There is a book I read when Hurricane was a baby called Happiest Baby on the Block. I didn't agree with all of it but was helped by a good portion of it. One of my favorite things I took from it was the theory of the "fourth trimester". The idea is that there are three trimesters in pregnancy and a fourth for the first three-ish months after baby is born. During which time is the adjustment phase for baby in this new world! She/he deals with this differently depending on the baby. Hurricane for instance dealt with it poorly, indeed. With crying constantly unless she was nursed and held aggressively tight. Somewhere between 3-4 months old she slowly grew more accustomed to the world and needed me a little less. Some babies sleep, basically, through most of the fourth trimester, like Tender and The Boy did. Regardless of my babies different personalities though, they all finished the fourth trimester the same. With a new found amazement of the world around them! This world, it could not be ignored! It needed to be looked at and grabbed at all the time! This was NO time for sleeping or cuddling. For one of my children this time was wasted to even take a break to nurse (I consistently had to nurse this baby in a dark room every time for a couple of weeks before they realized they still needed sustenance breaks to discover the new world). All my babies decided around the age of 4 months old that about 30 minutes of a nap was quite enough thank you. Then they would roll around the bed and look at everything around them. Lucius is in this phase right now! He's so silly. He has totally mastered the entertainment center and can stand in it and grab all the toys around but still has sketchy neck control. Also, I took the two babies to wellness exams this week. Lucius is 4 months old and weighs 17.5 pounds and has a shockingly big head evidently. I think it was 18 1/2 inches around, which, they tell me, doesn't fall in the percentile chart. Hulk is 18 months old and weighs 29 pounds, which is heavy, but he's on the short side. This weight tells me that he has gained 8 pounds in the last 4 months! Pretty impressive for the little guy and very emotionally healing for me when I remember his little skin and bones body during my pregnancy when we couldn't talk him into eating anything besides the tiny amount of milk my body could produce for him. When he runs around the house with his shirt off I could just cry with joy seeing his healthy belly hanging out and chubby cheeks. Above is a picture I took sometimes before Lucius was born last summer.
2 Comments
Beth
3/19/2016 02:19:02 pm
Your children are so precious! I briefly saw the older ones at SDC with your Mom and Laurie :) such sweeties!!!
Reply
Melissa Barrett
3/20/2016 05:31:29 pm
I never read that book, but my midwife would tell me similar after my last three were born. It helped me to remember that. Love the pictures and the sharing, as always. Miss all of you
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
January 2022
Categories
All
|