Four Months!

You are four months old! Every month you change and grow so much. It is such a joy to watch you learn new things. The past month we have coped with our new lifestyle of me going back to work. But Trenton, you really REALLY need to get on a better sleeping schedule. You are driving us crazy! During the day you can’t stay awake longer than 3 hours at a time, but at nighttime you will stay awake for 6+ hours! And those hours are always from about 8pm until 1-2am or sometimes later. And you are usually wide awake playing, not fussy. Which makes it really difficult when I need to get up at 5:30am for work…. But we love you anyways and one day we will figure out how to make you go down for the night at 8pm :)

We are also moving this weekend! We are finally getting a house and it’s a lovely house. It won’t be completely done when we move in, but our landlord is a friend from my Bible Study so we are all good with it. We will have a backyard and our landlord lives next door and has a pool and a garden that we can use any time. So this summer you will have lots of pool time!

Some changes this month:

-          You love it when Daddy covers your face with the burp cloth. For some reason you think its fun to hold your breath every time. We wonder if that’s a bad thing….we just say you are getting strong swimmer’s lungs maybe :)

-          You are starting to hold your bottle all by yourself!

-          You have started chewing on your fingers instead of your fists

-          And you are teething. Which I’m not too happy about, but you are. Your gums have been white and swollen the past couple weeks and we can feel a couple bumps where teeth will break through soon. You haven’t really been fussy or anything so we are happy about that.

-          You are so sneaky when it comes to the TV! We try to limit your screen time to hardly nothing but when it is on you will twist and turn, and even hang upside down JUST so you can watch TV

-          Sometimes when we are trying to put you to sleep, you will talk to yourself as you doze off in our arms. It’s pretty cute.
-You are such a little daredevil! I have a feeling you are going to be one of those "typical" boys who drive their mom crazy by jumping off everything and hanging from the ceiling fan, and doing everything we girls call stupid that boys do. At 4 months old you love to fly in the air, throw yourself backward when someone is holding you (sometimes when they don't expect it), hang upside down by your legs, and generally just hang upside down while laying in our arms or lap. Silly silly boy.....

-          Your motor skills are improving so much every day! You are grabbing things more and more, you focus intensely on something you want and then sometimes will lunge for it

-          Last night you were really focusing on Loretta and even lunged for her :)

-          You are able to sit up by yourself for a few seconds at a time! Though you still aren’t rolling over regularly

-          Your two new favorite games:

       o   One: Blowing spit bubbles. You absolutely love to spit

       o   Two: You put your binky in your mouth, bite down, then snap it out quickly so it makes a loud popping noise

At your 4 month doctor’s appointment, you weighed 12 lbs 14oz and are now 2 feet 1 inch tall. You grew THREE inches in 2 months! Your doctor said you didn't gain as much weight as you had been, but since you shot up in height that is understandable. We all keep thinking you are going to be a tall kid! You did get your 4 month shots this time though and you were not happy about it :( Last time you did pretty well, but this time you wanted nothing to do with anyone but me. Not even Daddy. When we got home from the doctor, you took a long nap and then didn't want to be held by anyone except me. You would play and laugh as long as I was holding you, but the second I tried to pass you off you would cry. We even had to give you some Tylenol this time because you were in pain :( But you are a tough little guy and we love you so very much!

Our First ER Scare

Well we had our first trip to the ER, Trenton! Along with your first ambulance ride (mine too) and hospital admittance. You were a trooper though! I happened to be on my way home around lunchtime because we forgot to take your car seat out of my car and Daddy needed it. Then when I was about 5 minutes away I get a phone call from him saying you won't stop crying. My thought was you just needed to comfort nurse and you will be fine. Sometimes you just need Mommy. Lo and behold, It was a blessing to have left your car seat and me having to make the commute back home at that time.

When I got into the house, I see you laying on the couch with daddy in front of you but as I was about to pick you up to nurse you daddy fills me in. He was going down the wooden steps carrying a pizza box in one hand and you in the other when he slipped. The pizza and you both fall out of his arms as you all slide down a few steps. You hit your face first and tumbled down and hit your head also. (Daddy suffered no injuries except for a sore wrist and a guilty heart). He called 911 and the ambulance got there a few minutes after me. Good thing I got there first or I would've had a heart attack myself seeing that first. Daddy was so scared though. Luckily you are one tough cookie, but he thought you were seriously injured and so so scared! He will tell you all about it one day. And then it will probably be a funny joke, but today it was the most terrifying thing.

Once the ambulance got to the house, they assessed you and found a lump on your head along with the redness on your face and your swollen nose. They recommended we take the ambulance to the ER just to make sure you were okay and run a CAT scan on your head. The worst part for me was not being able to hold you and comfort you right away. Hearing your blood curdling cries and not being able to do anything about it is the worst feeling in the world for me and it just breaks my heart.
The EMT in the ambulance said he dropped his daughter when she was 6months old down metal stairs at Disney World so he definitely knows how daddy feels. It happens and he's been there. Of course his daughter is perfectly fine 13 years later, and so will you.

 You can see the redness and his swollen nose. Poor baby :(

Once we got the results of your CAT scan the doctor showed us that you had a tiny bit of bleeding on your brain so we needed to be admitted overnight for observation. Your nose was fine though and the redness and swelling went down significantly during the evening. The neurosurgeon came in and talked to us also and explained more about why you had to stay but reassured us (especially daddy) that this happens all the time and the slight bleeding sounds worse than it is. They just need to watch you and make sure you don't vomit, have a concussion, and your head doesn't swell.

You were in a lot of pain until about 7pm and screamed every time I put you down or someone else touched you. But then you started getting back to your happy self. We gave you your octopus toy and your doggie blanket and you were just talking away for awhile :) You definitely enjoyed your "pass" of me letting you watch tv during your hospital stay though :)

Daddy cuddle time 

When you started feeling better you played with your octopus and enjoyed some TV time

 

Around midnight you started screaming and would not calm down though. I felt so helpless because I didn't know what was wrong with you. Luckily daddy was able to calm you down and after a couple hours was able to put you in the crib to sleep. The parent couch is far from comfortable, especially for two people, so I didn't really get much sleep. Daddy and I both could not wait to get home.

Gi-Gi came over to the hospital right away and Uncle Montez and Aunt Brittany came over soon after. Everyone was so worried about you! Later Pimpa and Gi-Gi came back again to bring daddy and I some stuff and to see you again.

All the hospital staff here is wonderful and so helpful. Which of course is a blessing when new parents of a 14 week old baby comes in. They all commented on how cute you are and how much they love your hair. The X-ray technician even said she wanted to take you home :) such a ladies man already.....

As we were waiting for the doctor to finish the discharge papers, he decided he wanted to run one more test just as a precaution. So you had a full body x-ray to make sure all you rlittle bones are okay from the fall. And you hated it. You cried and screamed the whole time and it was so heart-wrenching :( It was amazing how fast the techs went though. I've never seen x-rays get done so quickly!

We finally got discharged 30 hours after your fall and it was a very long and exhausting 2 days! I cannot even begin to explain the helplessness I felt when I could not comfort my baby. I think it's something only a mom can know. But we are so so grateful that you are just fine!

You are 14 weeks old and within the past week, Loretta scratched you in the face, you tumbled down the stairs, and you had your first ambulance ride, ER visit, and hospital stay. We don't need another $800+ medical bill from you any time soon, so how about we keep the incidents at a stand still for awhile? :)


I love you, little man.