Boy does time fly when you have babies. People aren’t kidding when they say it goes by too quickly; you blink and they are teenagers! Somehow Ash is already 5 months old and I’m just now getting around to giving you guys a 3 and 4 month update!! I am just awesome that way. 😉
At 10 weeks old, Ash rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time, but then didn’t do it again. He would just get super frustrated when he tried.
By 16 weeks he was rolling over again, but still not doing it all the time. Clearly it’s just not his favorite thing nor does he see a point to it. Meanwhile, we’re watching with anticipation every time he’s having tummy time. Silly parents.
At 9 weeks old, he learned how to break out of the miracle blanket swaddle at night. So we started calling him the Hulk Houdini.
By 13 weeks we gave up and decided to just stop swaddling him because there was no longer a point to it. He was waking up every night multiple times just because of the dang swaddle. Once he adjusted to no swaddle and just a sleep sack at night, the kid never woke up overnight again (well, not never, but it’s rare) and we never looked back!
At 10.5 weeks, he got a bright red rash on his cheeks and chest…an allergic reaction to the Aveeno lavender calming soap and lotion. 🙁
Since then, we’ve realized this kid just has super sensitive skin. He has had a major case of cradle cap that peaked around 4 months and as a result lost almost all of his newborn hair. He still has a patch on the back of his head of long dark strands. The sides of his head have a light layer of fuzzy hair and the top is basically bald. He looks a bit like Benjamin Button.
But thanks to his sensitive skin and eczema issues, we have to use natural fragrance free soap and lotion on him. With his eczema combined with some other issues, we started to wonder if he was sensitive to milk and soy protein among other possible allergens like dog dander. Sadly, I gave up dairy and did an elimination diet to see if it would help him. When I had dairy again, his poop immediately went back to being abnormal.
That’s right, I am talking about my kid’s poop on the blog now. What used to be a topic of conversation that grossed my husband out is now commonplace, especially with this kid’s issues. It became the norm to hear Rem yelling the shade and consistency of his poop from the other room and asking me if I wanted to look at it. The sad thing is…most times I did.
Asher nearly doubled birth weight at 4 months!! Just 9 more ounces, buddy, and you would have been there. Clearly he still enjoys eating. Immensely. In fact, he often does this yelling thing when I’m not fast enough for him where it’s like he is screaming in anticipation or maybe he’s trying to tell me to hurry it up lady. He’s like a frat boy attacking a cheeseburger.
He regularly slept for 6 or 7 hour stretches at night by 9-10 weeks. Granted because he’s more of a morning person like his dad, he gets super cranky at night and so he was passing out by 10pm, meaning he was up at 4:00 or 5:00am. I never could get the whole “dream feed” or late late feed to work for him. He was either too passed out to even think about nursing – this kid sleeps hard – or when I could rouse him to feed doing so didn’t change his next wake time at all. So I was better off getting those few extra winks rather than trying to feed him again in hopes of getting him to sleep in a little later. But finally by 12 weeks, he started pushing that wake time further up to 6:00 and 7:00am without that late night feed. We were hopeful this was the start of a trend!!! And sure enough it was…
At 13 weeks we took him on his first roadtrip to Delaware and Washington DC. He was a total champ. Seriously. This kid barely fussed for an entire 16 hour day in the car! We drove straight through to Delaware with stops for the bathroom, gas and meals, but it was a LONG day. And he did amazing. He was such an awesome little travel buddy. Well, other than not sleeping the second night. The worst night’s sleep he’s ever had was the night before my birthday. He didn’t really cry much, but laid there banging his feet against the pack n play mat. For hours. I was dying.
Then when we got home from our trip, he started sleeping through the night consistently at around 14-15 weeks. That is after he decided to go through sleep regression, only during nap time, the week we got back, which was also the week I started back to work but from home. He now sleeps from 8:30 or 9:00 to 7:00 on the regular. Hallelujah! Momma gets to feel like a human again.
At 11 weeks, Ash started babbling a lot!! Ash has been pretty vocal from an early age with his first coos and ahhs, then came the squeals and shrieks, next was the babbling and now he loves to blow raspberries. Of course, he cries too, but I’m surprised that a lot of his cries are still soft, sweet sounds. He rarely gets so mad that no sound comes out when he’s screaming, but he does get there. For as happy as he is, he quickly goes from chill and content to a shade of purple he’s so upset. He reserves those moments mainly for tummy time – an activity that he mostly despises these days.
He is still majorly teething, but no sign of a tooth in sight. Clearly this is going to be a long drawn out process for him. From about two months, his hands have been his constant companion. Those fingers and his fists get crammed into his mouth on the regular. In fact, it’s hard to capture a picture at 4 months without his hands at his face and nursing has become even more difficult. You try telling an infant that he cannot nurse and also suck his thumb at the same time.
He produces enough drool to fill an olympic sized swimming pool. We’ve resorted to putting a bib on him daily because it was so bad he was starting to get a drool rash on his chest.
At 15 weeks, Asher grabbed a rattle from his dad. Strolling through Costco in his car seat keeping him occupied, Rem held the rattle up to his face and he just took it. The next day he proceeded to pick up that same rattle when it was laying beside him in his bouncy seat. I looked away and looked back and it was in his hand. No big deal, mom, I’m just a grown up who can pick up his own rattle. Dying.
He knows his name and has started responding to it when you call him Asher. He will turn and look when you say it. The last time my mom (his G) babysat for us, she said she had to keep saying his name to jolt him awake so he’d finish his last bottle he was so zonked. I guess hangin’ with G will wear you out. 😉 I’ve taken to calling him buddy because he’s my little buddy, but I realize that I need to use his actual name more often so he learns it and gets used to hearing it.
But let’s talk about the faces Asher makes…the many faces. His sweet smile will melt your cold dead heart in an instant and his pensive curiosity makes you constantly wonder what is going on inside that big noggin.
He is a constant surprise.
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