Four Months Old!

Cooper turned 4 months old this week. He celebrated with a trip to the doctor. Dr. Jen said Cooper is doing fantastic. He now weighs 12 lbs. 15 oz. and is 23 1/2 inches long. This finally puts him on both the height and weight charts. He's in the 5th percentile for height and 15th percentile for weight. When adjusted for his prematurity it puts him around the 44th percentile for weight and 34th percentile for height. We were hoping Dr. Jen would let us start introducing solid foods or at least stop using the preemie formula, which is more expensive than regular, but she wants to wait until his 6 month visit. She said the formula has way more nutrition than rice cereal so it's best to stick with it for now. The worst part of the visit were the shots. Cooper had to get 4 shots, 2 in each thigh. He turned bright red and screamed like a wild cat. The third shot almost seemed to take his breath away as there was a delayed reaction on the scream. Needless to say this was pretty hard on me especially since I had to go straight back to work afterwards. Chris said he was fine by the time they got home. He was a little fussy the rest of the day but a dose of Tylenol seemed to make him feel better.

It seems in the last week or so that sleep has finally clicked with Cooper. He has fallen into a routine where he eats about 2oz. between 7 and 7:30 and then is asleep by 8 or 8:30. Chris was waking him up about 1am to feed him but after talking to the pediatrician we have been letting him sleep until he wakes up on his own. Surprisingly enough he has been sleeping until 6 or 7 am sometimes even 8! So we seemed to have lucked into him sleeping through the night! He is also good in public (for now). Grammie was in town last weekend for a conference so we all went out to lunch on Saturday. Cooper sat quietly the whole time in his car seat. The weather was beautiful on Sunday so we went to Easton on walked around and window shopped. Cooper rode quietly in his stroller and just hung out while we ate lunch. He did the same this weekend when we took a walk around our neighborhood and stopped at the Grandview Cafe for lunch. We are so happy that we're able to do this.

Cooper continues to learn new tricks and be a real joy to Chris and I. He's gone from sucking on his hands to deliberately sucking on his thumb. He smiles and laughs all the time. He really likes to be held up in as standing position and moves his feet like he is walking. Chris can really get him laughing when he's holding him like this. His neck is also much stronger so he also likes to sit up. We saw how much Giacomo like his Bumbo chair so we got Cooper one of his own. Cooper's latest trick is sticking out his tongue. It's not just sticking it out either. He rolls it around and makes it flat then pointy. When you stick your tongue out at him in return he laughs. I've been trying to get a video of it but he seems to have become aware of the camera and just stares at it. Here's a video of him sitting in his chair.

Cooper got a little tired of all my picture taking as you can see here. He even went so far as to call me a paparazzi and then tried to break my camera.