Saturday, March 5, 2011

4 months, slow and fast!

Nathan was four months old on March 2nd. . .

. . .are you kidding me!?

I don't know when babies aren't newborns anymore, but I don't think Nathan counts as one.

He just got his four-month shots and is doing really well.

We also got our new sheet of "Nathan statistics"! We love this part of the appointments! They print off all the stats from birth to current, and you get to see how they've grown.

Here's a quick recap:

8 days old:
20th% in weight,
60th% in height,
21st% in head circumference
(can you say beanpole!?)

20 days old:
20th% in weight,
32nd% in height,
15th% in head circumference
(shrunken head syndrome? :o))

2 months:
33rd% in weight,
32nd% in height,
21st% in head circumference

4 months:
46th% in weight,
54th% in height,
47th% in head circumference.

So I guess his head has grown a ton in two months. He's a pretty average-sized baby. He still continues to have a long torso; hopefully he'll be tall. He's taller than half the babies his age, so maybe this is a good sign. Apparently I always struggled to stay above 5-10% as a baby.
He won't be getting tall genes from me!

He currently weighs 14 lb 11 oz, is 25 inches tall (he's two feet tall!), and his head is 16.6 inches. Oh, and he's 19% body fat.

We have loved, loved, LOVED being parents to this little man. We now see why having kids is worth it! (I couldn't say that when I was pregnant!)

He's almost completely over his colic, but still shows signs and likes to prolong his crying AFTER we've taken care of the problem. We'll get there eventually!

He has the funniest facial expressions, and always has.
(I think this picture is a little less-flattering for the poor guy...especially b/c it makes his nose look huge! But it proves the point...)

He's always smiling when he's talking to us, and always wants to be a part of conversations.

He's also becoming quite the little flirt!

And it's a pretty rare thing to catch him without his fist in his mouth. This is his new favorite activity...
...trying to cram ALL...those...fingers...in his mouth!!

He wants to be a thumb-sucker but mean mom won't let him.

Nathan has discovered boredom this month. He now knows what it's like to play with a toy (another new development! Playing with toys!!) until he's bored, then toss it aside and cry for something new to do.

We brought home this fun toy about a week ago. He kind of bounces, which hopefully cures his fear of bouncing, haha, and one day he'll even figure out how to jump. But for now we hook toys to it that he can reach and he loves to spend time in it!
It's like a mix between an exersaucer and a johnny jump-up. We don't have doorjams that will work with a johnny jump-up but we really wanted one. We were so glad to find a friend selling this fun toy! (We got a new mattress with part of our tax refund, and this was Nathan's "present"!) It's so cute to watch his legs dangle! His tiptoes touch the ground, which is how it should be, but usually his legs are bent a bit.

I love spending my days with this little guy. He is always trying to put things in his mouth. He's not to the point where he'll grab for things he sees, but if it's touching his hands or if he touches it while he's flailing around all baby-like, it's his!
I've decided to go back to school full-time in April for the Spring semester instead of waiting for the Fall semester in September. (We're on Winter now...isn't year-round school confusing?) I deferred for Winter semester. You get one general deferment, and I used it. He was so colicky and crying all the time, oh and also NEVER sleeping, so I wasn't getting enough done to keep up with online classes.

Since Spring is my off-semester I'll have access to online and night classes, which shouldn't interfere with Mitch's schedule, so he can watch Nathan. I'll miss being away in the evenings, but I need to graduate and I should only have 3 semesters left. So far I'm a bit behind and I want to get caught up!

That's where we are. We're excited to see our families in April, but not much more is happening before then. Mitch is doing fine in school; not much to report there! We're just waiting for this Idaho winter to end and school to be over (for Mitch, anyway).
("The boy with the invisible hair")

6 comments:

  1. What a cutie!! I also love what you did with his room! Can you come decorate my house?

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  2. Amen to the end of Winter. I CANNOT wait. I am getting stir crazy. I am so happy the snow is starting to melt. I love your little guy too! What a sweetie! You amaze me with your motherhood skills. You can do so much!

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  3. aw he's co cute! Way to go you for catching up in school on the way to graduation!

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  4. Soooo cute. I'm proud of you, you're a great mom and you're a hard worker, keep it up and school will be done in no time!

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  5. You have a cute little guy. My kids were always tiny with huge heads. it's kinda funny. Celeste was always in like the 10-20% in height and weight and 95% for head circumference. So when is your next visit, our little men should have a play date. and i love nathan's room. i have that same CD player on Charlies crib, isn't it awesome? Good luck with school hope to see you soon!

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  6. Ahhh, he's so cute! yay! for a nice average-size baby :) Good luck with school next semester!

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