"C" is for Child (cont.)

4 months

Happy (very) belated 4 month birthday, sweet Tully Bear!

He checked out A-OK with the doc this month.  Here are his stats:

Weight - 15 lb 5.5 oz (62%, up from 53%)
Height - 26.5 in (92%, up from 74%)
Head - 16.38 in (34%, up from 29%)

So in summary he is growing like a weed and still has a bean head.  I am so happy and relieved that all of our supply issues are behind us: he is nursing like a champ.  Here are some other exciting things in Tully's life:

• Rolling over front to back and back to front
• Not sleeping through night (more on this later)
• Scooting backwards several feet while on his belly, inchworm style
• Grabbing EVERYTHING and promptly putting it in his mouth
• Showing frustration when he can't get his hands on something
• Pulling ZachZach's fur and ears
• Starting to sit up unassisted
• Smiling all the time
• Laughing lots, especially when we hold him in the air airplane style and move him up and down like we're doing an arm work out

DIAPER COUNT = 1857

Last month Ms. Jordan took care of Tully during the day because I went back to work.  Ms. Jordan was a LIFESAVER!  Tully loved playing with her, and we were sad to see her go.  She set the nanny bar really high.  She helped out until we could find a long-term nanny, and now that school has started, Ms. Jordan is back at her full-time teaching job. We plan to do a date night, so she can come back to visit soon.

We miss you, Jordan!

My mom also helped out for a week until the full-time nanny (aka Nanna) could start work in August.  (Thanks, Grammy!)  So now Nanna is at work with us full-time, and I'm feeling pretty spoiled.  In addition to taking excellent care of Tully and playing with him all day, she sings to him, does our laundry, AND cooks!  Get out!!! Right?!  (I'm picking myself up off the floor now.)  We had this "wish list" when we interviewed nannies, and she has exceeded all of our expectations.  She's offered multiple times to do our grocery shopping and run errands, but John and I are continuing to take care of those things for now.  And even though I can hear her entertaining Tully upstairs, she still makes notes in our BabyConnect app, so I know what toys, books, and activities he likes or dislikes.  This is SUCH a relief.  We started the nanny hunt back in October, which was waaaay too soon, but I was freaking out this summer when the girl we selected quit/got fired (long story) three days before she was supposed to start.  I told myself over and over again that things would work themselves out, and thankfully they did.  We just had to wait for the right person!

Nanna even loves our fur baby, Zach.  We actually had one lady we interviewed tell us she wasn't interested in the job because "the dog was all over her and the baby."  Zach's worst offense is licking the baby, and he immediately looks at us with apologetic puppy-dog eyes every time he does it.  It's like he KNOWS he's not supposed to lick, but he just can't contain himself.  In any case, I would never allow Zach to be "all over" anyone.  Who do these people think they are accusing my dog of these heinous offenses?  If we're FB friends, you may recall the neighborhood self-appointed dog patrol lady accusing Zach of being a duck killer.  More recently, she yelled at another couple for letting their dogs chase the ducks.  One dog was named Taco and was about the size of my shoe.  Pretty sure he's not effecting (affecting? ugh I can never remember and do not feel like Googling this) the duck population.  But I digress...being a dog lover was on our nanny wish list, and not only does Nanna love dogs, she works with a nearby rescue.  Win-win, as Zach was a rescue too.

I mentioned Tully stopped sleeping through the night.  Oh sleep, how I miss thee.  At only a few weeks old we were able to easily get 5 and 6 hour stretches of sleep out of Tully.  We even got to a point where we knew he would stay down for the night and could relax.  Not so much any more.  Since the three month mark, sleep has been hit or miss.  Mostly miss.  Three month growth spurt? Traveling? Four month sleep regression? I'm almost to the point I don't know or care what the reason is.  All I know is I'm severely sleep deprived.  I know it comes with the territory, and sadly my body has adjusted to waking at odd hours of the night with Tully up shortly thereafter.  At least I know my baby, right?  I will appreciate when he starts sleeping better though, and I'm sure John will be happy when I'm not Ms. Crabby Pants due to complete. total. utter. exhaustion.

Other four month highlights include Tully's first airplane ride and the Houston Tour de Tully.  We traveled to Houston my work, stopping in Dallas for layovers, and then visited friends in the Houston-area over the weekend.  It was great to see everyone BTW, and congrats on the house, ZandA!  In addition to meeting friends, Tully also got to meet several of my co-workers.  They even made an official name tag for him at the meeting.

Back to to the plane rides--Tully fussed a little before takeoffs but NEVER cried.  What a relief!  If you weren't in the row beside us, you probably wouldn't have even known there was a baby on the plane.  I nursed Tully during takeoffs and landings, and he didn't seem to have any problems with his ears.  We even made it through a 30+ minute delay on the runway with minimal noise.  I can't say the same for the kid (1 y.o.?) behind us who SCREAMED for the better part of the plane delay and ride.  The water bottle and straw the mom offered just wasn't cutting it for the upset kiddo, and both mom and baby ended up in tears.  So sad.  August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month, so I've seen a few articles here and there about mothers who were "harassed" or made to feel embarrassed for breastfeeding in public and specifically in airports/on airplanes.  Now don't get me wrong, I do my best to be modest, but nursing a fussy (and sweaty?) baby under a cover isn't always an option.  I wore my best "nursing-friendly" clothes, so it wasn't like a strip show every time I tried to feed him.  Thankfully no one seemed offended when I nursed Tully throughout our plane rides, and hopefully they realized they could have had TWO screaming kids on the plane, had we not nursed the entire time.  I also made it through security without any hassling from TSA regarding my cooler full of milk.  I didn't know what to expect with this being my first work trip, so I wanted to make sure John had plenty of ammo in the fridge, but I was nervous that TSA would try to take it away.  It turned out I could run upstairs in the hotel to nurse on breaks, so we came home with a lot of milk too.  We accidentally left it in the car overnight, so I had to dump about 20 ounces of precious liquid gold down the drain.  Tear.   But I'm OK with it.  There's plenty more frozen should we need it.

So anyway, I'll step off of my breastfeeding soapbox and leave you with a sweet pic of John and Tully at bath time.  In addition to being an expert diaper changer, John is in charge of bath time each night.

Look at Tully's old man hair style!  I love it.

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