4 Months Old!

This last month flew by! Cormac has changed so much this last month, I can hardly believe how big he is getting. Laughing is a daily occurance around here for Mac and he is still extremely ticklish. Mac has gone through a couple of growth spurts this past month that have caused some crankiness and constant eating around the clock, but for the most part he is still a very happy baby and getting smiles out of him is pretty easy for all of us.

Mac has become a little more enthusiastuc about nursing, which makes me happy most of the time. Some nights he will sleep an 8 hour stretch before eating, and some night he will do a 3 hour stretch and then want to nurse non-stop the rest of the night while in bed with me. I wish there was more of the 8 hour stretches, but like I said I think the growth spurts are to blame for the most part.

The big news this month is that Mac has started sleeping in his crib for most naps at home and for his first stretch of sleep at night. He used to wake up the second I laid him down in his crib and scream, but we bought something called a Magic Sleep Suit, that just as the name implies is truly magic. I can now put Macky in his suit, rock him for a few minutes and lay him in his crib and he goes right to sleep. It is nice to be able to put him down when James goes to bed and have some time to ourselves in the evening. And during the day it is very nice to be able to shower, get things done around the house and spend some one on one time with James while Mac is napping. I wish that his naps were longer than 30-45 minutes, but hey, at this point I will take what I can get.

Mac has also taken a couple of bottles this month, which has been awesome. This allowed us to leave him with a babysitter and go out on a date for the first time since he was born, and allows me to go to yoga once a week in the evenings when Tim is at home with the boys. We have found that he will not drink milk that has been frozen, so I have to pump in the morning if I want him to have a bottle that day.

Mac has become a drooling maniac this month. He has found his fists and sucks on them pretty much non-stop while he is awake and between that and the steady stream of drool coming out of his mouth, he soaks through a couple of outfits each day. He has started to hold onto a toy if I hand it to him, but he isn't really reaching out and grabbing things yet. He has rolled over a few times from tummy to back, but has yet to go from back to tummy. Mac is super strong and has great head control, he does really well for pretty long stretches of tummy time and will look all around. His core muscles are also really strong and he can sit up on our lap with only a little support for balance. He has also started to like standing up in our laps to look around.

James continues to do great with Cormac. He is really into bringing Mac toys and is really excited for him to start playing with things. He loves it when he and Mac wear matching things and always tells Mac he loves him. When we pick him up from school, he always runs over to Mac and says, "Mac, did you miss your big brother today?" Sometimes I think Mac looks a lot like fat James, and other times I think he looks totally different. We are anxious to see what he looks like as he grows up. It is hard to believe that Mac just came into our lives 4 months ago, I can't imagine our family without him!
Mac goes to the doctor on Wednesday for his 4 month well baby visit, so check back for his official stats. I am guessing he weighs about 16 pounds-about the same size that James was at 1 year.