Four-month update

Will had his four-month birthday and his four-month doctor's appointment on Friday. I thought he was getting to be quite the little chunker, but that goes to show how little I know about babies, since he weighed in at 13 lbs, 5 oz., still in the 25th percentile. He is 25 and a quarter inches long (tall, I suppose), which is the 65th percentile. And despite the nasty cold that he picked up after less than a week in daycare, he got a clean bill of health and four shots. I had planned to take the day off because the last time he got shots his leg swelled up and he was a very unhappy little guy and I wanted to be around in case that happened again. But it didn't, and he got through the day just fine and I had my day off anyway. That's the nice thing about still being eligible for maternity leave--I don't have to worry ever about taking days off. I just don't get paid for them.

One thing the pediatrician said that alarmed me is that we should stop nursing Will to sleep. Will has been a wonderful nighttime sleeper for most of his life and I know and appreciate how lucky we've been to get the relatively full nights of sleep that we've been enjoying for the last almost two months. So I figured it would be disastrous to change the routine so radically, especially since Will has also been throwing off his swaddling blankets at night, so we've known for a while that we'd probably stop swaddling him soon too. So Friday night when Will got tired I fed him, Matt changed him, swaddled him loosely, and put him in his crib with a pacifier and read to him. For forty-five minutes. And the baby fell asleep! I think Matt felt like those forty-five minutes were very long, but I was amazed and thrilled that the exercise worked at all. And he slept for a good six hours or so before waking up to eat. When his cold was at its worst he'd wake up every two hours, just like when he was a newborn, so both of us were relieved that he returned so easily to sleeping his usual long hours. Saturday night we tried the same routine and it only took about twenty minutes of reading, and Sunday was the same. So I think this is going to work out just fine.

The doctor also gave us the four-month talk about starting him on solid foods anytime between four and six months. I think we're going to wait until five months, but I'm pretty excited about it. He's been more and more interested in watching us eat and I read that that is a sign that a baby is getting ready to start on solid foods. Maybe one of these days we'll get him a highchair so that he can sit at the table with us instead of down in his baby papasan or in somebody's lap. He can't sit up on his own, though, so it might be a little bit early. The doctor also said we could try giving him water in a sippy cup, which we did yesterday just for fun. He neither liked nor disliked it, but was certainly surprised.

On a non-Will front, things are getting exciting for us as we continue to wait for news from Matt's job search. He has now interviewed at SUNY Albany, the University of Delaware, Pitt, and had a phone interview at Syracuse, which might turn into a real interview. He seems optimistic that the interviews have gone well, so we're hopeful that he'll get a couple of offers, though I suppose one is all he really needs. There are pros and cons to each of these schools, so I'm trying not to get too involved in hoping for anything until we know which one or ones will be a true option.

And finally, happy MLK day to all of you and congratulations to Paul and Megan, the latter of whom is sporting a gorgeous new engagement ring.