4 Month Update! (17 Weeks)

Right now Liam is 121 days old! (That’s 17 Weeks and 2 Days!)

MILESTONES
Liam is now able to grasp things quite well for 1-2 minutes at a time when he wants to – such as a spoon, a piece of paper, page of a book (he can turn pages now.), a small toy, his hand, or someone elses fingers. He LOVES standing up, and will hapoily stand up assisted or in his jolly jumper for 10 mins or so at a time. He’s much more able to hold his head up, and is doing mini crunches by lifting up his head when lying on his back. He can now roll back to side!

Still wearing 000, and wearing size 1 shoes already!?!

He is now 63 cm tall and weighs 5.8kg.

He loves watching people, tv, moving objects, and toys. He absolutely LOVES music!

He’s much more responsive to games, social smiles, and people talking to him. He smiles and laughs regularly now.

If he wants to be picked up he now reaches out his arms, and when he is being changed he will now lift his legs up ready for the new nappy to go under his bottom.

He’s much more talkative now, and he’s coming up with new sounds and noises each day. Some of his newest are “Yeah”, “B”, “he,” full on laughter, squealing, “ng”, random vowel shapes, humming and general cooing, blowing tiny raspberries, blowing on fingers and hands when he doesn’t want them in his mouth. He especially loves people saying “yeah”, and “heh heh heh” to him.

His is awake quite frequently now, and can drink 260ml plus breast milk in a sitting happily if he’s hungry enough!

Solids tried;
Broccoli Stalks – Had a full baby bowl full and loved it.
Banana – had a piece of overripe banana about 2-3cm in size.
Cooked potato – a tiny piece of fluffy potato out of an oven baked chip.
Coffee- drank 2-3 decent gulps and loved it.

Chicken – Tasted – Loved it
Peri Peri Sauce – Tasted – Loved it
Vanilla Ice Cream – Tasted – Liked it
Carrot stick – Tasted – Liked it

Red Onion – Tasted – Hated it
Hot Salami – Tasted – Hated it

Lemon – Tasted – Didn’t mind it
Mozarella Cheese – Tasted
Burbon – Tasted
Pink Lemonade – Tasted

We have put his baby bowls, storage food pots, and baby cutlery in the kitchen ready for when he starts solids properly.

He has the same rough sleep / eat feed, though his milk demands have definitely skyrocketed. His poo is more smelly – usually a greeny dark brown colour, though it was like a creamy light brown / cream colour the last 2 times :S

Still breastfeeding with bottle topups, sometimes he refuses the breast (which he’s done at least 3 times.) Once a nipple shield was my saving grace, once I had to give him a bottle of expressed breast milk first, and once I just waited ’till he was too hungry to refuse.

He was sleeping in the co-sleeper until we felt that he outgrew it (he was able to get his legs over the sides) so now he mostly sleeps in his bassinet in the cot, or in our bed between us, since the risk for SIDS is now much lower.

He has definitely discovered his body parts – such as hands, fingers, feet, and he’s beginning to discover his penis.

Work is ramping up even more now – I quit Fridays at Music Corner and already I’ve almost filled my allocated capacity – so much so that I have to turn students away on Thursdays! I’m considering opening up Wednesdays, and in 2 weeks I’m picking up another 12-16 students!

We’re going to make a desk-top computer for me so I can vlog edit, as my laptop isn’t powerful enough to do that, and we bought more storage space for my vlogs. I’m heavily considering signing up to www.audioblocks.com so I can incorporate royalty-free sounds into my vlogs.

– TMI ALERT –
I got my first post-birth period a week ago. It was much lighter than my normal ones, and only lasted 3 days as opposed to the usual five. I only got very mild period pains “the brick” for about 30 mins, as opposed to my usual 2-3 days.

I’m also shedding hair like crazy! (I estimate I’m losing around 50 odd hairs per day, and I’m having to clean the shower drains once a week due to hair blockages!) Apparently this is a normal post-birth symptom I wasn’t aware of. Apparently it happens because we don’t shed hair during pregnancy, and then estrogen levels plummet once bubs arrives, causing the hair loss. Apparently I’ll keep losing my hair until Liam is 6 months to a year old. OH JOY! 😐

Some new baby games we’ve tried this month:
-Maneuvering Liam to sit and stand
-“Peekaboo” variants
-“Sh sh sh sh whooooooooooooooosh” as we go from far to close to his face, or as we hide and come back, or as he is lifted up and down over our heads, etc.
-Various games touching him, singing songs, and making noises for various body parts.
-Trying to teach Liam that he is Liam, and we are “Mummy” and “Daddy”.
-Baby conversations – copying his babble, and initiating and holding “conversations” with him.
-Putting him in his chair on the Lazy Susan and rocking ottoman
-Bouncing him up and down
-Lifting him in the air and bringing him back down
-Getting him to touch various things

Purchases and acquisitions this month:

For Liam;
Rubber ducks
“Pig the Pug” book
Infant sized diapers – 2 cartons
Large box of baby wipes
5 pairs of overalls and 2 shirts for Liam
Easter chicken toy
Easter headband, tail, and bowtie set
Black bowtie
Black formal tie
New teether
Formula
Baby Scales

(Our neighbor lent us her baby chair which he loves – The brand is “Boostie”

For vlog editing, dada storage upgrades, and photography;
Wide angle vlogging lens
Deadcat and rode microphone
More hard drives
Mouse and keyboard set
Mouse
Wireless remote trigger
Cable connecting computer to my laptop
Ram
Computer fan
Motherboard
Cpu
Blu ray burner
Video lights x 2 ($170 each)

For me:
new clothes – mostly tops, a jacket, and a pair of leggins (Refer to “Lucy Clothing” video.

General:
Mousetraps