Bryson is 4 months old today.

Four.

Months.

Old.

WOW!  It’s gone so fast, but it’s also gone at a perfect pace (it certainly hasn’t gone slowly!).  This little boy is just a terrific addition to our family!  He is very laid back and has been since turning 5 weeks old.  The first five weeks were not so easy, but I swear it’s because poor Bryson never got any peace and quiet.  Once we figured out that he’s a normal baby who needs peace and tranquility at least once a day – he became a very easy baby like his big brother was.

We struck gold twice  🙂

Bryson is very social – as long as he’s in Mom’s or Dad’s arms.  He loves to make eyes at anyone who will look at him, but won’t put on a show if he’s being held by someone he doesn’t know (which is basically anyone but Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa (B’s parents – not mine!), or Matthew).  He has terrific eye contact and he is probably the only person in the world who can make me instantly stop what I’m doing to just to sit in front of him and gaze into his dancing eyes.  He’s just precious!

Bryson has been a giggler for a long time.  When we took him to his 2 month well-baby visit, the nurses commented that he giggled a bit.  I thought I’d heard him giggle once or twice before, but wasn’t sure because he was so young.  But the nurses said that he was for sure giggling, and they were right.  He giggles all the time, and we’ve now found his ticklish spots to make him giggle when we need or want to hear his sweet baby happiness!

B comments all the time about how “smiley” Bryson is.  We remember Matthew being a very happy, smiley baby too, but Bryson just seems to beam his way through his day.  Bring a kitty by to see him, and he will grin from ear to ear.  Talk to him with solid eye contact, and he’ll get so happy and excited that his little tongue will vibrate!  Put his big brother within eye-shot of him, and he will smile and coo until Matthew comes over to converse with him.  Bryson loves many things, but he loves his big brother the most!

As everyone is well aware, Bryson is a big boy.  He’s exactly 20 pounds today and he has only 2 more pounds to gain before we move him out of 6-12 month clothes and into 12-18 month clothes.  Dressing this boy has been difficult to say the least.  I love nothing more than a baby boy in jeans, and Bryson is not built for jeans.  HA!  He wore only one pair of jeans from our 0-3 and 3-6 month stash from when Matthew was born, and that pair only fit a few times before we retired them.  I moved him into 6-12 months jeans a month or so ago and they’re now snug.  I think it’s official that Gap jeans are too narrow in the legs for my chunky monkey so we tried a pair from Crazy 8 and they will work… for a little while.  I refuse to put him in 12-18 month jeans at this age because they will be too long.  Heck, the 6-12 month jeans are too long now!  I have accepted the fact that he is going to be most comfortable in one-piece outfits and I’ve bought a bunch of them, including some super warm sweater one-pieces from Han.na Ander.sson because let’s face it – he NEEDS them!  If he can’t wear any of the cute sweaters we have stashed away because jeans don’t fit him, then he can wear sweater outfits!

Bryson was a tremendous sleeper when he was born!  He slept much better for much longer than Matthew ever did, so I thought we were getting off lucky this time.  Until 3 weeks ago, I only had to get up once a night to feed this boy (so why/how is he soooo chunky?  HA!).  Then he got yet another ear infection and we brought him back into our room, and all hell broke loose.  Trying to get him back into the crib has been a nightmare and as of last week or so, I’ve had to get up every 2 hours (and sometimes every hour) to console/feed him.  I would bring him into our bed but even then he would just cry and fuss.  No one was sleeping, and I was really nervous that I’d have to start some sort of sleep shaping before we were ready.  Bryson was taking a 3+ hour nap each afternoon to make up for the sleep he was losing at night, and that was on top of his 1+ hour nap each morning and afternoon.  Something had to change – and if not for me, for him.  I finally checked out Troublesometots.com (per Josey) and realized that we were missing a very key piece to his sleep process – loud white noise.  I love sleeping to the sound of the ocean turned way up, but B does not – so we didn’t use the sound machine in our room.  BIG mistake!

Two nights ago, I put Bryson in his rocker in his room after the three previous B’s (boob, bath, books, bed) and was hoping for just one waking to drop off.  It did not.  He woke at 11:00 (I don’t count that because I would have woken him anyway for a dream feed), 1:00, 3:00, and 4:30.  At 4:30, I broke the rules and brought him into bed with us where he fussed until 7:00.  Sigh.  But last night – holy smokes!  I fed him at 7:30, bathed him at 7:45, B read him books at 8:00, and he was put in his rocker at 8:10.  He cried in his rocker again, so I sneaked in and rocked it without him seeing me.  He settled down and I left, leaving him in there awake and on his own.  He fell asleep!  I told B at 10:30 that I was going to go in and wake him to eat, but then we heard him on the monitor so that was great!  He did not wake up again until 2:30!  FOUR hours between feedings – YAY!  I was in his room for only 20 minutes and I came to bed, just to wake up again at… 6:23!  Another 4 hour stretch.  HUZZAH!

I don’t think that every night will go as well as last night, but at least we are on the right track.  I’m not hell-bent on getting Bryson back in the crib anymore because you know – you have to lose some battles with your kids to win in the end.  We will move him back into the crib once he’s out of the swaddle… which we’re hoping to not allow for another 1-2 months!

All-in-all, Bryson is a great baby!  I don’t blame him for the sleep problems because those are my fault.  Matthew was a bad sleeper too, which goes to show you that I am too soft and am obviously the problem.  For all of our sakes, I’m fixing things with Bryson earlier than I did last time because we all deserve to sleep!

Here are a few photos of my cutie – all 20 pounds of him!

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