah. I guess they did go by fast, after all.

Locke is pushing 12 lbs now. This seems huge to me, though I've looked at the growth charts and am prepared for Locke to still be in that 3rd percentile that he's been winging along since his birthday when we go to his doctor's appointment on Monday. He's almost too big for his 0-3 month clothes, though I think the diaper is the problem more than his size. I tried him in a couple of 3-6 months and they were still quite a bit too long. That's one thing I don't like about his all in one cloth diapers...they are bulky and make his clothes fit him weird. Still, I do love my clothies.

This month has been a pretty huge one in terms of Locke's development. He rolled over for the first time a week ago, tummy to back. He's done it exactly 4 times now, though naturally never when Daddy is home, and never when Mommy has the video camera out. In fact, I have made about 12 videos of tummy time since then, all with him kicking and flailing and wailing fruitlessly, because this is a kid who hates, hates, hates being on his stomach, and always has. I'm going to edit them together into a bad mommy montage that he can enjoy when he's a little older. Ha.

Other milestones include passing toys from one hand to another, holding his head up 90 degrees while on his stomach, oh, and learning to suck his thumb.

As far as sleeping is concerned...I tried weaning him off of nursing to sleep, but after a week and a half of 2+ hour scream battles I have decided to wait and try him again on it after we get back from vacation. In 2 weeks we are going to Virginia Beach for a 30th birthday getaway for Matthew. I thought 8 hours in the car with a 3 month old was bad, just can't wait for 13 hours with a 4 month old...

Still making progress on my 101 in 1001. I finished a scarf, started Locke's scrapbook, and signed up for NaNoWriMo for this November (that will be...interesting). Tried a few new recipes (including 2 I made up myself), had another Locke-free date, read a couple of adult books.

First blood in the 101 in 1001

So I've gotten started on my 101 in 1001. I've actually crossed one item off the list: take Locke on his first carousel ride. We visited Matthew's parents in Detroit for a few days, and we went to the Henry Ford museum. The carousel there is really old, and has some pretty interesting looking animals for the kids to ride (my favorite were the frogs). Matthew had Locke in the Baby Bjorn, so he got up in one of those stationary sled things carousels always have for the really tiny kids, while I stayed off to take pictures. Well, the guy who was running the carousel saw me standing there and practically insisted that I ride too, and even got us to move to a different sled (this one rocked a bit instead of being entirely stationary, so that was kind of cool). Not exactly how I envisioned Locke's first carousel (I sort of pictured him being more like 2 years old, and me holding him on a horse that didn't look like it moved too awfully much), but hey, at least I accomplished something, right? :)

Detroit is a 6.5 hour drive from us under the best of circumstances, and it ended up taking us actually 8 when we figured in stopping for Locke time. Mostly this involved stopping at rest stops to nurse...and let me tell you, after that particular visit, I am OVER nursing in public places, especially parking lots. My in-laws have either forgotten what it was like to care for a 3 month old infant, or they just didn't particularly care. Both days of our visit, we went places that were over an hour from their home, which was particularly bad for my baby because those days were bookended by full days in the car. I realized, halfway through the second day, that I'd made a major mistake by not standing up for what was best for my baby and telling them we really would rather have stayed somewhere within easy reach of their house and our hotel. I have to brag a little, though, and say in spite of all that running around, Locke was a really well behaved baby. I mean, sure, he was a little fussy from time to time; but he is 3 months old, after all. It wasn't until dinner the second night that he had a true meltdown, and by that time I'd grown a bit of a mommy backbone. ;) Which is to say, Matthew and I didn't wait it out at the restaurant with my poor overstimulated baby...we went back to the hotel and gave him some much needed down time instead.

That's all I'll say about that particular visit, because who really wants to hear me complain about my inlaws? Yeah, that's what I thought. :)

Next challenge: getting Locke weaned from nursing to sleep. This is going to be a huge undertaking, and one I need to stop putting off. When he was tiny, nursing was the only reliable way I could get him to sleep at all, and I took comfort from the fact that every baby book I've ever read says you can't spoil a newborn. Well, you could totally have fooled me, because now I have a son who wails, flat-out, high-pitched, mommy-why-do-you-hate-me top-of-the-lungs screams, if I try to make him sleep without nursing down first. Tonight was the first night I tried it, and it took me about an hour and a half to get him to sleep. This is going to be a loooooong week, I'm thinking. Sigh...