Four Month Well Baby

Reese

Birth: 6 lbs 1 oz (10%) | 19" (34%)

Hospital Release: 5 lbs 11 oz (5%) | 19" (30%)

Ryan

Birth: 6 lbs 8 oz (16%) | 19.5" (43%)

Hospital Release: 5 lbs 15 oz (7%) | 19.5" (39%)

1 week: 5 lbs 13 oz (5%) | 19.5" (32%)

48 Hour Repeat Weight Check: 5 lbs 14 oz (4%) | 19.5" (28%)

1 month: 7 lbs 5 oz (13%) | 21.25" long (69%) | 14" head (19%)

2 months*: 8 lbs 7 oz (6%) | 22" long (38%) | 14.5" head (9%)

4 months: 12 lbs 14 oz (13%) | 25.75" long (76%) | 16" head (13%)

Milestones:

Both babies smile all the time now and both laugh. I spend most of my
days accidentally making them laugh and then doing whatever it was that made them
laugh another 368 times to make them laugh some more. Ryan is super
ticklish and will laugh like a crazy man if you catch him on the right
day. He's also more physical, so if you shake him around or bounce him
or hang him upside down he laughs like crazy. Joe does this thing where
he uses Ry's little fists to punch things or himself and he'll say stop
hitting yourself and Ryan just laughs and laughs. Reese is more of a
giggler and she will respond to things like light kisses and
raspberries.

{ Four months old - aka the time when we stick everything in our mouths. Cool party tricks include whole fists and large toys. }

Ryan is very good at sitting, I see him being able to sit unassisted here in the next few weeks. Reese can sit when propped in her Bumbo, but is not as steady on her tush without a lot of support.

Both babies can roll belly to back. Reese started doing this at 3 months (to the day) and Ryan started doing this 4 months (to the day).

Reese loves to stand on her feet and practice "walk". She also loves to bounce and has had a lot of fun exploring her jumperoo, although she is still terrified when she finds herself "standing" on her own in the jumperoo. This usually causes her to pull up her legs quickly and flop over like a fish out of water. Very funny to watch. Ryan is still sumo squatting every time you try to put pressure on his feet.

Ryan is still very visual and will reach for things that are out of his grasp and manipulate them. He is loving his exersaucer. The lights and all of the things to touch, tug and explore keep him busy for at least a half hour every day. If he can reach for a toy and put it in his mouth, that is even better than reaching for a toy and just holding it as far as he's concerned. Reese will reach for toys and things just out of her grasp. She's very into textures and is an extremely tactile and auditory baby. Classical music soothes her and she loves toys that crinkle or rattle.

Both babies can hold their heads up during tummy time. Reese loves tummy time and will sit like a little baby turtle on her belly for a half hour or more. Ryan won't do tummy time unless he's on our bed or another soft surface. Put him on the floor and all hell breaks loose. Since I don't like having my bed thrown up on 86 times a day and no matter how many towels/blankets/cloths I put on the duvet he still manages to hurl past the cover and onto the bed - well, let's just say I don't push the tummy time issue too much :)

Both kids are talking up a storm and it's funny to listen to them explore their voices. I love it. Reese has many, many new octaves and some days I can't tell whether she is crying or just chatting. Ryan just breaks out the voice at random times and will talk for an hour straight, he is very funny because he "enunciates" his sounds with his mouth very clearly so there is a lot of lip movement and facial contortion. It's like he's studied the way our mouth moves when we talk and he's trying to mimic it. Reese just hoots and hollers with no regard to lip/face/tongue movement.

Doctor Updates:

We asked about starting solids now and were advised to wait until 5 months, at which point we can start rice cereal, and then we were told to introduce other foods at the 6 month mark. Apparently this is to ensure that the babies don't develop allergies. I don't really agree with rice cereal being the babies' first food. But I guess I defer to the expert. I've already ordered whole grain brown rice cereal for their first bite. The kiddos won't have the white stuff first. I have to say though, I was really hoping to start them on something like sweet potatoes.

Ryan is having an issue right now with nighttime sleep and I think that the
kid is just HUNGRY. At first I thought, "oh, four month wakeful" because
Reese got up for like 3 days in the middle of the night too. But Ryan
is going on week three of waking up at 1-2 a.m. and 4-5 a.m. and again
at 7-8 a.m. (which is his normal wake up time). He eats and goes right
back to bed. I know I could try to fight it, but if he's hungry I feel like I should feed him. I've tried
loading him up through the day, feeding more frequently and a sort of
dream feed in that I feed him right before I put him to bed no matter
when I fed him last. Nothing has worked.

Our pedi said that he can make it through the night at this point and that we should try a modified Ferber with him. He also said that Ryan is not hungry, but we're teaching him that when he wakes up in the middle of the night that he gets food :/ So we're going to separate the twins this weekend and Ferberize the kid. I hope it works. I'm tired and tired of waking up three times a night (I don't fall back asleep as easily as I used to).

We asked about running with the babies and were told that they won't be ready for stroller runs until they can hold their heads up steadily which is normally between 7 and 8 months. So I'll be sticking to the gym and gym daycare for the duration of the beautiful spring and summer. But at least we'll be able to run together in the fall. I'm hoping to run the Schroon Lake half marathon again this September, so I'm praying the babies are ready for the jogging stroller by July so we can do training runs together. I can't imagine being without them for so many hours a week otherwise.

And, last but not least, Miss Reese is getting her ears pierced after her sixth monthday. Our pedi recommended waiting until she's had her third Hep B vaccine which we are bumping up from the 9 month well visit to the 6 month well visit. And then my baby gets some bitty bling. In all reality, I'm doing it early so that I can take care of the earrings for her before she discovers she has ears. But, I'm not going to lie, I think she's going to be super cute with tiny earrings.

*
our pedi does the 2 month well baby as close to 6 weeks as possible
since that is the earliest that they can vaccinate for whooping cough,
so the babies' 2 month stats were taken at 6w, 5d.

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