Wallace | Four Months

Holy moly, he's four months old already.




I'll just get the nasty part out of the way right now: Wallace isn't sleeping well AT ALL. He used to be so great at night, waking once to eat and then falling back to sleep quickly. And now that the four month wakeful period has hit, I've stopped counting the number of times he will nurse at night. And all through the evening after work. And his eyes pop open and he screams as soon as I lay him in his co-sleeper, at night and also during the day. So yeah, naps are usually 20-30 minutes at a time, unless he's in the carseat or Ergo---then I can sometimes sneak at 2 hour deal out of him, but it's rare.



It's not easy to convince myself that we have to work hard to change his sleeping habits, considering that he doesn't have a nursery yet and therefore he's still sleeping right next to me at night. I think he can smell me and just wants to nurse and cuddle all night long. I tried putting him in with the big kids and that was an epic failure, so now I'm just thinking we will hunker down and wait it out until the addition is finished. Supposedly that is going to happen by Thanksgiving, which most likely means Christmas---but SOMEDAY Wallace will have his own (brand new) bedroom and a crib and will NOT be next to my bed all night long. Someday soon!



I also think Ace is just getting used to me being at work four days a week. He's still not taking a bottle consistently: some days he will slug down 4 ounces but other days it's zero or a half of an ounce total while I'm gone my 5.5 hours. You just never know with this kid! But since he also hates to nap, I get home to a starving/exhausted baby who just wants to eat and hang on the couch all night. This is really impractical and hard, baby boy! But we are figuring it out and finding some sort of routine....I think.



Wallace is loving his hands this month and always chews on them. A lady in the grocery store remarked that he 'must be teething', because of the hand-eating, but I don't know--my other kids never got a tooth until six months. He can roll over but hasn't really done much of that since he mastered it last month. We pulled out the relic jumparoo monstrosity, circa 2010, and he loves batting around some of the plastic friends for a solid 15 minutes or so. He is at the age when he needs to be entertained, and the jumparoo, the Bumbo seat, and the play yard seem to fit the bill. He also loves to prop up on the couch and watch TV---this kid seriously loves the boob tube, almost as much as the boob. ;)



Truly, he is the happiest baby, super smiley and content 95% of the time. He'll flirt with anyone who makes eye contact with him and he LOVES watching the chaos of the older three kids around our house. We think he sometimes gets lonely when we leave him in the pack and play or somewhere that he can't see us, because as soon as we get closer to him he's happy again. Ace will giggle if I toss him in the air, or tickle him, or make a funny face at him. IT'S THE GREATEST SOUND EVER.





He's quite vocal and scares himself with his squeals, like he doesn't know that they are coming out of his own mouth. I've also noticed that he stares at my food or cup when I'm eating, so perhaps we are getting closer to the table food milestone. I don't usually start the kids on any food until five or six months, so I'll wait for awhile longer, but he does seem to take interest already!



Wallace and I are quite attached to each other, which is why it's been hard transitioning back to work. I'm really grateful that it's only twenty hours per week, because I am loving my job itself---it's just tough to come home to a grumpy baby that missed me greatly. Here's hoping we can find our groove this next month.



The big kids are infatuated with Waller Baller, Wallipop, Walli-poppins, Ace of Base, Acey, and Wallermelon. He has more nick names than anyone I've met in my life. Truman has begun carrying the baby around the house, Cecelia frequently puts a crown on our baby, and Porter likes to keep him from crying by letting Ace suck his (disgusting) finger. We are working on that one. Blech.



We have his four month well-baby appointment this week, but he's growing out of his six month clothes and size 2 diapers. I'm happy he's an excellent nurser but it's also challenging when I'm not getting a break from nursing in the evenings and at night. He's growing really well and is a chunky monkey, so I won't complain--especially when I remember Porter at this age (who wanted to wean ASAP and it broke my heart).

Also, it should be noted that Wallace is seriously Truman's clone. It's actually freaky sometimes looking at T's old baby pictures compared to this child---it's like we made the same baby, seven years later! Handsome devils.







Ace can also rock pink pajamas, as we found out when he pooped through his outfit out on the town, and his lady friend, Cleo, had a spare for him to borrow.





Show us how you really feel, Porter.


First Halloween---really excited.


Wake up, little dragon!




Love it!


My mom and my grandma came for a visit this month, so Wallace had THREE grandmas (of his four) doting on him. He didn't hate it. Neither did the grandmas.


Bottom line: Ace is doing great and we aren't sure how we got along without him before this.