Rylan is 4 months old today (ALREADY!). I remember thinking that our first few months with Carter were the longest few months of my life. This time around, time has just flown by. Life is so much busier with two kids.
Rylan is still a big boy. His 4 month checkup isn't until November 8th so I don't know his official weight yet. However, when I've weighed him at the house, I'm getting around 20 pounds right now. I get comments every time we are out about how big Rylan is. It's amazing how different his build is from Carter's.
And for the last few weeks, Carter and Rylan have been wearing the same size diapers (size 3).
Rylan's eyes are getting darker. They are still dark blue on the edges, but the centers are getting more and more brown flecks.
Rylan has great dimples. It's usually not too difficult to get him smiling and showing them off.
I think Rylan is getting close to getting some teeth. He chews on his hands constantly. He will usually hold one hand in the other and bring both up to his mouth. Occasionally he'll start actually sucking on a few fingers. Rylan also started finally holding and chewing on his Sophie Giraffe last week. The giraffe is the only toy he'll hold on to for more than just a few seconds so far.
Rylan doesn't use a pacifier much. He actually never used one at all until my dad visited and he stared trying to give it to him. Rylan will usually spit it out unless I hold it in his mouth. And it takes him a few minutes to actually start sucking on it instead of just trying to push it out with his tongue.
Rylan does not spit up like Carter did at all. He's a very normal baby when it comes to spitting up and that makes him so much easier.
I've been able to finally make Rylan go longer than 2 hours between feedings during the day. We still only make it 2 hours about half the time, but the other half is closer to 3 hours between feedings.
Nights haven't improved much though. I've been feeding Rylan and putting him down in the playyard in our room around 8 pm every night. He will then usually wake up around 1 pm (sometimes an hour earlier or about 30 minutes later) to eat. After that he wakes up every hour or two. When he wakes up, I usually will move Rylan to his bouncer. When he wakes up in that (he usually sleeps about an hour), I'll feed him.
Our plan is to finally put Rylan in his own room staring tomorrow night. The only reason he's not already in there is because I don't want him to wake up Carter. I was hoping we'd get to a point where Rylan was sleeping longer before we moved him. When he is in our room, I can get to him before he really starts crying and wakes up Carter. I'm not sure I'll wake up as quickly when I'm only hearing Rylan over the monitor. I'm really nervous about moving him but I'm hoping he'll sleep better in his own, quiet room.
Like Carter, Rylan doesn't take naps in his crib, just his bouncer or carseat. Because I like getting Carter out of the house as much as possible, Rylan doesn't have much of a schedule. He is still taking short naps between most feedings.
I still wouldn't say Rylan is an easy baby, but he's so much easier than Carter was. He's pretty easy to get smile out of. As long as you are giving him your complete attention, he's happy. Often complete attention means holding Rylan and swaying. His preferred position is facing outward so he can look around.
Rylan will also sometimes chill out by himself for a bit. He still loves the mobile in his crib and will stare at it for up to 30 minutes before he gets bored.
Rylan is still generally good in the car, as long as it's moving and we haven't been in it for hours. He doesn't automatically fall sleep now, but he will look around and chew on his hands or giraffe for a bit until he gets bored.
Rylan is also usually good when we're shopping. He's often easier than Carter who doesn't want to sit in the cart anymore. We usually don't stay out for long, but I'm able to get done what I need to.
Rylan is getting closer to rolling from his back to his stomach. He'll get his arms up when he's chewing on his hands and turn to the side. He'll get his hips starting to turn and then fall back to his back.
Rylan has a couple of patches of cradle cap on his head like Carter did. There's one scaly patch near his forehead and another at the crown. Hopefully they'll clear up soon.
When we go to Baby Bookworms at the library, I've been having Rylan on my lap and doing the movements with him. Since he's facing outward, I don't get to see his expressions, but he seems to at least be content during the class.
We just think Rylan is so sweet and we love him a bunch!
