HaleyAnd just like that, Grady hit three months last week. It seems that with every subsequent baby, time flies by more quickly. Here’s a quick update on how this chubby fourth baby of ours is doing.
Schedule
Let’s just say that a schedule isn’t even in our vocabulary at this point, though I’m hoping we have a loose one soon. The problem with being baby #4 is that you’re carted around to all the happenings for your older siblings at all hours of the day. Though Grady has slept in his crib at night since week two (when he moved from the rock and play), crib naps are few and far between. Many of Grady’s naps happen in the car seat or while he’s strapped on Mama. And of course, he sleeps best on me anyway. When he does nap in his crib, it’s usually catnaps—anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. I’m ready for him to get past this newborn napping stage (since he’s no longer a newborn) and take longer more consistent naps. Mama needs this to happen soon to make freelancing work more manageable. Sometimes, he will nap in this swing in the room with me if I have some tight deadlines I have to meet.
Sleep
So besides an unpredictable nap schedule, he was sleeping well at night up until the week before he hit three months. He would go to bed around 9 or 9:30 p.m. and sleep until 3 or 3:30 a.m. Then he would wake up three hours later, but it was ok because at that point I was up for the day. Now, we’ve hit some sort of regression where he wakes up 2 to 3 times in a stretch of six hours. I know the four-month sleep regression is very common, but we’re a month out from that at this point.
Grady has never been a fan of swaddling, and for the first two months I swaddled him from the chest down since he escaped every full-body swaddle anyway. Now that the weather has turned cooler, I put him in this Halo SleepSack so he’s nice and warm.
Milestone blanket from Olive & Emma
Check Ups
At his two-month check up, Grady was 96% for weight (14 lbs 6 oz) and 78% for height (23.75 inches). His next check up is at four months, but I was at the pediatrician for my daughter the day before Grady hit three months and asked the nurse to weigh him. At that point he was 16 lbs 4 oz, putting him at 91% for weight. My Beaudozer was even bigger than him, (nearly 20 pounds at four months) but then slowed down once he started crawling. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out for Grady. I will say that his toes and fingers are long, if that’s an indication of anything. Scarlett was roughly the weight of Grady at three months when she turned one years old! Grady is wearing 6 and 9 month clothes, and his 6-month sleepers are stretched to the max so we’re going up to 9-month ones. Even his feet are too long for the foot area of the sleeper!
At his two-month check up, we did learn that the bump above his right eyebrow is a dermoid cyst. The pediatrician assured me that it looks benign, but that it will have to be removed. So we’ve been referred to a pediatric dermatologist at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta. He also is being referred to a physical therapist this month for his neck. He favors one side of his head when he sleeps, and as a result, that side is becoming flat instead of rounded. The pediatrician thinks that more than likely he was positioned that way in the womb, so his neck muscles are tight and pull him toward that direction.
Favoring
The verdict is still out on Grady’s look long term, but he most closely resembles my oldest son. Grady’s skin tone seems to be much darker than all my other kids, but my oldest tans the easiest. Grady’s hair seems to be coming in a light brown color, possibly with a hint of copper. His eyes still haven’t turned brown yet, but when I see them in the sunlight they are brown toward the middle. So either they will be hazel or turn completely brown.
Temperament
For the most part, Grady is go with the flow—mainly because he has to be this way since he’s the fourth child. But the past few weeks, we’ve been introduced to the witching hour(s) for him. Lately, from 5 to 7 p.m., he’s a bit fussy unless he’s being held. And of course, this is prime Mama time, when I’m helping with homework, refereeing kids, prepping dinner, cleaning up the kitchen and helping get the kids ready for baths and bed. Least to say, it’s a little chaotic even without throwing a baby into the mix. Other than this new development, he’s pretty easy—even when he doesn’t nap well. He is so entertained by all these little people bustling around him that I think he gets a bit bored when it’s just the two of us.
Much like my oldest son, Grady prefers to see all that is going on around him. And who can blame him with three older siblings all vying for attention. His favorite position is to be held facing outward. The only problem is that he’s a big baby, so this gets a bit tiring on the arms. But now that he’s long enough to face outward in my Lillebaby carrier, he’s a happy boy.
Feedings
My big boy loves to eat, and rarely spaces out feedings to three hours during the day. Typically, I’d say he eats every two hours or so. I’m still nursing on demand, which seems to work for us both. When he was about 5 weeks old, I suspected a dairy allergy because he developed a rash on his face after his newborn acne had cleared. I cut out dairy and the rash cleared. Then about a month later, I added some dairy in, mainly a little feta on my salad and I didn’t avoid foods that had minimal dairy in them. Well, I guess all that together added up after a while and it seemed to upset his tummy and eczema patches popped up on his thighs and arms. So I’m back to no dairy and will try again in a few months to see if he tolerates it better. Of course, because I already have one child with Eosinophilic Esophagitis, my mama tendency is to jump to the possibility of that for Grady since he’s displaying some of the symptoms my Beaudozer exhibited as a baby.
Likes
Grady was never a fan of the baby bathtub, but absolutely loves laying down in a couple inches of water in the big tub. He will kick and splash for 15 minutes straight. On rainy days, I’ll give him and Scarlett a bath during the day just for some fun entertainment.
He absolutely loves big sister, mostly because she is so attentive to him and is around him most while my older boys are in school. She wants to hold him all the time, but considering she’s only 10 pounds heavier, holding this big boy is tough if he decides to squirm.
Grady also loves watching my big boys wrestle, which is what they do roughly 80 percent of the time when they’re indoors. They love spending time with him, especially touching him at the most inopportune times (such as when he’s sleeping or nursing), but they mean well.
Though these three months have flown by, I’m doing my best to savor as many moments as possible since this is my last baby.
