4.5 Months

Michael is 4.5 months old now....time is really flying by!

Everyday, there seems to be something new he is learning...the latest development is that he is starting to become "mobile."

Granted, the distance he moves is very small in a pretty decent length of time, but, nonetheless, if we had a time-elapsed video of his movement, he is moving!

The other day, I had him on his tummy and was baiting him with a toy just out of his reach and over to the side. I kept calling him, "Come over here, Michael! You can do it!" and lo-and-behold, in a few minutes, Michael had rotated 90 degrees and was now within reach of his prey.

He's not crawling...but he is incrementally schimmying (sp?) and getting to where he wants to go.

Sometimes, though, he schimmies backwards and he looks a little confused as to what happened and needs to just take a breather.

In other areas, Michael is now becoming a consistent napper. He is not a long napper, but a consistent one. He will definitely go down for a nap every two hours, and that nap is almost never shorter than 30 minutes. Sometimes, on good days, I can go in there and rock him back to sleep for another round of 30 minutes, though that doesn't happen too often.

Michael is a great night sleeper once we actually get him to fall a sleep. Fortunately, he is not one of those kids that needs to be driven around the block or set on top of a washing machine to fall asleep. In fact, Michael will fall asleep just perfectly in our arms, but unless he is really deeply sleeping, he will inevitably roll onto his tummy once we put him in his bed, and then get mad and wake up, and then we get to start over again. Sometimes, this process lasts in the area of an hour :\ But he has slept through the night a few times..so that's great!

But even this process has not been without rewards. First, it's clear he wants to sleep but just gets frustrated being on his tummy...so we are at least on the same team and not fighting each other too much. However, most importantly, it has allowed me to have a renewed appreciation for this precious baby time that is going by so quickly.

I am glad we trained him to fall asleep on his own, because it has been so valuable: he is calmer since we did that, he sleeps better in the car, and so long as he is on his back, he can fall asleep by himself, which has come in handy many times in the middle of the night.

However, I am also glad that his little tummy trick is requiring us to once again rock him in our arms until he is asleep so that we can lay him in his bed and he either a) won't roll on his tummy or b) will be sound enough asleep when he inevitably rolls on his tummy so that it won't bother him.

I was struck at how big he was getting when I caught a glimpse of me rocking him in the mirror today. I remember how it used to look when I would carry him in my arms, and now, I have this big boy sprawled across the width of my body with his feet dangling down below my waist....he looked like a little boy and not just a baby!

As I looked back down at his face, he had just fallen asleep, and he looked so calm and at peace and I knew these days were numbered. I know in a few months, Michael probably won't want to fall asleep in my arms. Instead of having that be his place of preference, I will have to chase him down to catch him, and steal hugs when I get the chance, probably to protests and squirming.

When I cuddle with him, it will soon be on his terms, and not just when I feel like it.

I remembered how I used to think how nice it would be when I can put him in his bed and he'll drift off to sleep on his own withouth any problems. And there is truth to that, since eventually, he'll need to do that (at the very least so I don't have to come to his slumber parties and rock him to sleep in front of all his friends!)

But I also repented of any time when I was motivated towards this goal so that I could go and get something else done. Today, more than ever, I realized that there is nothing more important than what time I have at this very moment to have this precious little creature drift off to sleep in my arms. Dishes can wait, work can wait, everything can wait, because unlike this moment, those other things will always be there.

Ah....being a mom is making me so mushy! I wouldn't have it any other way!