Elliott is a good eater. He gets four 5-ounce feedings during the day and an 8-ounce bottle at bedtime. Fortunately, Elliott seamlessly transitions to taking a bottle on the days I work. We've found his bedtime process improved after moving to a bottle feeding at night; it keeps him awake long enough to eat the food he needs before bed. He gets mostly pumped milk in them, but we do sometimes supplement with formula. If you'd asked me before last night, I would have told you that we're in a good place with sleep as a result of our switch to a bedtime bottle. For the last few weeks, Elliott has been sleeping through the night (~8pm-8am) the vast majority of nights, but last night was a rough one with two wake ups due to congestion and an abnormal daytime schedule. If he continues to wake up at night, we're going to start solids; otherwise, we'll wait until closer to six months. Fortunately, Elliott's daytime sleep has made big strides, with almost all naps lasting at least an hour and many going two hours or more. He currently takes one morning nap and two afternoon ones, but he shows some interest in spacing out feedings and may be transitioning to two daily naps sooner rather than later.
Developmentally, Elliott has changed a lot. When he turned four months, he was very interested in his fingers but still shopping around. Within a week, he settled on his left thumb as the finger of choice, which is his go-to soothing method when he's getting tired or laying in bed and trying to go to sleep. As a result, he never uses the pacifier for more than 30 seconds at a time, if he even accepts it at all. The thumb discovery is likely the reason for his improved napping because I often see him on the nursery cam frantically sucking on the thumb before falling back asleep.
Elliott still isn't rolling (he regressed from his previous irregular tummy to back roll), but I don't think it's too far away. He found his feet this month, and he grabs them whenever he can reach them and uses that momentum to roll to his side regularly. He's not far from going all the over, and I suspect that he'll get back his tummy to back roll around the same time. When he gets excited, his entire body moves, and he can cover a surprising amount of distance. I have to be deliberate about giving Elliott time to lay on the floor and practice moving because we're so often on the go with big sister or cuddling. I can't seem to get enough cuddling with my happy, roly-poly baby.
Our lil' dude loves to be part of the action and is way happier sitting up on someone's lap than being in the Rock-N-Play at meal times. He's not sitting up on his own yet, but he shows a lot of interest in sitting up assisted. He loves (loves, loves, loves) the Jumperoo, which makes up for the incredible amount of space it consumes. Tall boy is already on the second height setting. He has become very chatty over the last few months, currently favoring (very, very) high pitched squeals, raspberries, and bbbbbb sounds. We encourage his vocalizations, but end up getting a lot of competing squeals from the Big Sister of the house. It's fun to have Elliott become more part of the family every day.
Despite this picture, he really is a very happy baby.
A look back:
What a sweet, sweet, SWEET boy. I love you, little Elliott.
ReplyDelete