4 months old

James is now 4 months old! Time flies.

Here are his photos this month. These were taken a couple days late, but his dermabond had finally fallen off (last Sunday), so he doesn't look like he has a "huge booger" as a three year old at church pointed out.

This Past Month James has started or continued:

• Sitting up with slight support
• Tripod sitting on Nana's lap
• Imitating sounds (Mmmm and gurgling)
• Tries to sit up when lying down
• Pulls to a sitting position with no head lag
• Pulls to a standing position and supports his own weight while standing. He LOVES to stand up and sit down over and over again.
• He finds random things funny (facial expressions, bumps in the car, his sister)and has great belly laughs.
• He also will laugh if others are laughing but you can tell it is more of a social laugh than other times.
• He is very ticklish and will laugh, squirm and squeal when he is getting dressed or getting his diaper changed.
• Holds his bottle
  
  
• Rolls to his side
• Relaxes and goes to sleep if I sing
• Grabs toys and inspects them
• Feels things with his fingers like he is figuring them out
• He smiles and talks to himself in the mirror
• Smiles and talks to everyone (especially his LOVED big sister)
• Watches his sister dance around the room and reaches for her toys if she leaves them near

Sleep:

Right now James sleeps in the car seat because it is portable and keeps him upright in case of reflux. Reflux is really nasty with a cleft palate since it comes up his nose. It is also nice the it keeps him somewhat cuddled. He likes to have his cheek pressed up against the sides of the seat. As a 3 month old James did not sleep very well and I considered trying sleep training, but realized it would be worthless since he was going to have surgery and take a while to recover anyway. He sleeps well with codeine in his system, but otherwise was a little restless all day and night. Luckily that changed the last 2 nights he has slept very well.

Pain Control:

Up until yesterday, James had been demanding Tylenol daily. Ironically the first few days after surgery he had less Tylenol than later on. The last few weeks of the year he would fight eating unless he got 0.1 mL of Tylenol to start off his bottle. I don't know if he just liked the taste after taking it so much, or if he would drink more to get rid of the taste. Last week he had two doses a day (one in the morning and one at night). Yesterday was the first full day without Tylenol, though tonight I gave in and gave him a dose before bed since he just wasn't calming down and had been somewhat fussy for a few hours.

The last couple days I've been having to force him to eat when I know he is hungry. After about 5-10 minutes of fighting him, he finally gives in and eats and gets angry at me if his bottle runs out before he is full. If someone was watching they would wonder why I was forcing my child to eat because he will adamantly turn his head away from the bottle and screams like I'm torturing him. But as soon as he starts taking the bottle he is obviously hungry and gobbles down 5 or more ounces. It's been difficult because I can't feed him while pumping like I would normally do and when he is fussy I just can't get anything done.

I'm wondering if it is pain because his lip will not be fully healed for another 3 weeks. Or could it be that his tummy hurts because he has had a lot of reflux this week. Or is his palate sore and does he need a insert to keep his palate from rubbing too much? I'm going to watch him a few more days and if this doesn't get better I'll have to talk with the doctors about it.