As this blog is, in large part, a documentation of my kids’ lives, I feel like it’s a good time to pause and make note of what they’re up to development-wise. I’m trying to take the middle-ground as far as stressing about milestones is concerned. I actually had to stop reading some of the weekly emails I was getting, saying what my baby “should” be doing, because I would freak out if they weren’t doing it. But while I don’t want to get stressed in that way, I also don’t 100% buy into the idea that my kids should be looked at by their “adjusted” age. I mean, they were 36 weeks, not 28. That said, having the lens of “adjusted” age available to me, it sort of mentally makes me allow for a nice broad range of development.
Anyways, enough disclaimers regarding how I feel about it. The short version is I feel just fine. Here’s what they’re up to, 10 days shy of their four-month birthday.
Gross Motor
Rebecca is taking advantage of having less body weight to move around. She’s pretty good at tummy time, and has accidentally flipped herself onto her back when her hands are positioned just so under her chin. Head control is pretty decent, and she’s getting close to rolling over. Just this afternoon she had herself all the way on her side. All she needs to do is bring that top leg over and she’ll be there.
Daniel has good head control, though does sometimes give you a solid head-butt to the teeth. He’s pretty good at tummy time when we use the Boppy, but when he’s flat on the floor, he’s developed a strange new habit. Even when I put his hands under his chin to help him push up, he immediately throws them out to the side, chest on the floor, face smooshed on the mat, screaming. Weird. He sometimes makes his whole body very rigid and doesn’t want to bend at the waist at all, but sometimes he just loves sitting with me on the floor or the couch.
Fine Motor
Rebecca has really started grabbing at the new links I bought that hang from the play mat. She watches them, bats at them, grabs them, and tracks with her eyes as her hands move them around. She’s quite good at sucking on her hand, though sometimes she jams the whole fist too far into her mouth and gags a little. Oops.
Daniel prefers to grab his sister’s ear when they’re both on the mat. If she hadn’t been crying in distress, I would have taken a picture. He also grabs hair, necklaces, and sometimes your lip. Less interest in the links. He’s also getting very good at sucking on his hand. Just a bit more control and maybe I’ll start to consider unswaddling him when he sleeps.
Social
Rebecca is a super smiler. She’s got a really great smile and is pretty free with it. It’s just too funny when you catch her in a smiley mood and you can play with her. Tickling, tapping the nose… all of these are funny. She’s clearly amused, though her “laugh” is still more of a single “ha”/sigh. Still, it’s a delightfully happy sound.
Daniel was the first to really, truly laugh. He’s done it again a few times, though it’s still very infrequent. It’s awesome every time it happens, though. He’s fussier in general, harder to please. But when he’s happy, the smile takes up his whole face. He put on quite a show for the many passers-by who stopped us at Whole Foods the other day. It’s particularly easy to get the smiles when he’s down to his diaper, getting ready for bath time. What can I say? The kid likes to be naked.
Language
Both babies make all variety of noises. Ooohs, aaahs, eeeehs… and the occasional ghee! Go, consonants! They both are particularly chatty on the play mat or when you’re right in front of them, interacting and chatting yourself.
Sleep
The naps, thank god, are improving. That was rough.
Rebecca is consistently easier to get to sleep. If you notice her getting drowsy, you pretty much just have to swaddle her, prop her in the Boppy (I know, verboten, I’m going to hell), give her a pacifier, and she’s good to go. Her naps don’t tend to be super long, but she also tends to wake up happy, so I figure that’s a sign that they’re sufficient. She pretty consistently eats twice overnight, say 11pm and 3am (ish). But she goes back to sleep easily, and wakes up happy in the morning.
Daniel takes more work to get to sleep, although I think it’s helped that I have moved all naps upstairs to the bedroom, so it’s a very consistent routine. He must be swaddled if I want him to sleep more than 10 minutes. He sleeps in a bouncy seat inside his crib, because he needs the bouncing motion to go to sleep, but I want him to associate the room with sleeping. We generally turn on the mobile and bounce him almost all the way to sleep, and I find you really have to avoid eye contact with him. He can’t fall asleep if there’s too much interacting going on. Naps have been too short recently, but they’re improving. On the upside, there have been several nights recently where we’ve put him down at 6:30-ish, and he only gets up one time between then and when he’s ready to start the day at 6am. And, one night, it was as late as 4:30am… could he be close to sleeping all the way through?
