From Week One to 4 Months

Since we have fully transitioned Clay from his cradle to his crib, we are getting ready to put the cradle away until the next Johnson baby comes along. I had to take one last picture of Clay in his cradle before it goes to the attic. Clay only a few days old.
4 months

Adoption

My brother and sister-in-law are adopting a little girl from Korea. They just got her referral a few weeks ago and are filling out the paper work, hoping to go get her in 3 months or so. My brother and sister-in-law have been working on adopting overseas for over a year now, and it has definitely come with it's own trials, disappointments, and frustrations. But they will be the first to tell you it was all worth it when they see the pictures of this precious little girl God has chosen just for them! Her name is Sora Bada Daspit and I think she is just the cutest little thing. I CAN'T WAIT to hold my new little niece and just love on her. Not to mention she is only a month and a half older than Clay, so he is going to have a cousin very close in age to him!!! Renee and I have joked about putting them in male/female matching outfits and see if we could pass them off as twins!!! LOL!


I have to say that I MORE than respect my brother and sister-in-law for their attitude and passion for adoption. They truly have a great perspective, one that I want to have more and more. We are called by God to care for orphans in one way or another. While we don't all have the ability to adopt a little one into our family, we can still pray for them, financially support them, etc. After all, it is what God has called us to do. Adoption is something Rob and I have talked about and would definitely consider doing, but we know that it's all in God's timing, whatever that might be.

4 months

Well, our little man is 4 months old. It's hard to believe. I know, one day I will look back when we are sending Clay off to college and think today was just yesterday. I'm sure a mom will always see her baby boy, no matter how old he gets! Since I have decided my blog is going to be somewhat of my journal through out this time of motherhood, I will try to post more often. In fact, I have heard you can make a book from your blog, something I plan on looking more into. I would love to scrapbook, but have decided that i am more of a "social scrapbooker" than a passionate one. I would much rather journal than play with paper. Having said that, I might post a little more than you want to know, but things I don't want to forget.

Anyway... back to the whole reason for this post. Clay is 4 months and here are some things our little man is doing:

- rolling over from his tummy to his back.

- sucking on his hands and fingers.

- he screams when he gets excited.

- he LOVES to have his diaper changed. I think maybe he likes the perspective from where he lays to where we stand. Plus, since he is so happy at his changing table, it often becomes play time, which might have something to do with loving his changing table. This is quite different from the first few weeks of his life where he would SCREAM and PEE everywhere at diaper changing time.

- he makes a good pouty lip

- can grasp a rattle

- hits at toys above him, but more than that, LOVES to use his feet to kick things. He is definitely more interested in using his feet than his hands. (we might have a soccer player on our hands)

- he smiles TONS.

-beginning to laugh

- trys to stand when I hold him in my lap

- HATES the car, he cries harder when we are in the car than any other time. It's mostly when we stop at red lights. so, we pray for green lights and no traffic!! (yeah, you know when you have a colicky baby and they say to take a ride in the car to calm him down, yeah, that would definitely NOT work for our little Clay.)

- has moved from his cradle to his crib.

- has two bumps on his bottom gum??? they have been there for a few weeks, wonder when he is going to cut some teeth.

- thinks pacis are for chewing and not for sucking.

- loves to play peek a boo

- often sticks out his tongue when he smiles

- is constantly moving when he is awake

- loves when his daddy blows on his belly when it's PJ time.

- loves when his daddy gets home from work.

- likes to be outside, ever since he was born, if he was crying and you took him outside, he would stop.

- loves going for walks in his stroller.

-lifts his head up and supports himself on his arms

- loves to stretch, and makes the cutest face while doing it!

He is such a sweet baby and we are so glad he is in our lives.

Our Little Sleeping Pro

Yep. I am convinced that it had to do with the virus I had on Monday, and that my milk supply was not quite up to par. Clay slept all night, back to his little sleeping pro ways! woohoo!!!

5 am feedings

Well, I knew it would happen at some point. It was inevitable. It always happens when you have a baby in the house. Our little Clay is an AMAZING sleeper. I mean really, he is a sleeping pro!! Since he was 8 weeks old, he has been sleeping though the night. For the past two months I always went to bed wondering if this would be the night he would wake-up and I would deal with the "do I nurse him, or just try to get him to go back to sleep" dilemma most moms find themselves in at one point or another. I began to get REALLY use to Clay sleeping until at least 7 am if not later, so I was quite surprised to hear him crying at 5 am this morning. At first, I just thought, ok, maybe he will cry it out and go back to sleep. He really wasn't "crying" it was more of a whine. Anyway, he only got louder and it sounded more and more like a cry, so after about 15 min I decided I should probably do something about it. At first I tried the paci and well, he's not a fan of the paci, so that didn't work too well. So, I just gave in and nursed him. He nursed and than went right back to bed and slept til 9am!
Rob and I were really sick on Monday, throwing up and everything and I think Clay had a touch of the virus too. He slept A LOT on Monday, and ended-up with one less feeding than normal. But slept great that night. He slept quite a bit on Tuesday too and he had one less feeding. I thought maybe he was coming to the point where he only needed 5 feedings a day instead of 6, but maybe I was wrong. So, I guess when I think about the fact that I had not really eaten anything or really drank anything on Monday, and even Tuesday I did not eat as much as normal, I am sure my milk supply was not really up to par on Tuesday plus the fact that he had one less feeding, I'm sure those were factors in the 5 am feeding. Today we are back to the 6 feedings and we will see how he does tonight. Hoping that this whole 5 am waking is not going to become a pattern we are going to have to break. I know... I know... I really have nothing to complain about. I understand that Clay is an AMAZING sleeper and there are plenty of moms out there still waking up in the middle of the night to have to feed their 4 month old. I guess, I was just so surprised because he has not woken up for 2 months. And really, 5 am is not that bad! I guess some people would really not consider that a "night feeding," but this mom is NOT a morning person and does not want to start her day at 5 am. We will see how tonight goes...

Yesterday was quite eventful

Yesterday I went to put Clay down for tummy time, and no sooner do I look over to grab some toys for him to look at, do I see our little man rolling over to his back! I thought it was a fluke because I had just put him down and I thought maybe I had put him a little on his side so it was me helping him to roll over. Well, I put him back on his belly again and sure enough, he rolled over again!!! I got the 3rd one on video. I can't believe it. Now begins the time when they become more and more mobile. So tummy time quickly becomes laying on his back time, which he doesn't seem to mind so much because he has never been a fan of laying on his tummy. He's so big.

This is what I slept next to last night... oh no where did Clay go???
Oh, there he is.. in his crib, in HIS room!

We have been trying to transition Clay from his cradle in our room to his crib in his room. We went on a trip this past weekend, where he had to sleep in many different places, so I thought when we came home, it would be a nice time to transition him, since he probably wouldn't remember his cradle anyway. All the naps since Tuesday have been in his crib, but I still put him in his cradle at night. Last night was the time. I was a little worried because since about 8 weeks our little guy has been sleeping 8-10 hours at night and has not woken up in the middle of the night since. So, I felt like changing his environment might do the trick, and we would be up all hours of the night. Plus, I kind-of like sleeping in between my two favorite men. And I like having Clay at an arms reach (you know, like all new moms do, you have to check sometimes just to make sure they are breathing!). Well, last night went great. He slept through the night like the little sleeping pro that he is. He woke up only about 30 min earlier than he has been. He had scooted himself up all the way to the top of the crib, and his head was hitting the top of the bummer, so that might have woken him up, who knows?! I'll know to position him a little lower tonight. It's a little sad to me. I mean, he is not my little newborn anymore. I almost felt like he was going to be so lonely in his room all by himself (I know, he doesn't really care, he just wants to eat, sleep, poop, and now ROLL OVER!). His room is right next to ours and we left both doors open which made me feel better, like we were sort of in the same room. I know he will only get bigger and bigger and hit more and more milestones, which is sad and exciting all at the same time. In some ways I want him to be my little baby forever and in other ways, I want him to grow into (Lord willing) a godly man who loves the Lord with all his heart. I know, I am already missing the newborn stage and he is only 15 weeks old, that's a little ridiculous.