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| Ryan on 4/14/12 |
Ryan weighs in at 15lbs, 5 oz and 24 inches long (mismeasurement again, I THINK) which put him at about the 50th and 30th percentiles respectively. I've forgotten his head measurement, but he was at the 80th percentile with head circumference. Either way, the doctor was pleased with his measurements. The nurse failed to wait until Ryan was done wiggling around to take his length measurement, so that's why I think the 24 inches is definitely off. Our very accurate measuring at home puts Ryan at about 25 inches. Anyway....
Ryan cried for almost the entire appointment, which is very out of character for him. Ryan's usually a very smiley, very happy baby and only gets fussy when he's hungry or tired (sounds very familiar!). So, through his wails and tears, I had a conversation with the doctor about Ryan's sleep habits. The doctor said that Ryan definitely should be giving me chunks of sleep at night upwards of 6-7 hours. I told the doctor that since his 3 month growth spurt, Ryan majorly regressed and is only giving me 3-4 hours max. Dr. Wilson said that sleep issues at 4 months are NOT uncommon (I'm glad I'm not alone in this!) and encouraged us to start sleep training him, which at first I was very opposed to. I am REALLY not a fan of any method of parenting or self-soothing that requires a baby to cry profusely for hours on end. However, Dr. Wilson said that he tried this particular method of sleep training on his own children and it doesn't involve much crying--it instead is more like periodic help from us to teach Ryan how to soothe on his own. According to Dr. Wilson, Ryan is waking up at night for hugs and cuddles. NOTHING wrong with that--but when Ryan is waking up 3, 4, 5, even 6 times at night for hugs and cuddles, it's not very much fun on the receiving end. So, Dr. Wilson suggested to me that when Ryan wakes up at night to have Joe go in and soothe him for a minute, walk out for 2 minutes, go back in to soothe Ryan for 1-2 minutes if Ryan's still upset, walk out for 3 minutes, go back in to soothe, and so on. He said that we can play around with the time increments/intervals to best suit us. Anyway, we tried this on Saturday night....and after Joe trying to soothe Ryan for about 45 minutes (in which Ryan WOULD calm down for a couple of minutes, but then get fussy and cry again), I went ahead and fed Ryan--but it was MUCH later than when he has been waking up lately. Then, something magical happened on Sunday night. Ryan was able to go back to sleep rather easily the two times that he woke up between 9pm and 5am. This was the FIRST time since Ryan's been born that I haven't fed him for 8 straight hours. I decided to feed him when he woke up a little after 5am because that's when I usually feed him in the mornings. Ryan did pretty well this past Monday night as well, but not as good as Sunday night. Keeping my fingers crossed for another good night tonight!!
Dr. Wilson was impressed with Ryan's head control and his general progression in motor skills. I love that Ryan is so interactive now and it's amazing to know that he's learned all of this in 4 short months--I can't wait to see what he'll be doing in another 4 months!
Ryan has become such a bouncy baby, too! ALL he wants to do is stand up and bounce bounce bounce on our legs/laps/beds/anything! He just wants to move all the time! He's also started sucking his lower lip this past week which is ADORABLE. He's really trying hard to start crawling--when he's on his tummy, he "swims" his back legs and begins to scoot forward just a little bit. Not enough to really call it moving by all means, but he's well on his way!
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| Sucking on his lower lip! Adorable! |
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