Days Go By

And I can feel 'em flyin' like a hand out the window in the wind.  I was thinking of the Keith Urban song, since days have been flying so quickly around the Kraus house and Brody is now four months old.  Brody had a good three months (so I think).  He started doing amazing at tummy time, started rockin' the Bumbo and started to stand up!  I would say those are all BIG things to happen to my little guy.  Brody most definitely likes to hear himself talk which is really cute and of course I think all the noises he makes are all the cutest I've ever heard.  At month three he transitioned himself to a more flexible 3-4 hour schedule.  At first, I wasn't sure that I liked it because I really enjoyed the predictability of every three hours, but now I really like that it's not as much of a rigid schedule.  Since he now eats only every three or four hours, we've eliminated one of our feedings, so Brody eats five times a day.  At the very end of the third month, we started a true night time routine.  Brody eats around 6 or 6:30 and then we have play time & a bath.  After that we read a book, say prayers and put little man in his crib around 7:30.  This is what we now consider his true bedtime.  At around 10:00, Brody has a dream feed...lights off, quiet and he stays pretty out of it while he eats.  Then I lay him back down and he's truly asleep again within the amount of time it takes me to get ready for bed (maybe 10 or less minutes).  The only tricky part about this is sometime between us putting Brody to bed at 7:30 and "waking" him up to eat again at 10:00, he wakes up and cries (most nights).  Sometimes it's only a few minutes, sometimes 10-15.  The worst (which has only happened once, thankfully) was when he cried for 20 minutes!  It was horrible and I wanted to get him, but I knew that he was just transitioning and that he didn't need anything and would be fine.  Knowing this and living through him crying for 20 minutes are two totally different things, but I survived.  With 7:30 becoming his bedtime, he now has two really good naps.  One is in the morning and one in the afternoon and each one lasts anywhere from 2-3 hours.  Then he has one short nap late afternoon/early evening.  And with putting him to bed around 7:30 he sleeps about 11 hours at night because I still wake him up to start our day at 7.

Brody has also started teething.  No, he does not have any teeth yet, but he is drooling and as the doctor put it "aggressively" chewing on his hand which indicates the teething process has started.  He doesn't want to hold on anything and chew it yet (which the doctor said he was a little young to do) but he does love his hand.  I stick my finger in there sometimes to see if I can feel anything and he will chew on it for a second and then he wants his own hand back.  It's pretty funny.

Three Month Highlights

• First Thanksgiving
• First cold
• Started using the Bumbo
• Started standing
• No more swaddle!

Brody's four month visit to the doctor was good for the most part.  He weighed 15lbs. 4oz. (60th percentile) and is 26 1/4inches long (90th percentile).  We did get some not so great news about the size of his head.  It has not grown as much as it should and his soft spot is very small.  What this could possibly mean is that the plates in his head are closing too quickly and therefore not allowing enough room for his head and brain to grow.  I could tell this was something the doctor was taking very seriously.  She re-measured his head several times to make sure that it was correct.  His head in past visits was around the 30-40th percentile and had gone down to the 13th percentile.  She said it was possible that we were measuring before a growth spurt, so she recommended us to come back in a month to have it checked.  If there is no change, then Brody will have x-rays taken and be sent to a neurologist.  As a mom, I had to know what worst case scenario was.  If Brody's plates are closing too quickly, then worst case scenario would be that they would have to take out some of his skull to allow for the growth he needs.  Obviously, this is worst case and not anything we are close to yet, thankfully.  However, you never want to hear that something is not absolutely perfect with your child, especially when it involves their head and brain which is so important.  We're praying hard and trusting that God would allow Brody's head to grow normally and that by his next appointment, his head would be where it should be.  We have faith that God will be with us and Brody no matter what the outcome.  I always have to remind myself that things like this are news to me, but not to God.  I know he is in control and I choose to trust him in situations like this. 

For now, we are living life as normal and enjoying every second with our little man who continues to eat, pee, poop, sleep, smile and laugh like other little bundles of joy.  So, here are some pics from Brody's third month. 

I love that he TOTALLY looks like he's posing for this picture!

Finally sleeping on day #2 to get to Nana & Poppy's
house for Thanksgiving.

Happy boy once we finally made it!

Maren is a good big cousin!

Precious!

BIG boy!

 

Not quite sure if he likes it.

Daddy reading the bedtime story.

Brody's first artwork that he "made" at church.

 

SO big!

Proud of himself.

Still loves the knob and now he can reach it.

This is how I found him one morning.  He had moved
almost all the way around the "clock".

After that...no more swaddle!

This has happened once for 30 minutes and I don't think it will
ever happen again.  Total bummer that he doesn't like the swing.

 

 

Love this boy and love this face!