Four Month Re-negotiation

Waylon was four-months-old last week. Where to begin????....

The Pediatrician Appointment
On Monday (6/26) Waylon weighed in at 15 lbs (50th percentile) and was 25" long (also 50th percentile). In an astounding turn of events, Waylon's head circumfrence was only in th 45th percentile. That means that 65% of male babies have a larger head than our little guy? Is there some colony of large meloned babies in Nebraska or something? Anyway... The doctor said that Waylon was doing great developmentally and that we should continue puting him on his tummy 4x/day for 5 to 10 minutes. The next developmental milestone will be sitting up at around 6 months. The doctor was also surprised to hear that we (or should I say I because I just tell Aaron what to do when it comes to this stuff) are still swaddling him. More on that later...

The Four Month Re-Negotiation
Everyone told me that at 3 months babies get much better and more predictable. No one warned me that at 4 months everything goes flying out the window. Our little guy has never really followed the rules. At 2 months Waylon started doing GREAT. He slept well at night & naps were getting more predictable. Each week was getting better, and I was starting to feel so confident that I actually told Aaron I wanted TEN babies because this was so fun. Lesson: NEVER, EVER VOICE YOUR CONFIDENCE IN YOUR PARENTING SKILLS!!!!

During our trip back East, Waylon was perfect. When we got back we thought it would take him some time to adjust, but we didn't realize we were on a slippery slope back into the world of baby-unknowns. Its been about 10 days since our "new" Waylon emerged. He started waking up several times each night, whenever the pacifier fell out. I tried un-swaddling him so he could suck on his hands (his favorite past time 99% of his waking hours), but nooooo he would just cry while flailing his arms about. I think all this fussiness and sleeplessness is due to teething, but am not sure. I have him on homeopathic teething tablets, the swaddle is completely gone, and I've moved to feedings every 4 hours (this was for mommy--not for Waylon). We also tried 30 minutes of "cry it out" a few days ago. Lets just say that Waylon cried, but never got it all "out." After 30 minutes I was a traumatized wreck and Waylon was hoarse. Not a success. However, the past 2 nights Waylon has been sleeping better. Probably because Aaron is home and Waylon never seems to freak out as much when dad is around. Napping is still TOTALLY up in the air, but we're working on it.... I've also realized that I need to get out of the house instead of hanging out at home and entertaining Waylon all day--which is exhausting. Stay tuned to see how things progress. I must say, the thing I dislike most about being a new parent isn't the lack of sleep or crying--its these feelings of ineptitude that I was not prepared for.