4 Months Old

Aston turns 4 months old today which conveniently coincides with a visit from high ranking US citizen (see your local news station for details of who's in town today) and a last minute public holiday announcement made yesterday means Rob has the day off to celebrate with us.

Public Holiday was announced at 4.30pm yesterday afternoon (nothing like a bit of advance notice for the businesses out there) and all major arterial roads are closed all day today meaning we can't really go anywhere. Plus it's been raining this week and with no storm water systems, all the roads are flooded anyway making it hard to take the stroller anywhere AND with all the wind and rain our Showtime connection is on the blink so no TV and plenty of time to give you details of what Aston's been up to this past month.

Firstly and most importantly Aston started sleeping through the night (and I mean 8pm to 5am) I felt like a new woman. He did this three nights in a row and then we flew to the UK where he promptly forgot his new found skill and began waking once or twice a night for feeds again.

Since we've been back he has done 2 nights sleeping all the way through but is generally waking for a feed around 1am as he was back in Nov and Dec. This feed is wedged between 2 5-6 hour sleeping sessions.

We're hoping to encourage the sleeping through thing to reappear as soon as possible but it will no doubt be messed around by the trip to the US in February anyway.

Aston now knows he is wearing clothes and tries to grap at them every chance he gets. He also also found his feet - see previous post. And is desperate and I mean desperate to get them into his mouth - he can't quite make it yet.

He started to throw a leg over just before we left for the Xmas break and while in the UK made his first full roll but needed some help to release his traped arm and hand. Well he now rolls like a pro and in the flash of an eye as well. Can't leave him anywhere now as he's away. He is also wiggling himself around on the mat to new positions and I can see those legs going nineteen to the dozen as he no doubt slowly grasps the concept of the crawl in the coming months.

Hands in mouth is a constant, the dribble is excessive and he has also been rubbing his lower gums a lot in the past week making us wonder if he's starting to get some movement under his gums. Or has just found his gums and likes the sensation of rubbing them.

He has been on his first aeroplane to the UK, a train to Bournemouth and a bus in Cardiff in Wales. One of the highlights of the month was meeting his Great Nana Mae (see separate blog) in the UK and he spent hours cramming his fist and anything else he could find into his mouth while bouncing around on her lap.

He can hold his head up very well now, and sits while supported. He loves to weight bear on his legs and has very strong Rugby thigh's to help him do this. He has grown in length quite a lot, the 3-6 month all in ones that were a little long just before xmas are now the right length for him - I reckon by 5 months he'll be stretching these out for size and we'll need to cut the feet out of those ones as well.

His hair has started growing as well. It's still staying on the darker side, but he does have some lighter highlights as well. His eyes have not turned brown yet, making us wonder if they actually will. They are an interesting colour actually, a dark grey on the outside and greenish colour on the inside ... they still look royal blue in some lights but are more obviously grey/green so I hope they stay like this as they're just beautiful.

In fact Aston's just beautiful, he's inquisitive, alert, attentive, very good with people, loves to smile and laughs out loud with his mouth open.

He is still getting frustrated when he can't get stuff in his mouth, but we're giving him the soft books to suck on at the moment as they are easier, as well as poo bear which he face dives into with much laughter and enjoyment.

He is showing a little more interest in the bottle but this is in line with his general interest in putting all moving objects into his mouth and is still not latching or sucking very well. He's not so traumatised by us trying the bottle every day now, as he was a month ago so we are keeping on with it at least once a day.

He's not so good at putting himself to sleep when we are out and about (too much going on) making for one very tired boy. The Ergo baby has made this easier. We are back to him putting himself to sleep in the cot each night now we're home and this is again slowing improving.

And finally his range of noises and coos and a'hh's has increased a lot in the past month, he has so much to say.