The Beloved turns 4!

Another post from my phone-one day we will have pictures here again...

This week, Clark had his 4 month birthday!!! It is crazy how much they change in the first 4 months! Clark is no longer a floppy blob, he has lots of muscle control- can hold and turn head, can push up on arms while on tummy, can stand on his legs, he can reach for things with two hands and grab them, he can use his feet to bring something closer to his hands! He no longer dazes off into the future, he actively engages people and toys by babbling to them and to himself. He laugs and giggles. He knows both me and Tom and is constantly distracted if we are talking while he is eating! He can roll to his side and rolled from front to back yesterday while he was on a slight incline (twice)!!! It will be amazing 4 months from now when he can crawl and say Mama and Dada!
Clark's 4 month checkup went well, his current stats area: weight: 15 lbs 12 oz, length:26 1/2 inches. He got some booster shots and is now 75 percent immune from HiB and 7 of the Pneumoncoccial strains. He is 99 per cent immune from Rotavirus!
One thing that we are starting to work with him on is sleep. For his entire life he has had no problem sleeping, I would nurse him ansd put hiM down in his crib whenever he started yawning. He would fall asleep quite quickly. He developed his own schedule which was 1 hour awake, 1 hour asleep. But... About 3 weeks ago, he started staying awake longer, sometimes up to 2 hours-which is about the maximum a little guy like him can handle, And he was having trouble staying asleep after I put him down asleep in his crib. This is for naps and bedtime (he wakes up once or twice in the night). I started feeling like it was a disservice to him that he could only fall asleep while nursing. I knew that he could fall asleep in the carseat, carrier, stroller and in our arms as well- but the transfer to the crib was getting difficult for him. It is important for good neural development that Clark have good quality sleep and his sleep was getting harder and harder for him. Clark has always been quite pleasant, not really fussy or whiney- but the less good sleep he got- the harder life was getting for him. SO this week we are going to let him fall asleep on his own for naps and bedtime- we know that it will be hard for us, but as Tom's mom always says, "no child ever died from crying.". It may be the first hardest thing I do as his mother, but healthy sleep is really important and I have to care more about his needs then my own. When he is 5 I'm not going to let him eat candy for dinner just because he cries about it, when he is 13, I'm not going to let him get drunk and stoned and drive my car just because he cries about it (and their parents let them do it!) As my mother always says, "I love you more than their parents love them." I always thought that was a cop out- but now that I am older, I realize that she did protect me quite a bit and save me from having to make hard decisions as a kid. I ramble- but what I'm saying is that it may be hard to not cuddle him to sleep- but it is not really working anymore and now it is time for him to try on his own. We are going to try for three days. I will update you as we go.