Dear Nolan: Months 3 and 4

Dear Nolan, 

I’m sorry to say that you’re already falling victim to third child syndrome. I’m trying to do these monthly updates for you just like I did for your brother and sister but I’ve already fallen behind by a month…because here I am writing and we’re already a week into month 4 and I never did month 3!

Nevertheless, I figured it was still worth it to squeeze an update in. You turned 4 months last week and it’s hard to believe we’ve made it through 1/3 of a year with 3 kids!

It’s hard not to compare you to your brother and sister but I’m working hard to remind myself that you are your own little man, growing and doing things at your own rate. You’re definitely the smallest little nugget of the three. I actually waited to write this recap until today because you had your 4-month doctor visit yesterday and I wanted to see how much you’d grown!

But it is fun to put pictures side by side, especially of you and your brother at the same ages. There are definitely similarities but there are also differences. Most people say you look like your daddy, especially when you smile.

You still spend a lot of time in the Ergo…getting dragged along to various activities like Little Gym, swimming lessons, trips to the playground etc and for the most part, you still love it. I occasionally flip you around for a few minutes at a time and you like that. You take a lot of naps in the Ergo and in random places on the floor.

I try to make sure you get some time on your activity mat every day, including tummy time, which you don’t enjoy. You’ve rolled from tummy to back a few times but for the most part, don’t have a ton of interest in rolling over yet. You have figured out how to grab the dangling animals on the mat and that sometimes keeps you entertained while I work out. 

Your brother and sister are still doing a good job with you. Squish loves to chat with you and always pulls your chair right over next to him at meal time so he can talk to you while he’s eating. 

For the most part nursing is still going well. We got your tongue tie clipped when you were a week old,  but after a few months, I suspected that you still had a bit of a tongue tie. You were still needing frequent feeding, not gaining a ton of weight, gumming the nipple, making clicking noises when you nursed, etc. Yesterday we went to a pediatric dentist nearby that specializes in tongue and lip ties who told us that you still had a class 2 tongue tie and a class 3 lip tie. They released both of them yesterday with a laser. The whole process took about 1 minute. We have stretches to do 3x a day for 3 weeks and go back in a week to see how it’s healing. 

After that, we headed to the doctor for your 4-month appointment. While you’ve always been smaller than your brother and sister (more in the 30-40th percentile vs the 90th), at this visit you had dropped down to the 9th percentile for weight. However, you were still in the 85th percentile for height and the 75th for head circumference. 

The suspicion is that you’ve been working really hard to nurse, ie burning a lot of calories, so we’re hoping now that the ties have been released, nursing will be easier and you’ll be more effective at it so we’ll go back in one month to recheck your weight. I’m not overly concerned. Whereas your siblings looked more like daddy did as a baby (a little plumper), you seem to be taking after your mama as a baby (long and lean). 

For the most part, you’re a happy baby. You have your days/times of the days when you’re angry but other days you’re perfectly content to sit with me and watch your siblings do their thing. 

Sleep is not your forte….you have not discovered the long stretches of sleep yet, but that’s ok…we’ll get there. (Also hoping the tongue and lip tie releases will help with that)

You’ve found your voice and love to chatter and scream. Very soon you’ll be ready to be buckled into your stroller for walks and to start using the jumper for a few minutes during the day.

You’re wearing size 2 diapers and mostly 6-month clothes. You still don’t have much hair but it’s slowly starting to come in a little bit. You’re not a huge fan of baths, probably because you don’t get very many. You love chewing on blankets and for the most part, you’re good about using your pacifier.

It’s been fun to watch you grow and I think the next few months is when the fun will really start as you start to sit up, roll over more and even start solids in a couple of months!

Mama loves you.