End of April/19 weeks

(More pictures will be added tonight)

Alex is 19 weeks today! He turned 4 months two weeks ago, and that post is still in "draft" mode. I just can't seem to find the time to keep up with my blog. My last post was about Alex almost rolling over, I can tell you with a proud Mama smile that he is rolling both ways now. It was not long after that post was written that he did make it over, and now rolls all over the place. He uses rolling to get across the room! Every time I leave him on the floor, and come back from doing something, I find him off his blanket.

This is what 19 weeks looks like for us:
Eating

He still eats the same amount as when he was 10 weeks. He gets 36 ounces everyday, but most days he has a bottle or two that he does not finish. He eats 5 ounces at 7:30am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, and 6 ounces between 9pm and 10pm. When we got home from Alex's 4 month check up on April 15th, he got to try rice cereal for the first time. I wanted to wait a little longer to get into cereal, but Joe was so excited to try it. Alex gets a little bowl most nights. If we are not home, or Alex seems tired I don't give it to him. If we are around and Alex is in a good mood I will feed him a tiny bowl before his 7pm bottle. He doesn't seem to mind it, but he also doesn't love it! I will wait another month or so before I started adding cereal to his everyday food schedule. Alex is still a stinker when it comes to burping. He even "cries" if you try to burp him half way through his feeding. He has also started spitting up lately. I think this has to do with not burping enough.

Sleeping:
Alex is still sleeping through the night. In over 12 weeks Alex has only gotten up once in the night. It was a few weeks ago. He was grumpy before bed and had a fever. It was hard getting him to sleep that night. Then around 3am he woke up fussing. I went in and cleaned his nose out, rocked him, and put him back to bed. He slept the rest of the night, and has not gotten up in the night again. He still goes down between 9:30 and 10. I still wake him at 7:30 to feed him and then take him to work with me. On the weekends he was sleeping in until 8 or 8:30, but he is starting to get up closer to 7:30.

Naps are still a mess! I try to follow the eat, play, sleep; eat play, sleep schedule, but Alex finds a bottle so soothing, and tries to nap after his bottles. He still naps where ever, and that needs to change. The bounce sleep, with the vibration on use to be his favorite, but even that hasn't been working. He is trying to make the Bjorn, or moby wrap as his new nap place, but that is not going to happen. Because he is not getting very good naps he is starting to be a grump boy, so I decided today that he is going to start taking every nap in the pack n play. I took him down there and put him in it, then I sat in the just outside the door and watched him. At first he looked all around, then he fussed a little and ended up falling asleep. The problem is that he had been waking up after only 15-20 minutes down there, and then not being able to fall back asleep. I think he is not used to sleeping in the quite, because he had been taking naps where the girls were playing. Also because I have not been good about using that area, I think he wakes up and does not know where he is, so he stays awake.

Alex is over 16 pounds now! I thought he was still close to 13 pounds! lol I was sure they were going to ask me why he had not gained much weight from 2 months to 4 months! lol Boy was I wrong. I guess it's hard to see how big he is getting when I am with him 24/7. He also jumped from 75% to 89% for weight, but dropped from 75% to 50% for height.

He fits best in 3 to 6 month clothes, but I have been putting him in a lot of 3 month outfits. A lot of his clothes are 3 months and it seems like just yesterday that I pulled the tags off them. I hate to "waste" them, so I have been trying to put each of them on him one last time. I plan to pack up everything that is 3 months or smaller, this weekend.

Alex still smiles like crazy, but has also learned how fun it can be to cry! I had only heard him really cry twice before this week. And 1 of those times was when he got his 4 month shots. After a very long weekend of being out of town, not taking good naps, and getting up around 6am, Alex can't seem to catch up on his sleep. He has been very tired/grumpy and has been crying a lot. Before this I could put him in the bounce seat, or lay him on the floor when he was tired and he would fall right asleep, but now he cries. I am not used to this kind of baby. It's hard to find ways to soothe him, when I have never had to deal with this before!

Alex still loves TV. :( He is getting better about playing with toys, and not just watching TV. The older he gets, the more we need to turn the TV off. I had always said I did not want to be a family that just sits around with the TV on all the time. Joe and I always have it on now, some times just for the noise. In the morning I watch 15 minutes of the news while I feed Alex, and he turns his head to watch it too. Stinker!

He babbles more and more. He talks in a really high pitched voice, which sounds a lot like the voice I use to talk to him! lol

He has found the dogs! In the last week or so he has really started to watch them when they are in the same room. Then the other night Alex was having tummy time, and the boys were playing around and Alex started to crack up! Also on the car ride to Joe's mom's house, the dogs were jumping back and forth over Alex's car seat and he was laughing at them. He also likes it when they whine, but jumps when they bark. It's great to see them bonding.

He loves to be "thrown" in the air, and loves to play "tick tock". He is very ticklish and that can always get a laugh. He seems to be use to having the camera in his face and smiles when I get it out.

We go for a walk almost everyday, and he loves it. Some times he falls asleep, but he is getting better at staying awake and looking around when out.