At first I was trying very hard to get Oliver on a schedule of sleeping, eating, and then being awake for a bit before starting the cycle again. Somewhere along the way that plan was ditched. He is fed right after he wakes up, but he's often fed multiple times during the time he's awake. Sometimes I put him down already asleep, and sometimes I put him down in a drowsy state. He's definitely better at self-soothing to go to sleep than Ian or Nadia were at this age. The same goes for soothing himself to go back to sleep during a nap or at night. I can watch on the monitor and see when one sleep cycle ends and he transitions to the next sleep cycle. Ian always just woke up at the end of one brief sleep cycle. There are times when I think Oliver is getting on a somewhat predictable schedule, and then it changes again. I'm just rolling with it. I rarely wake him up when he's sleeping. Since he's been going in the right direction with his naps and nighttime sleeping, I'm pleased. It's extremely rare for him to take 3 naps these days. Some days he only has one nap, but a more typical day is that he has two naps. Yesterday was a very unusual day in that he was going to take two long naps. I can't ever remember him doing that before. When I put him down at 4:20pm, I assumed it was for a brief nap because he had slept from 10am-noon. I woke him up around 6:00pm because I was afraid he thought he was going down for the night at 4pm. He typically is up for 3-4 hours before he has his first nap, but yesterday he went against that grain as well as he was only up for 2 hours before he took his morning nap.
Today he moved into size one diapers after wearing preemie and newborn size diapers for four months. Size one diapers are cheaper so that's a good thing! The only problem is it's harder to keep that size diaper under his very large (yet shrinking) belly button. He's now mostly wearing size 0-3 month clothing (although today he's wearing a newborn size outfit). Some of it fits him very well, and some things in that size are still rather big on him. As of today he weighs 9lb 6.5oz, which still puts him at the 0.1 percentile. I was hoping he'd be up at least to the first percentile. Not yet, but at least he's on the chart. People still comment on how little he is. Paul and I went out on a date this evening for the first time since May, and I still got comments that it looks like I'm carrying a doll rather than a baby. Well he weighs 6 lbs more than he did the first time I held him so he doesn't seem tiny to me any more! It's fun taking him out in public because I am guaranteed to get lots of smiles and comments about how cute he is, how small he is, etc. His eyes are still blue, and his hair is still brown, but that was also true of his siblings when they turned 4 months old. Time will tell if he'll turn blonde or not.
Our little chaperone was very well behaved on our trip this evening. There are still times he cries in the car seat, but he's doing much better in general in the car. He's also lasting longer in the gym, if I am very strategic as to when I put him there. His favorite place to be is in my arms. He gives smiles to many different people, but he definitely prefers me above anyone else. I know this phase won't last forever, but I am enjoying being number one in his life right now. Thus far he's not too keen on the baby carriers (I have a Weego, sling, and Bjorn) unless he's alseep. Hopefully he'll either grow fonder of the Bjorn or like riding in a stroller once the weather gets nicer in the spring and we resume our frequent walks to the playground.
He's quieter than Nadia or Ian in terms of cooing and laughing, but he does do a little of each. He smiles quite a bit though! I absolutely love his smile. Sometimes just giving him eye contact will bring about a smile. Other times I get him to smile by talking to him, kissing him, tickling him, eating his belly, etc. Thus far he's very content with the hybrid method (meaning both nursing plus bottles of formula). He's been off the shield for a couple of weeks. I could have added a P.S. to yesterday's Thankful Thursday post after I got the mail. I've been nervous when I get the mail the past few months due to the onslaught of medical bills. Originally they exceeded $9K (labwork and ultrasounds that the insurance we had from January through June initially rejected saying it wasn't covered). I wrote another letter last month, and the reply came in the mail yesterday saying they'd pay $4,893.14 that they had previously rejected. PTL! We already had paid $1.268.14 of that. This means of the original $9K+ we are now down to $1,652.98. What a relief! I'm still hoping it will go down even further, but it turns out financially (not in terms of emotional stress) we made the right decision as Blue Shield would have cost us an additional $3K during that time span. Oliver is certainly worth every penny, but I'm very grateful that we won't be paying 9K for bloodwork and ultrasounds during the pregnancy.
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