Four Months!

So in love with this picture!

There was a wardrobe malfunction with this pair of overalls, so we had to do a quick change.

Henry turned four months old on October 26!  Here's what he was up to in his fourth month of life:

• The biggest change for Henry (and his mama!) is that I returned to work on October 16.  I am working a 60% schedule, which means I go into the office three days a week.  We found a great nanny, which is the only reason I was able to return.  She takes good care of Henry while I'm gone, sending us pictures and text messages updating us on his day.
• So far the biggest challenge of working is definitely pumping milk for Henry to have while I'm gone.  It's a doozy of a process!  I pump three times a day when I am in the office, and it takes about 20 minutes for each session.  I am able to work while pumping, thank goodness.  Hopefully one day Henry will appreciate the lengths I went to give him a healthy supply of breast milk!
• Henry's four month appointment was rescheduled because of Hurricane Sandy, so I won't have his stats until November 12.  He seems like he is growing at a rapid speed, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's shot up to a much higher weight percentile.  He is also still really long, which is proving to be an issue when dressing him, now that it's fall and he needs long pants!
• Update: Henry, at 19 weeks, weighs 16 lbs, 2 oz. and is 25.5 inches long!  66% for weight and 60th for height. His head circumference is 16.8 inches (46%).
• Perhaps the most major milestone Henry reached this month was rolling over from back to tummy!  He first did it on October 22, and now he does it within seconds of you putting him on his back.  He has great neck control once he's on his belly, and he enjoys looking around or sometimes sucking on his fists in front of him.  He does get fussy after awhile, and he apparently isn't interested in rolling back over onto his back.  He's only done that once, I think.  Because he is a rolling machine, we took the bumpers off Henry's crib this month.
• Henry also laughed for the first time on October 4!  He loves to laugh during his favorite game, which is to be lifted into the air from a standing position on his changing table!  We lift him up and he smiles like he's having the time of his life.  Often, we'll play "helicopter" by swirling him back down to stand on the table.  Playing this game never gets old because he loves it so much.
• Another activity the whole family enjoys is to have a dance party in Henry's room while listening to Disney songs/musicals on Pandora!  We have a great video of Mark and Henry dancing to an Aladdin song that I'll upload soon.
• Sleep is going much better (knock on wood) than it used to.  Henry now sleeps between 5-7 hours on average before waking up for a late-night snack.  One night he went 8 hours and I got nervous that something had happened.  Nope, just progress (and some extra baby chub to keep him full!)
• Speaking of sleeping, naps still take place in the swing.  That will change beginning next week,when we start working on getting him to sleep in his crib during the day.  I'm hoping that if he's tired enough he'll go down without too much of a fight.
• Henry is much more interested in toys now.  He will grab toys if you put them on his lap or in his hands.  He has reached the stage where everything lands in his mouth, which means we have to keep said toys off of the floor and away from the dogs!
• Henry enjoyed his first trip to the park this month.  He's now an old pro at the baby swing, and he loves to sit in it and watch the big kids play!

Each month just keeps getting better, as Henry is more and more interactive.  Can't wait to see what month five brings!

How Do You Measure a Year?

Here's one way:

October 20, 2011

October 20, 2012

And what a year it has been...(the best of my life!)

Babies Don't Keep

Lately, Mark has been kind enough to handle Henry's middle-of-the-night feeding by giving him a bottle and letting me sleep.  Last night, though, I decided to feed him when he woke up at 4:15.  We had left Henry with a non-family babysitter for the first time that evening (in fact, with our nanny, but I'll save the back-to-work story for another day), and I wanted some extra snuggles.

After he was fed and changed, we sat in the rocker together for quite some time, nestled close.  At one point, I looked down at Henry and he was staring at me intently, with his mouth slightly open, as if to say, "Hi, Mama.  I feel so safe, cozy and loved right now."  So, I told him I loved him, too, so much.

As we were rocking, I couldn't help but think of the famous poem:

Mother, O' Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth.

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

 

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek - peekaboo.

 

 

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew,

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo.

 

 

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

~ Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

 

Henry and the Giant Pumpkin

Recently we took Henry to a local farm so that he we could choose some pumpkins for our front steps!  This farm also offered a corn maze, hay rides, a giant slide, and various autumn treats, but Henry was a bit too young to appreciate all that we could do.  I have a feeling next year will be a different story!  I did have an apple cider donut, and Mark bought a couple of apples, so we got a little more out of the $20 admission fee than just selecting pumpkins.  Other than that, the point of the outing, as I told Mark, was to indulge my need for a photo session with Henry all decked out in his adorable fall outfit, which Mark's mom so graciously purchased for the occasion.

Without further ado, pictures from our trip:

Doesn't Henry look thrilled to be at the pumpkin patch?!

I love his expression here!

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's...Henry!

Here is Henry enjoying his new favorite pastime: zooming around as an airplane!

Look at me!

What?!  You've never heard of a flying baby?

Hi, Mom!  Watch me go!

Three Months

Our big boy is three months old as of September 26, 2012!

Henry and his penguin friend are both listing to the left!

You have no idea how hard I had to work for this smile.

Here's what Henry is up to these days:

•  Henry has transitioned into 3-6 month clothes.  He can still fit into some 0-3 month things, but because most of them are summery and it's getting cooler, I don't often put him in them.  I also want him to wear all of his 3-6 month things before he outgrows them.
• Henry weighs 13 lbs, 12 oz at 13 weeks old.  He was wearing a diaper and an outfit when he was weighed, so he probably weighs more like 13 lbs, 6 oz or so.  That puts him in the 37th percentile.  He has dropped from the 50th percentile at his 2 month checkup, but the nurse didn't seem concerned, so I guess I won't be, either.  He has plenty of dirty and wet diapers a day, which I have read is the indicator that he gets enough to eat.
• He's now completed his two month shots.  I split them into three rounds, so he wouldn't have so much entering into his system at once.  The number of vaccinations required these days is ridiculous, but my thoughts on vaccines are a story for another day.  Henry tolerated the second and third sets of shots so well!  He cried for just a minute and then calmed down on his own, although I did feed him shortly after each set to give him more pain relief and emotional comfort.
• Henry has discovered, and is fascinated by, his hands, and his new thing is to lift his arms in the air with his hands in fists as if he were grasping the hanging toys on his playmat.  It looks like he's proclaiming victory, and it's adorable.
• Speaking of the playmat, Henry loves to hang out on his back and play with the toys.  He will hold onto a toy for minutes on end, and he also enjoys kicking one toy while gripping another.
• He hasn't rolled over from belly to back since the day we caught it on video, but he is nearly rolling from his back to his front.  He will get himself onto his side, but one of his arms always prevents him from making the final completion of the turn.  We think it won't be long, though!
• Henry has hung out in his bumbo chair a couple of times.  His head bobbles around like a little drunk man a bit, but it's good for his neck muscles.  He looks at us like it's no big deal to be sitting in his own mini chair.
• Henry is becoming increasingly chatty and vocal.  He "talks" to us, and to himself, all of the time.  I'm hoping this means he will be an early talker.  I would love for his first word to appear by 10-11 months.  We talk to him and read to him often in hopes that it will help his speech.
• I'm still keeping Henry on a 3 hour feeding schedule during the day.  He is typically awake for about 1.5-2 of those hours (including feeding), and then he will sleep for an hour or an hour and a half.
• We are still suckers for allowing Henry to nap in his swing.  He sleeps much better in it during the day than he does in his crib, so I'm going with it.  We will become more strict one of these days, but today is not that day!
• Henry does sleep in his crib at night.  He still wakes up at least once a night to eat, but he is pretty good about going right back down after he eats, so we're not losing too much sleep.
• Week 12 was Henry's fussiest period since his newborn days.  It seemed that nothing made him happy except for eating, and he was even fussy in the middle of the night after feedings.  I think it must have been a growth spurt.  Luckily, he has been much happier literally since he turned 13 weeks, which means that Mommy and Daddy are much happier and well-rested!
• Henry has a new habit of tucking in and sucking on his lips.  It is pretty cute.
• He loves playing "airplane" with Daddy.  Mark holds him horizontally and zooms him from room to room.  Sometimes he puts one of Henry's arms out like Superman.  I'll upload some photos soon.

Here are lots of other recent photos of our favorite little guy.

Wearing the onesie I made him at his shower.

My shirt is covered in spit up, but I don't care!

You expect me to sleep all night?  You've got to be kidding me. 

Hanging out in the Bumbo.

Hanging in my Puma jacket from Uncle Michael and Aunt Laura!

Evidence of the lip-sucking.

Visiting Michael and Laura in West Virginia.

 

Down By the Sea

Henry made his first trip to the ocean during our recent stay with my parents in North Carolina!  We decided to drive to Wrightsville Beach for the afternoon and evening.  Wrightsville is just outside of Wilmington, N.C., and is less than a two hour drive from Raleigh.

Here we are at Johnnie Mercer's boardwalk, watching the fishers, the surfers and the seagulls.  We bought Henry a Johnnie Mercer's t-shirt to commemorate the occasion.

One of my all-time favorite photos of me and my boy.

Hanging out with Grandma!

Henry wore a romper with a sailboat motif for the trip.

Mark bet me that I wouldn't sit on the ledge.  I'm surprised he thought he had a chance of winning.  I would have stood, but it made him too nervous ;-)

Next, we ventured to the ocean.  Henry had fallen asleep by this point and was not overly thrilled with being woken up to dip his toes in the water.  So, he returned to the stroller to hang out with Grandma, and Mark and I had fun on the surf.

Mark wanted to spoof the trendy "jumping" pose.  I'm embarrassed to say that his jump was better than mine.  See below.

We ended the day with a dinner al fresco at the Oceanic, our favorite Wrightsville restaurant.  It was a great day and a mini-vacation for all of us.