4 months!

It is amazing how quickly time passes. Today on 9-9-09, Hayden is 4 months old! He went to his pedi appointment this morning. He weighed in at 14 lb. 8 oz.! My guess was around 14 lbs. so I was pretty close. He is in the 43rd percentile for weight which is awesome. At 2 months, he was in the 38th percentile so he is right on track. His length is also gone up. He is up to 25 inches long! This is a 3 inch growth in 2 months! He moved from the 19th percentile for height to the 55th! He was so short when he was born, I was glad to see this increase. His head is still a little smaller at 16 inches which is the 20th percentile. But given that he wasn't even on the charts when he was born, this is a great increase as well. The dr. did detect a slight heart murmur but told me it was nothing to worry about. Apparently 80 percent of babies have some sort of murmur and 80 percent of those are nothing to worry about. He said that since he is growing and eating well that he was not worried about it at all. So, I am not worried about it either.

The pedi also gave us permission to start cereal! Hayden is not satisfied with just a bottle. He cries and cries after he is done and looks at me like "Where is the rest?" He is eating 7 oz. at each feeding so it isn't that he doesn't get enough to eat. He will be starting with very little. For the first month, he will get 1 Tbsp. of cereal once a day. He told us that around 5 months, we could increase it to 1 Tbsp. twice a day and by the time he comes back at 6 months, he can be eating 2-3 Tbsp. twice a day. So, on the way home, I stopped at the store and bought rice cereal. I am excited to try it tonight. I am sure it will be messy and that most of it will probably end up on himself and me but it is a great next step. He may still have the tounge thrust reflux but if we will give it a few days trial and if it is still too strong, then we will wait a week or so and try again. Hopefully, this will help with him crying after he eats and will make him more satisfied. I don't want to pork him up or anything.

He is enjoying his newest toy, his jumperoo! He has a Baby Einstein Jumperoo. We got it as a gift about a month ago but he was not strong enough or tall enough to use it. I got it back out yesterday and he was finally tall enough! He sits up really pretty well and only has a small blanket behind his back. So far, he really likes it. It has a mirror and he loves to stare at himself. He only tolerates 10-15 min. at a time so far but he will get better. His pedi also told me he needs to be off of his back for 15-20 min. 4 times a day so this will make up quite a bit of that time. He HATES tummy time so that will be the minimal part of it. Now, we just need to get him to roll over. I talked with his pedi about it, and he was not concerned that he wasn't rolling over yet. Apparently, there are some upper leg muscles that just need to strengthen some and he will be able to roll over. His pedi told me that at his 6 month appointment he will be rolling all over the place!