4 Weeks Old

The day before Gavin's 4 week birthday was Easter. We celebrated by visiting Grandma and Grandpa S's house for dinner, where Gavin got to spend time with other family members as well. Afterwards, we went to Grandma and Grandpa C's house for dessert. Overall, it was a wonderful day. Gav wore his light blue suit for the occasion and he looked absolutely adorable!!!

After Gavin had that rough first bath experience, Matt started preparing the baths. He used the 4-in-1 tub we had purchased for Gav. When I felt the water, I thought it was too warm, but Matt insisted that we give it a try. Well, Daddy must know best, because Gavin had a much better experience! He was so calm and really seemed to enjoy his bath time. So ever since then, Daddy prepares the baths, while Mommy prepares Gavin and then we usually bathe him together and it goes much smoother. Here is a cute picture of Gav after his bath in a hooded towel (which is still a bit big for him!):

After hearing some wonderful things about the Babywise method of helping your baby sleep through the night, I decided to give it a try. Even though Gav was a pretty good sleeper, the book said that about 97% of Babywise babies sleep through the night by 7-9 weeks. That sounded nice to me, so I gave it shot. It suggests putting your baby on a 2 1/2- to 3-hour feeding schedule, with feedings followed by some playtime, followed by a short 1-2 hour nap. However, the schedule is not set in stone and can be modified if your baby is hungry or requires more sleep. This sounded great to me, so I gave it a shot. Unfortunately, Gavin did not seem to like it at all. He didn't want to go to sleep when he wasn't tired and he didn't want to eat when he wasn't hungry. We tried it for about 2 days, but the part about letting him cry himself to sleep for a few minutes was much too heartbreaking. I would sit and cry anytime I tried to let him cry himself to sleep. So I decided just to do what I was doing in the beginning, which was to let him eat when he was hungry and sleep when he was tired. That seems to work best for both of us. Here is one of my favorite pictures of my precious boy napping:

We also had Gavin's 1 month check-up with Dr. Shafai. During this visit, he was 8 pounds and 21.5" long. This made him about 3% for weight and 20% for height. I knew his weight would be low since he had a rough start, but he was doing much better and I knew he would get caught up soon.