FOUR months + 1 day

My sweet boy is now four months old.  His sweet personality is emerging more and more each and every day.  It's a strange paradox- while I am so very excited for each and every milestone, part of me wants to freeze time so I can savor each moment just little longer.  We waited SO long for this little miracle, and I feel like time is flying by!

He's so much fun right now and is really starting to interact and notice his environment.  He's loving his exercauser already and loves all the bells and whistles it has.  (I, on the otherhand, find it a tad over stimulating) He likes to change positions often, and also loves being on a blanket spread on the floor.  He's rolled over from his back to tummy and has made it back to his back a few times. He hasn't managed to get from his tummy to back during tummy time, but if he gets to his tummy on his own he can usually figure it out.  He has really great head and neck control, and can almost sit unassisted.

He's a sleep champ.  He's been sleeping through the night for more than a month now, and recently we've been putting him down close to 8 each night.  He usually wakes up for a feeding anywhere between 3:30 and 5:00, and then goes back to sleep until 7:30 or so.  The last few nights he's preferred to be placed in his crib to roll around before he falls asleep rather than be rocked to sleep with mama.  This makes me a little sad, but I know how huge this will be when he is a little older.  He takes several naps during the day as well.  We don't have his nap schedule down just yet and I think we'll work on that over the summer.  Since he is sleeping through the night so well, we don't feel obligated to get him on a regimented schedule during the day just yet. 

We'll go to the pediatrician on Monday for his four month appointment, but from our rough estimates he's well over 18 lbs and 27 inches.  He's going to be a big guy  :)  He's in mostly 6 month clothes- but I am sure those will be outgrown in the next week or so.  It makes me sad that he had so many cute 3 month outfits that just never managed to fit him.  I've realized I can't really buy ahead for him as we have no idea how his growth curve is going to continue.

He's eating 6 oz at most feedings, and is finally stretching out to 3-4 hours during the day.  We didn't really mind the every 2 hours during the day given that he goes for 8+ hours at night.  Our pediatrician strongly recommends waiting for cereal until 6 months.  We'll check with them at his appointment on Monday given his size, but if that is their recommendation we'll stick with it for now. He's clearly thriving on the formula!  :)

He had his first road trip over Memorial Day weekend.  We went to Notre Dame for a swim meet.  He was a trooper and loved cheering on daddy's swimmers.  He even managed to take a few naps during all of the excitement of the meet.  We'll be heading to Florida next week with our senior swimmers.  It will be his first airplane ride.  It should be interesting... it will be Chris, myself, and one other coach along with Q and 20 teens.  We're pretty excited!  I have some travel questions, but I will post that in another post.

He's talking and cooing almost all the time. He'll give little laughs, but he sure makes mommy and daddy really work for giggles.  He's such a happy guy almost all of the time.  We didn't know what to do when he was inconsolable on Memorial Day.  Turns out, he had a tooth breaking through.  We weren't really thinking about that for a few more months.  A second tooth followed that Wednesday.  He was fussy on those two days, and then was back to his normal happy self.  He's drooling quite a bit now and the two teeth are clearly visible.

  We had our second post placement visit this month and it went really well.  Our SW asked us if we would consider adopting again.  We both laughed and said that we're thinking about it.  We've learned so much this time around, and know what we wouldn't do if we chose to adopt again.  We have some debt we need to pay down from Quinn's adoption and the failed adoption before we even consider it.  We learned that we'd just need to do the homestudy update with our agency for a new homestudy should we be ready to adopt again.  Honestly, I don't know if we will at this point.  Right now, we are madly in love with this little guy and want to give him every opportunity in the world.  But, we also struggle with the idea of him being an only child- not so much for us, but for him.  That's probably another post all together.

We emailed his birthmom with photos and updates.  Initially she didn't want any contact post placement, but has agreed to receive these emails through an anonymous email account.  She always replies right away, so that makes me feel that she really does want to keep the lines of communication open.  While we hope for more openness in the future, we are forever grateful for the trust she has placed in us. 

We have one more post placement visit at 5 months, and then our attorney can file finalization papers at 6 months.  We won't have to return to court at that time, only the initial date here in our home state.  We're thinking about having an finalization party with all of our friends and family at that time.  We were so blessed with so many who helped us along the way, that we'd like to honor everyone and officially announce him as our son.  One of our close friends wanted to throw us a shower, and we thought this might be the best way for her to help us celebrate in a few months.

We tried to get his 3 month photos done, but he wasn't in the mood.  We did get one family shot in our Blackhawks gear. He already outgrew his first set, but we had to purchase since it's the Stanley Cup!  :)

Hoping to be a better blogger now that school is out.  Trying to catch up on grad school homework this week before we head out of town.  There's so much swirling in my head and heart right now that I need to share, but I just can't seem to sit down and write.  I do read many blogs... but from my phone which makes it hard to comment.  That's one of my big goals for the summer... get back into my blogging routine.  We'll see.

Love to you all....