4 Months

First thing's first: Happy 4 month birthday to my sweet little guy.

At 4 months, Camden:

-Can roll from his tummy to his back
-Can roll from his back to his tummy
-Babbles constantly. He loves the sound of his own voice (takes after his Daddy...)
-Plays with his feet all day long. They are his favorite new toy.
-Adores his reflection in the mirror.
-Loves being outdoors and going for walks in his stroller.
-Is friendly and will smile at anyone.
-Loves little kids and especially his cousins.

Now, on to the not-so-fun part.

For the past month, Camden's sleep has been pretty awful. I mentioned it a few posts back when I started thinking about sleep training. Up until he was 3 months old, he was a pretty good sleeper. He slept in 5-6 hour stretches from the time he was 5 weeks old. Then his 3 month growth spurt hit and he started nursing every couple of hours at night, which obviously is normal for a breastfed baby going through a growth spurt. Only he never stopped the constant nursing after the growth spurt ended. In fact, it increased in frequency until he was nursing every hour and a half at night. Obviously, it was rough. You expect this kind of sleep deprivation with a 3 week old baby, but not with a 3 month old baby.

And so, I started thinking about sleep training again. Because I am pretty adamantly opposed to the cry it out method at this age, I decided to use the Baby Whisperer's "pick up/put down" method. I had it all planned out; I had a start date picked and I was going to use Matt and my mom as my reinforcements and support. But something was holding me back. There was a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I should wait and talk to Camden's pediatrician at his 4 month appointment before starting sleep training.

I am so glad I made that decision. As soon as I started to describe to the pediatrician what had been happening with his sleep, she said, "It sounds like he's hungry and maybe your milk supply isn't enough for him anymore." This seemed to be confirmed when he was weighed and we discovered that he dropped from the 50th percentile in weight to the 30th percentile (he's still in the 90th percentile for height-- we've got a tall boy on our hands!).

Upon learning this news, I felt a few different things: relief that we finally (hopefully) know what's causing his disrupted sleep. I also felt a little sad that my milk supply is no longer enough for him. And I felt guilty too. There were plenty of nights when he woke up that I rocked him back to sleep instead of feeding him, reasoning that there was no way he could possibly be hungry. Well, he was. Thank goodness we didn't start sleep training.

So, the plan is to introduce solids and allow him to get his calories from sources other than breast milk. And I have to admit that it was a little bit fun to go grocery shopping for baby food after his appointment. We're all stocked up on rice cereal, bananas, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, and apple sauce. So far, the rice cereal has been a hit. We'll start the fruit tomorrow.

And that's where we are at 4 months. I can say that, despite the sleep deprivation, these past 4 months have easily been the best of my life. There's just nothing that compares to being a mom, and specifically being a mom to the most adorable little boy in the world.