Our Little Guy: Four Months Old

Little Mango is FOUR months old...and I can hardly believe it! My oh my how the time has flown and I'm loving every little minute with him!

What has Cruz been up to?

• Big News:  this month our little guy has been through the ringer. Midway through, his congestion & cough got worse and when we brought him into the doctor because of what we thought was an ear infection {he kept tugging at his right ear}, they told us he didn't have one {yay!} but he did have Bronchiolitis/RSV {big boo}. The worst part?! Daddy was gone when he got sick and through the majority of his sickness...and even though grandma D was here, it was HARD dealing with a sick baby boy on my own. Sleeping pattern changed, eating habits were different, I had to do breathing treatments {hated doing this when he was squirming and crying}...it was tough. And the worst part...I had to bring him to the emergency room - I was worried late one night when his temp was high and he wasn't reacting well to the breathing treatments. Fortunately it was "just the effects of RSV" according to the doctor.



Breathing treatments with my little man
{learned doing this during a nap was the best bet}



• Eating:  our boy has been eating 5-6oz pretty steadily at this point, except when he was sick and his eating was so sporadic. Smaller amounts and more frequently to make sure he was getting enough hydration. Late into the month during his feedings he's started kicking and whining during his mid-bottle-burps. Now this makes it a bit difficult to get a good burp from our guy, but he's so darn cute when he's doing it that we can't help but laugh!
• Sleeping:  this is where we are so lucky that little man is such a good baby. During this month he started sleeping through the night...yes! he slept 9-10 hours each night. It was an amazing feeling. I hadn't known what a straight 6-7 hours of sleep felt like for three months. Then, when he was sick he fell back into waking up through the night...but it was so understandable. He was majorly congested and had this awful cough. Even if he wasn't fully awake, we would hear every cough or sniffle so it didn't make for a good night's sleep for any of us.  He's just finally getting back into his normal sleep pattern...and we're loving it.

Sleeping baby at auntie Tessa's

• Developments:  we had little man's 4-month check-up today. He is now weighing in at 14.3lbs (34 percentile), 25 1/4 inches tall (62% percentile - those long legs!) and head 16 1/2 inches (39th percentile).  Dr. Shidler checked him over and he's doing well - obviously still getting over RSV still, but everything else looked good. He had to get shots (ouch!) but after some crying and whining for a bit, he was his lovable self right after.  Also, our little guy is loving his toys. Day care and at home play is all about grasping objects. He tries to shove anything he can into his mouth, so as long as he's not chewing on his hands, we're good. He laughed! And the worst part is I wasn't here when it happened - the hubby called me the other day when he was watching little man and I was at work and he was LAUGHING. My baby was laughing. And I thought I was the funny one, but it turns out daddy is able to make little man so happy.  Also, since three months we've been taking him to PT and he's been doing much better. He now has range of motion with his neck and can move it right to left. We are awaiting what's going to happen in terms of his Torticollis. We will find out more in a month...just say your prayers that his heads gets better and more rounded out in the next few weeks.

Loving up on my OBall

• Features: welp, the verdict is in and little man looks like his daddy...A LOT. And I'm good with that, however, I swear I see a bit of Fuchser in him. When I compared him to his cousin Ace's pic from 1 year, he is a spitting image. It's so interesting to me how our babies can pick up different features from each side of the fam. He is also just the most smiley baby I've ever seen - he smiles up a storm all the time. He also has a bit of the baby eczema going on so we've been covering him in Aquaphor to try and combat it. Unfortunately it's due to spit up, etc and it happens to most little ones.



Cutie little 4 month patootie



It's been an amazing four months with Cruzer.  Happy 4 months to my favorite little guy!