4 months of Johnny

Johnny,

I guess we recognize your 4 month birthday today. Technically you aren't four months until the 31st...but some months don't have 31 days...especially February! But you have completed your fourth calendar month so I guess that is a different technicality! Either way, time is going by too fast and we really need to get working on one of those pause buttons for life.

This month you finally woke up and looked around to start observing everything. While you still spend a fair amount of time like this...

There have been a lot more times where you can be found like this...

Even over the past week, you have been getting much stronger on holding your head up, being stable with your arms underneath, and figuring out all of this "baby stuff". You tolerate tummy time pretty well if you aren't hungry or tired. You also have been fussing more and more if we lay you back when we are holding you, you like to sit up and look around at everything. There are some pictures behind one of our couches that really catch your eye and you will look at them a lot. You also love to look at Mommy and talk to her a lot. You utter all sorts of sounds out of your mouth and are really moving your mouth into new shapes to see how that changes the sounds you make. You and Mommy will have whole conversations together and it is fun to see you talk and smile! The way you look at us with your big eyes and sounding off for attention makes my heart melt...

You spend a lot of time fending off the attention of your big sisters...

They simply adore you. They call you Johnny, Johnny Boy, Bubba, Buddy, or Baby Brother. They love to check on you and make sure you are taken care of constantly. We have to be careful with the toys they bring you to play with and to make sure they aren't plopped on your head too forcefully. Just today you woke up from a car seat induced nap to look over at MacKenzie sitting next to you and you gave her big smiles and cooed at her for a bit. It was sweet to see your attention given to her too.

You drink from a bottle really well and are starting to space out your feedings beyond every three hours. I am trying to decide whether you are ready for an ounce increase since the spacing seems to be getting a bit longer. I tried giving you more the other day and you spit it up all over me, so that test was a bust. We tried nursing a couple of times and you have a great latch, you just aren't focused enough to work at getting a good meal. You are also in the process of dropping your last feeding at night and have been going to bed before 10 every night this week!!! Yay!!! While you usually have two big naps (one from 9-11:30 and the other from 2:30-5:30) you still doze a good chunk of the day with periods of wakefulness dispersed as desired. A lot of times you will be sleeping, will pop one or both of your eyes open, look around, then fall back to sleep with a look on your face that says, "Nope...still not worth it...nothing exciting yet."

Johnny, I love you so much and am so glad you are here with us. Don't tell your sisters but you are the easiest baby so far and Mommy is soooo thankful for that. We look forward to the next month with you!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy