Four Months With Jack

This post was originally titled “three months with Jack”. It then became “three and a bit months with Jack” and now we are at the 4 month mark I just decided to rename it and start again. I guess that kind of sums up the past four months really. In some ways I can’t believe how fast the time has gone, yet at the same time I can’t really remember life without him. He feels like he’s just been part of our lives forever now, yet I still can’t believe how big he has gotten. When we brought him home from the hospital he was a tiny 2.9kg baby who’s newborn onesies were massive on him. He’s now about 6.7kg, and in size 3-6 month clothing. He sits up a little more upright in his pushchair so he can have a good look around, and has already graduated from the capsule carseat to a big boy rear facing car seat.

The last four months have seriously been amazing and things are getting easier every day. I think the first 6 weeks were the toughest.  I found breastfeeding so hard, and when we made the swap to formula around the 7 week mark, we both settled in to a bit of a rhythm and things got so much easier.  For the first six weeks Jack was constantly hungry and had awful gas. Once he was on formula and Gaviscon we noticed a HUGE difference in both his weight gain and temperament. I talked a bit about this in my Breastfeeding Journey post, but it was really the best decision we made.

Jack has always been a really good sleeper, and only ever woke up twice during the night even when he was just born. From 9 weeks onwards he has been sleeping right through from 7.30pm until 6.30-7am in the morning, and I totally put this success down to a really good night time routine. I am planning a post about how we managed to get him to sleep through the night at such a young age, as from what I’ve read, sleeping through the night at this age is vey rare!  I’m  so thrilled as it means a good 8 hour sleep for me, plus a bit of uninterrupted TV time for us in the evening too!

I am also lucky that Jack is great at self settling. Quite often we will hear him sucking on his wee hands during the night and this seems to calm him down immensely. He is a very “sucky” baby, which is something we noticed after I stopped breastfeeding. Around 9 weeks we introduced a pacifier, which he only gets if he is absolutely inconsolable and needs to be calmed down, or if he has finished his bottle but still needs something to suck on. I was totally against pacifiers at first, but I can see a massive change in his temperament since we introduced one, so for us there have definitely been more positives than negatives. We never let him go to sleep with it at night though, as I don’t want him to have to rely on it to go to sleep, so this is where the self-settling works so well! I do plan to start weaning him off it in the next month or so too as I don’t really want him having one once teeth start coming though.

Jack slept in the same room with us for the first three months. He loved his little Rocker/Napper but started to get too big to be sleeping nights in it so we moved him into the cot in his nursery. I started having him nap in there during the day, which didn’t go so well at first but now he’s happy in his own room and he settles so well in his cot. He isn’t the best napper though, managing only about 40 minutes tops before I hear the chatter coming through the baby monitor. I don’t care how he naps during the day when I get 11-12 hours of sleep from him at night! He’s taken really well to being put to sleep in the cot though and doesn’t cry or fuss at all anymore.

About 8 weeks Jack started smiling. He was a bit of a late smiler (which I’ve heard is common in reflux babies), but once he learnt to smile he just doesn’t stop. He is such a happy wee boy, and the smiles we get when we get him out of his cot in the morning are just so heartwarming. He just always looks so happy to see us. He is also trying to laugh, and we are getting tons of coo’s and squeals from him. He is such the little talker and is learning new sounds daily.

Jack is also super active. He loves to just lie on his back and have a kick and he is getting very close to rolling. We got him a playmat and he loves to try and bat at the hanging toys. He also loves standing up supported and he tries to walk, moving one foot in front of the other. He also can stand holding the side of the couch (without any support!) for a few moments before he topples over. I think in a few months when he realises he can pull himself up and he has his balance right, he will be off! He’s very inquisitive so I think once he is on the move, we will be constantly chasing him and I’m so excited for this.

Unfortunately he hates tummy time. We try and do it a few times a day, but it usually only lasts a few minutes before he is in tears. I’ll pop him on his tummy and he usually just lies there and sucks his hands for a while, it’s very cute but also not quite the point of tummy time 😂 He does have really good control of his neck though so I’m not too worried.

Jack is 100% formula fed and we are currently in the process of trying him with solids. We started about two weeks ago, and so far he has tried Farex (baby rice) and banana. He loves food and tries to grab the spoon as you feed him. We have noticed he seems to get a wee bit cranky with a sore tum in the afternoons, so we are just currently trying to see if it’s the food that’s causing it. If it appears to be the food we will park it for a while and try him again in another few weeks.

I think in the last four months, the biggest thing I have learnt is go with the flow. I had such plans for how I wanted to parent – no pacifier, no formula, and he’d sleep in his own room. All of that has gone out the window and we are much happier for it. It’s so important to just ignore what everyone else says and just do what works for you and your family. A pacifier made Jack so much more calm, formula made Jack full and happy, and sleeping in the same room worked for us with our renovations. I’m now of the belief that as long as you are making decisions that are best for your family, then that’s all that matters.

I’m going to be honest, parenting is actually much easier than I thought it would be (cue mums everywhere laughing right now). I feel like a lot of the time people only share the bad stuff – the lack of sleep, the poop explosions, baby stuff everywhere, but in reality none of that stuff is a biggie and you do adapt. I get sick of hearing people say how a new mum will never shower or brush her hair again, and many TV shows and movies over exaggerate this greatly. I manage to do everything I used to be able to do (including things like painting my nails and doing my makeup), and having a baby hasn’t changed this at all. Sure I have to be a bit more organised, and sometimes I’ll be singing nursery rhymes as I’m doing my makeup, but it all just adds to the fun. If I want to go out somewhere, Jack comes too and we just work around his nap and feed times. It honestly hasn’t been that hard.

I really do think having a strong routine plays a massive part in this, as it makes it so much easier to plan your day. While the first six weeks are definitely tough, things do get easier. The house will get cleaned, you will get a shower every day, and I promise you won’t die from sleep deprivation.

Sometimes I think I can’t wait for him to crawl, walk etc but I just remind myself to live in the present and enjoy him at every stage as he is growing so fast. Even the bad stuff too. At the time, I used to hate getting up and giving Jack a bottle during the night, but I also reminded myself that it doesn’t last forever…. and it hasn’t. I now actually miss my midnight snuggles with my little boy, and again it reminds me just how fast he’s growing. In another couple of years when he doesn’t need his nappy changed, or help getting dressed then I’ll miss those things too. So I’m soaking up everything I can right now and enjoying every little moment with my precious little boy. There’s no sense wishing it away, no matter how tough the day seems.