Four of a Kind: Hampton 4 months

I know I am posting this a little late, but better late than never...
Hampton is now 4 months old and is really becoming very interactive with us. He smiles a lot now and has such a sweet demeanor. I love watching the things he discovers. The big thing he has learned this month is his hands. He has learned to put them in his mouth and now knows when there is something in his hand. It immediately goes to his mouth when he figures out there is something there. He dropped a toy from his hand the other day and I noticed that he realized it wasn't there anymore. It was pretty neat seeing that look on his little face.

Hampton has really started "talking" a lot lately. He will just make noise after noise and sometimes it is difficult to tell whether he is talking or getting fussy (he usually goes straight from one to the other).

I rotate Hamp's activities throughout the day because he tends to get bored after being with one activity for too long. He loves to play in his bouncy seats, on his activity mats, and he LOVES the around-we-go that he got from Santa. Usually when he is having awake time, he will be pretty content rotating from one activity to the next. He is really good about entertaining himself.

Hampton has started rolling to his side and it is so cute. He usually just rotates to his left side and back, but occasionally he rolls to the right. It seems like this milestone just snuck up on us, but it is fun nonetheless. As you can see, he loves to eat his hands. If he gets excited when you are talking to him or laughing with him, he shows off by putting his hands in his mouth. It is really sweet the way he is!

Here he is in the around-we-go. I just put a little pillow or blanket behind him so that he doesn't fall over. He is so cute just sitting there. He looks like a little old man!

I think this picture shows H's eyelashes better than any other pictures I have. He really has long pretty eyelashes and I can't ever get them to show up in pictures, but this one does a pretty good job. He is just so sweet!

Hampton is sleeping pretty well still. Since he was 3 months, he has been sleeping about 7 1/2 hours a night. But, he does have some nights that don't go so well. Just last weekend he was only sleeping about 3-3 1/2 hours a night. Luckily, that didn't last long. He is getting back on track. He also decided about a week ago that he didn't want to nurse lying on his left side - meaning that he didn't want to nurse the correct way on my right side. SO, I have to lay him on his right side and lean over him to make him nurse. But, he has done better the past few days, so hopefully we are not going to have to keep having such awkward nursings! It really is quite comical, but sometimes VERY inconvenient!

Hampton "talking."

I took Hamp to the doctor on the 6th. Dr. Whitaker said Hampton looked perfect and he is doing pretty well. We are not going to start H on rice cereal yet because he is still having tummy issues. We tried to wean him off the laxative, but learned quickly that that wouldn't work. Hampton had a very rough day the next day and didn't go to the bathroom at all. AND, all we did was cut down the dosage. So, he'll stay on that a little longer. He still has the reflux pretty bad, but we are getting more used to it. He pretty much throws up every time he eats and usually for a while afterwards. What do ya do? We do go back to the GI doctor this Friday, so it will be interesting to see what he says. I am assuming that he will tell us to just continue what we're doing, but who knows???

Some of Hampton's stats from Tuesday:

14 lbs. 15 oz. (50th percentile)
25 1/2 inches tall (75th percentile)
16 1/2 inch head circumfrence (almost 50th percentile)

Hampton did really well with his shots. He did cry a little when they gave them to him, but it really didn't last too long. He had the same shots he did when he was 2 months old, so we knew what to expect. Since he had no reaction to them the first time we expected he wouldn't this time - which was the case. That was very nice! We just love our hands! Talking Hamp is still sleeping in the co-sleeper in our room. Due to his tummy issues, he wakes up a lot still during the night and I sometimes have to pat his little bottom for a while to get him comforted and back to sleep. It helps having him lying right by the bed so I don't have to climb up and down the stairs. This is Hampton's favorite toy right now. He will just stair at this toy while kicking and talking for a long time. I think it's because of the bold colors. Happy 4 months, Hampton!