Four Months Old!

Dear Jack and Benny,

Every month you get so much bigger and mommy's heart breaks at how fast time is moving. You are so much fun and learn new things just about every day! Outside of Daddy, you are the loves of my life.

You were both dedicated to the Lord this month, on Father's Day. Mommy and Daddy promised to raise you to know the Lord and to teach you His Word and what He did for you on the cross. We take that promise very seriously and are already reading the Bible together, so that you will never remember a time when you did not know God's Word.


You got to meet your third set of great-grandparents (the Swensons) this month, when we took your first plane ride to Minnesota! You were both perfect angels both on the planes and during the entire trip. Mommy's family is so in love with you and have done nothing but sing your praises since they met you.


Jack, today you are 13 lbs, 14 oz (25%) and 24.75" long (50%). Mommy's big boy, as always. You are still a great eater, even when Benny is kicking you or talking or fussing, you keep eating. We haven't introduced solids yet (we will try to wait until you are 6 months old), but I think you are always going to be a great eater.

You talk SO much these days. You love to talk to anything with a face, especially your lion toy or your brother. We will prop you up across from Benny and you will just coo and coo at him. He can't get a word in edgewise!

Your schedule is changing right now, but you usually sleep from 9 pm until 5 am with 7 feedings each day. We are in the middle of sleep training you, but you are so stubborn that you will cry and cry for an hour and a half sometimes before finally going to bed. I am sure you will learn to go to sleep quickly someday!

You are no longer anemic or jaundiced and the official diagnosis is... no diagnosis. The hematologist believes that it might have been RH Hemolytic Disease from you having the Rhesus factor and Mommy not having it. But you are too old to test for this now!

You are still in 3-6 month clothing, but have grown out of some 3-6 month outfits. You are a very long boy, even though you are also pretty chunky. You are in the small cloth diapers still, but size 2 disposables (which we know from our trip to Minnesota).

You are starting to look more like your Uncle Adam and Grandpa Swenson. You have very light blonde hair coming back in and the beautiful Swedish blue eyes.


You learned a few weeks ago how to sleep without your Miracle Blanket and you look like such a big boy sleeping in your pajamas in your crib. You like to spread eagle while sleeping, with your arms above your head and your legs spread apart. You also learned this month how to suck your thumb. Once you were free of your Miracle Blanket you had all of your naptimes to practice, and you figured it out very quickly! Now Mommy will hear *suck, suck, suck* over the monitor while you are falling asleep. You look so adorable with your little thumb in your mouth. You usually leave all of your fingers spread out while you are doing it - I think that you haven't figured out how to just hold your thumb out.


You are learning how to sit up in your Bumbo seat now. You have a hard time holding your head up for long, but you have figured out that you can rest it on the seat back behind you when you need a break. Your chunky legs and bottom fit pretty tightly in there, so it holds up the rest of you very well!


Jackson, 4 months old:





Benny, at 11 lbs, 12 oz (under 5%) today, you are such a little chunker, like your brother, and you are getting taller at 23.75" long (5%). Everyone now confuses you with Jack if they don't see you next to each other. Mama loves your squeezable cheeks! She barely even recognizes the itty bitty baby that you were as a newborn, just four short months ago.

You don't talk as much as your brother, but oh the smiles! Mommy loves seeing how happy her baby is, especially knowing how much you used to hurt. You have become our little "Baby Pterodactyl" this month... I know you are happy when I hear a loud *Screech!* from across the house.

You are on the same schedule as Jack, sleeping from 9 pm until 5 am with 7 feedings each day. We are in the middle of sleep training you, also. The problem is that we trained you to scream by responding to your screams when you were little because you were in pain... But you have learned that screaming that way even when not in pain gets a fast response and so you scream when you do not want to go to bed. We are trying a "graduated extinction" with you - we let you cry for 5 minutes and then go to calm you down by rocking you or walking around with you, and get you back to sleepy, but awake and lay you back down.... then we wait 10 minutes before we go in the next time, etc. So far you are very good at resisting us, but the books promise us that it will work eventually, so that you will not cry at all when laid down sleepy. Some days you scream so much that you cry yourself hoarse. We cannot wait for you to go right to sleep when laid down!

You can just barely still fit in 0-3 months clothes, but we have started putting you in 3-6 month clothes so that you can match your brother. Plus, it's just easier to not have two sizes out in the drawers, with Daddy having to remember which clothes go with which baby. You have just moved up to size small cloth diapers, and still fit in size 1 disposables (which we know from our trip to Minnesota).

You still look a lot like Mommy, but you also look a lot like Jack now, too. If your cheeks were a bit bigger I don't think anyone but Mommy would be able to tell you apart. You are getting beautiful white blonde hair back in. It is still very thin, but long on top!


We are trying to train you out of your Miracle Blanket, but you are not having it! You are trying to learn how to suck your thumb, so whenever you have a hand out of your blanket you end up popping it in your mouth and knocking your binky out... and then you just scream until the binky is replaced! So we might need to wait until you have better hand control to get you sleeping free and clear.

You can sit up very well in your Bumbo seat, and have been able to for weeks now... You have always had such good head control and the Bumbo basically holds you up in every other way. You are a bit skinny for it, though, so you can bend yourself over to try to chew on the part between your legs. Sometimes you try to "plank" your body so that you are standing, but it doesn't work very well when you are in the Bumbo!


Bennett, 4 months old:





We love you both and are so excited for the decades of life we have to look forward to with you!

Love,
Mommy