Trying to Play Catch-up

As per usual, I am super behind on my posts! I am going to try to catch up a bit. The next several posts have been typed on my computer for weeks. After I get those posted, I will try to write further posts that should have been posted a least a month ago. Some may ask why I even bother playing catch up- why I don't just stop blogging. Well... this isn't for my readers. This is for my family. I will have all this printed at a later date, to keep. I want to document what goes on in our lives. Its a lot easier than a scrapbook!

Calum at Four Months

I can’t believe my baby boy is four months old! It makes me sad to think of how quickly this time has flown.

I have many things to share about Calum at four months (I kept a list this month, so I wouldn’t forget things, like I have on the previous month milestones), so settle in for a read.

Calum is still wearing size 2 diapers, but I think the next box we buy will be size 3. They don’t seem to be long enough on most occasions. They fit around his waist, but they don’t come up high enough, especially in the back. We have poopy accidents rather regularly. I think I am ready to try a new brand of diaper too.

Calum is wearing 6-9 month and 9 month clothing. His six month sleepers are too short. I am not a fan of baby clothing sizing. Calum fits well in 6-9 month outfits. He can wear 9 month sleepers, unless they are the fleece or terrycloth fabrics- those are too long (by a lot). I bought one nine month outfit that was too short the first time I put it on him! Much too short- but he wore it to church anyway! It was the first and last time that outfit will be worn by Mr. Calum.

Calum has had 18 weeks of breastmilk- 4 whole months! I am rather proud of myself for keeping up the pumping for my little man, but the time has come for that to end. I quit pumping and Calum is now drinking my stored milk (I have an entire deep freeze full) and a little formula too.

I am disappointed that much of my frozen milk isn’t good. I apparently have an excess of lipase in my milk, which has caused my earlier milk to become odd in taste and odor. What I have read says that if your baby will drink it, it will not hurt him. Well, I tasted it and it turned my stomach, so I just can’t bring myself to feed it to Calum, even though he hasn’t complained. My more recent milk is much better and he has been getting that in his bottles, along with a little formula to top them off (most of the milk was stored in 5 oz. increments, but Calum drinks about 7 ounces at each feeding, so we mix in formula to make up the difference and to get him used to drinking it).

Calum still sleeps about 7 hours each night, which is great, but down from his few nights of 9 hours that I was hoping would last. I have been trying to get him in bed at a decent time (around 8:30), but lately he isn’t down for the night until about 10:00 or later. Even when we get him bathed and in the bed, he will still wake up for another feeding. Oh well- some babies don’t even sleep 7 hours at 4 months, so I am counting us lucky.

Now, let’s talk about the fun and funny stuff!

Calum, my little wiggle worm, has started expressing his desire to sit up, instead of recline- meaning he fusses when he isn’t how he likes it. Lol! He now has to be strapped into his swing and bouncy/rocking seats because he wants to sit up and wiggle around a lot. We are even having issues at bath time with him wanting to sit upright, so we got him a bath seat (a lot like a Bumbo seat) so he can sit upright in the bathtub, instead of reclining in his baby tub. He hasn’t really gotten the hang of the bath seat yet. It might work better for him in the months to come.

So, Calum likes to sit up, with support, whenever possible. He has started bending and reaching out for things he wants. He loves his feet, playing with the TV remote, “texting” on the cellphone (have you gotten a sweet Calum text yet?), and scratching things. Yes, Calum loves to scratch the couch, the mesh of his pack-n-play, blankets, etc. He also LOVES Damon’s facial hair. Damon will rub Calum’s feet on his beard and Calum will laugh repeatedly! Calum likes to grab at Damon’s hairy face too!

In addition to sitting with support, Calum likes to stand. If you hold him upright, with his feet in your lap, Calum likes to do some booty shaking. Many times he will put one foot down and then stand on it with his other foot. I am not sure why he does this, but it often looks like he is trying not to pee himself, as he is standing with his legs crossed for the most part. It’s really cute. He also likes to “jump” in his doorway jumper. Really he just kinda stands there and turns circles, doing a little bunny hop every now and then. Damon jokes that he will be a ballerina.

Calum still LOVEs to suck/chew on his fingers and he loves to watch football! He enjoyed the National Championship very much, as did we all! He loves silver things too! Seriously. He is fascinated with bolts, door hinges, and the overflow drain in the bathtub. When on his tummy, Calum pushes up on his hands sometimes- always on his elbows- and has started trying to roll over; however, he usually just chills on his tummy, playing with anything he can get his hands on.

Well, that’s all for now. In the blink of an eye I will be writing his 5 month update. Too fast! It’s going by too fast!

Calum's Four Month Check-up

Calum had his four month well baby checkup on Friday, January 11^th. He weighed 15 pounds and 12 ounces! He measured 25 ¾ inches in length. He is a growing boy! He doesn’t seem that heavy to me, but I know I have developed better arm muscles from toting him around.
 
Calum had his second set of immunizations. He cried a little more this time than at his two month visit, and he was whineier afterward. (Did you know whineier is the appropriate word choice- not “more whiny”? Spell check got me on that one!)

That night he was very sore from his shots, so we decided to give him some Tylenol. He had other ideas. I seriously do not believe he got one drop of that medicine. He was a pro at pushing it out of his mouth. I mean, Damon is a nurse and has given meds to babies before, and he still couldn't get Calum to take it. So, needless to say, Calum did not actually have any medicine for this set of shots either.

Here we are, waiting for our appointment:

Aren't we cute? Clearly he had no understanding that he was waiting for his shots!

 

National Championship!

Calum got all dressed up for the National Championship game of Alabama vs. Notre Dame (January 7, 2013)!

Here he is, in his outfit Aunt Bethanie, Uncle Jason, and Tanner got for him!

It came complete with elephant trunk, but Calum slobbered all over it, chewing on it, so we took it off.

What a sweet little elephant!

He, of course, loved watching the game! Football is his show of choice! Here he is with Cindy. Our friends, Paul, Cindy, and Maci, came over to watch the game with us.

 

Roll Tide!!!

Alabama- 42   Notre Dame- 14

Baby Pictures from New Year's to 4 Months

Daddy got him dressed to go out:

Here is how Calum uses his pacifier. He doesn't really take it anymore. He never really did, unless he was hungry and waiting on a bottle. Now, he just chews on random parts of it. I love how his finger is in his mouth too. He looooves to chew on his fingers! He will even try to stick a finger in his mouth with his bottle nipple too. This is classic Calum behavior!

 

Calum, on his first morning at church. He stays in the nursery, but I wanted to take him in to hear the music. I thought he might like it. Really, he was more into the lights and people-watching than the music.

 

Here is my little man after he made quite a mess of his clothes. We were out and about on a Sunday afternoon. Damon ran into Academy to get something and we stayed in the car, so I could feed Calum his bottle. I ended up having to change him on the back seat. He made quite a mess, to say the least. He had to have new clothes, and he also peed everywhere! Gotta love the craziness of situations! He was quite proud of his mess!

Calum and Daddy, studying hard about the toys.

Last day of Christmas Break

Today is the last day of Christmas break and I am beyond sad at the thought of going back to work and being without my little man. I think I need a large tote bag I can take him to school in. Then I will just have to be crafty in how to keep him from being noticed throughout the day. Hmmm...

Today Damon and I took Calum on a few errands we needed to run. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and he was very fascinated with all the TVs. Can you believe that, even with all those TVs, his show (football of any kind) wasn't on!

Here he is with his Daddy. You will notice his fixation is on a TV, not having his picture taken.

Happy New Year!

Calum did so well with all the insane amount of fireworks that went off last night. We definitely don't live where we used to. They went off constantly and loudly for hours! He slept through them for the most part, only waking on occasion just to fall right back asleep. I am so blessed with easy-going child.

So, good morning and Happy New Year!