Amy Antoinette - A Motherhood & Lifestyle Blog: Henry's 4 Month Update

As every parents says, I can't believe how quickly time is passing. Our son is no longer a tiny little newborn, but a rapidly growing baby boy, exploring his new world and developing new skills alongside his blossoming personality. Every day is delight, holding new things in store and it is such a joy to watch him grow.

After a terrible first three months, Henry's silent reflux and cow's milk protein intolerance are now under control. It was a very long road to get the help he needed, so much so it needs a whole blog post dedicated to it, but to summarise, Henry now takes omeprazole each morning and I supplement breastfeeding with a hydrolysed formula called Neocate. He's now a happy, healthy baby and it's such to relief to know he's no longer in pain.

At his last weigh-in, Henry came in at just under 13lbs. Due to his silent reflux and CMPI (which neither the GP or health visitor believed he had when we first suggested it at 4 weeks old), Henry's weight remained static for 5 weeks, resulting in him dropping from the 50th to 2nd centile. He's now following along the 9th curve, so it seems unlikely he'll make it back up to the 50th again sadly.

Henry takes after my side of the family when it comes to height. He's a tall baby and he needed 3-6 month clothes fairly early on. His long legs already fill out his little joggers so it won't be long until we move him into 6-9 month clothes. The only problem is because he's small weight wise, his vests are far too big around the neck, waist and leg holes!

There is no better way to wake in the morning than to hear your little baby happily chatting away to himself. His sweet voice is a joy to hear and we love listening to all the sounds he makes!

Henry enjoys batting the toys on his baby gym, and reaches out to hold any toy you dangle in front of him. He loves to sit up, so he doesn't have much time for his bouncer anymore. We need to invest in either the Bumbo or Mamas and Papas Baby Snug, as he prefers to sit up straight and look about at everything.

Henry used to hate tummy time, and with his reflux we rarely made time for it, but he very suddenly was able to hold his head up high and enjoyed seeing the world from a new perspective. He also surprised me one day by rolling over from his front to back. It startled him the first few times and he cried a little, but after some reassurance, he realised it was alright!

After a hellish first 3 months, where it would take hours to rock Henry to sleep only for him to nap for 40 minutes, and waking every few hours throughout the night, Henry's sleep completely transformed once he was on the right medicine for his reflux. He can be now put down awake in his crib and he falls asleep on his own within 10 minutes or so. Even better, Henry now sleeps through the night, usually from 7pm - 7am. After all the sleep deprivation, this came as a very unexpected and welcome surprise!

A routine was impossible when Henry was suffering with his reflux. Once it was under control at 3 months, it all fell into place. I try to roughly follow The Baby Whisperer's E.A.S.Y routine, although it doesn't always work out in that order if Henry has a shorter nap than usual. He feeds every 3-4 hours, and has 1.5 hours of awake time before his next nap, which seems to work well.

For Henry's bedtime routine, we start by taking him to nursery where we dim the lights, and have some wind-down time in his swing. Then it's time for his night nappy, where we also pop him in his PJ's and into his sleeping bag. We then take him into our room, where he still sleeps beside our bed in his crib, read him a bedtime story and then feed him, with very low lighting so he's knows it sleepy time!v

We absolutely adore our little baby boy. The way he smiles and kicks his legs excitedly when he sees us, how he wrinkles his nose when he grins, the cute giggles he makes when we kiss his neck. I love watching his face light up when his daddy comes home from work, the morning snuggles we have after he's fed, and his huge blue eyes are simply beautiful. We can't get enough of him!