4 Months

Austin is now 14 pounds 2 ounces (25th percentile) and 23 1/2 inches tall. He only weighs 2 ounces more than Jacob did so I think his growth is going to start evening out like the rest of my children. He is wearing 3-6 month clothes soon. (When I get the desire to switch all his clothes again....) and size 2 diapers. Austin's hair seems to be pretty dark still. Even all the new hair growing in. We get compliments on his hair all the time but I'm not really sure why. haha He does have hair. Although not a ton of it, but it is on the darker side so maybe that just makes it more noticeable? I'm not sure. Austin also had his next set of shots today which he handled like a champ! I'm pretty sure he cries a lot harder when we are letting him cry it out or just mad then when they gave him the shots. And then as soon as Scott picked him up he was done crying.

I feel like Austin is so attentive! He is definitely very aware of you and loves to be around you. He does not like being left alone and loves attention! And when you are giving him that attention he rewards you with very big smiles. He loves to smile and is the best at cry smiling. haha Yes, even when he is mad he is willing to flash the smile. Austin has also become quite the talker!

He loves to talk to himself when he is playing with toys or in the car seat. (Which he still doesn't really like, sometimes he hates it a lot more than others. You just hope on trips he's having an ok car seat day) It is so fun and I love hearing him talk. I also love hearing him laugh! He laughs so much more than my other kids did and I am loving it!

Some other things Austin discovered this past month were blowing raspberry spit bubbles and gurgling spit in the back of his throat. He has started sucking on his hands more but I don't feel like he does it very often. I think if any of my kids end up being a finger sucker he is the most likely. It seems he usually sucks on his hand the most to comfort himself, not for fun. And at night he wiggles his hand up and I can hear him sucking on it sometimes. So we shall see.

Jacob playing with Austin

Because Austin loves to be entertained and has a short attention span we pretty much rotate him through toys all day long. So he rotates through the play mat, walker, jumper, swing and bouncy chair. You would think all these toys would keep Austin entertained but it doesn't. Myself or the kids usually have to also be in the room and he still just likes being held a lot. He has started liking sitting in the lazy boy with toys all around him to play with.

Austin seems to have pretty good hand coordination. He has gotten really good at grabbing onto toys and has started bringing them up to his mouth. He also discovered his toes a little over a week ago and now likes to grab onto them as well. We are reaching the hard stage of the wub when Austin likes to pull it out every time you put it in his mouth. But he has also put it in his mouth by himself a handful of times this past week and seems to be getting better and better at it everyday!

About two weeks ago Austin rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time! And after he started doing it he didn't stop doing it... That is.... Until a few days later when I think he discovered rolling over meant he was then stuck on his stomach which he didn't like being so he kind of stopped. But for those couple days he was a rolling over machine! Since then he has done it a few times but usually just sticks to laying on his back.

So about a month ago I was so frustrated with Austin's fussiness and or seeming pain that he was in and I felt like I had tried everything and nothing was working. I was chatting to my friend Laina about it one day and she suggested I take him to a chiropractor. (Which was actually the second time she had mentioned it but the first time I actually listened) We took him the next day and it was so validating to me because with out me mentioning these things first, he talked specifically about three things he noticed about Austin that wasn't quite right. And these three things were the same three things Scott and I had noticed as well and asked the pediatrician about, who said it was fine. So the things the chiropractor saw was his head wasn't symmetrical and it was more slanted on his left side as well as his face being more scrunched on that side. He also mentioned that Austin wasn't able to turn his head as far to the left as he could the right. And the third thing he saw was that when Austin was laying on his back his body kind of naturally curved to the left making his stomach bulge out to the right. He then explained to me that he thinks when Austin was developing in the womb that instead of being curled into a ball with his spine straight, that he was curled into a ball but his spine was slightly curved to the left giving him a left pelvic tilt and pressing his head against the womb making it so his left side couldn't expand as much as the right side of his head and kinking his neck. Kind of like how he is in this pic....

After examining Austin, the first thing he told me was, "If I didn't know anything about this baby the first question I would ask you is, does he cry a lot?" He then told me that the tightness in Austin's neck muscles was something you would usually see in an 8 to 9 month old but very rarely in a 3 month old. He also said that with the pelvic tilt, if left alone, would probably have caused some problems when it came to crawling because his left side wouldn't have been as efficient as his right side and he probably would have drug his left leg a bit.

Since then we have been going to the chiropractor twice a week. He was able to fix Austin's head and face bone structure and get the left side expanded out like the right and the pelvic tilt pretty easily but his neck is still tight and causing some pain. Austin is still fussy and needy but I think he is a lot more content then he used to be. And I don't feel like he is in pain all the time now which is a relief! And as he gets older and can entertain himself better he seems to be less fussy as well if we keep a variety of toys in front of him all day. He seems to just get more fussy throughout the day. So in the morning he is a pretty happy camper. But as the day goes on he get more and more fussy and by the time evening hits he pretty much wants held or entertained at all times. We are still currently going to the chiropractor and will until we can get Austin's neck to stay where it is supposed to.

Austin's sleeping has been the biggest challenge. The chiropractor believes the pain from his neck is the main cause of this. Although I feel like Austin's sleeping schedule at night is all over the place, he pretty consistently will only sleep 2 hour stretches and on bad nights be up every hour. He has occasionally sleep 3 or 4 hour stretches though and we are trying to get that to be more consistent. I do feel like Austin must have a pretty awesome internal alarm clock though because I feel like on nights he is only sleeping 2 hour stretches it's like clock work and he gets up every 2 hours. On nights he is sleeping 3 hour stretches, again, like clock work, every 3 hours. And during the day he takes 30 min naps and you can time them! It's like exactly 30 mins every time! I do feel like we are getting a good sleep schedule during the day. Yes, he does only sleep 30 mins at a time but he also takes like 5 naps a day every 90 mins. He is kind of transitioning to going to bed earlier which means between 8-9. But will still occasionally go to bed later around 10. Just depends on the day. He will also very very occasionally take a longer nap then 30 mins. But that's like once a month. haha Austin still needs help being put to sleep but he didn't really like being rocked and walking around got old so we decided to try an exercise ball and he likes it! So apparently he isn't a rocker he is a bouncer! :) Also the past week or so Austin has not really loved being swaddled. Plus he would break out of the swaddle and every night I'd have to re-swaddle him like 5 times! But I have tried just laying him down with nothing and he would like wake up every time. So.... Drum roll please... Introducing the squirrel suit! (aka homemade zipadee zip that cost me $3 dollars vs the $40 it would have cost if I bought it offline) (Thanks again Laina for letting me borrow your sewing machine! And for telling me the squirrel suit reminds you of Blanky off of the Little Toaster! :)

I discovered this online, It's actually off of shark tank, and the design is supposed to help transitioning from being swaddled to not needing to be swaddled. So it gives them some room to move but is also slightly restricting as well as comforting. I used it the first time yesterday and he seemed to do well with it! Last night I ended up swaddling him but I think it was just a rough night. (Falling off the couch and landing on your head with an already bad neck can do that to you) So I'm going to try it again tonight and see if we have more success with it! (It was a success! He slept for 6 hours then 4! Hopefully it's not a fluke and just because he got his shots. Fingers crossed!) So far he seems to like it more than being swaddled and doesn't get super angry when I'm putting it on him. So we shall see! It seems to be working so far! He is still also sleeping in our room because I don't feel like he is sleeping well enough yet to be moved to the kids room.

Austin rockin' the exercise ball and squirrel suit!

Austin's eating is going very well. He is eating every 2 hours. Sometimes a little longer. We tried him on some formula this past month when I had my surgery and that didn't really go very well. He didn't like it.... Not that I can blame him really... Cuz that stuff stinks! It's a good thing I had plenty of breast milk saved up in the freezer. The one problem I do keep having is clogged milk ducts. I think I've had 5 of them since Austin was born and I'd never gotten any with the other kids. I wish I knew what caused them cuz they are no fun and wipe me out! For a day or so I get achy and chilled all over my body on top of the very painful milk duct that is clogged.... It is interesting...