Brinley Baby Summary: Week 18 {Four Months Old}

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Baby schedule for baby’s 18th week. Baby schedule and routine for the eighteenth week of life. 17 week old baby routine and daily life. Find out what to do with a 4 month old all day, feeding intervals, and playtime activities.

18 week old baby

This is a summary for Brinley’s 18th week–she was 17 weeks old. She turned four months old this week.

WONDER WEEK

This was by far Brinley’s fussiest week of life. She was often discontent and just wanted to be held. Even going through fussy stages with a baby for my fourth time, and knowing that yes, it is a phase, and yes, your baby will be happy and sweet again, it is difficult.

You want your little sweetie. Now, Brinley’s “fussiness” is not anywhere near what Brayden’s fussiness was, so it isn’t something I feel the need to complain about, but it was there. There was one day that was close to what Brayden’s was, and by the end of the day I was so ready for my husband to get home (and it just so happened that was one of maybe a handful of days he has come home a little late in the last year…figures right! Isn’t that the way it often goes! lol).

Happily, that rough day seemed to be the peak of the storm, and the next day was a perfect day. Could not have been better. She was happy, she slept perfectly…it was a nice follow up to the rough day. After that day, she was great. I don’t know if the wonder week is over or if it is just a short break, but it is welcome either way 🙂

>>>Read: Everything You Need to Know About Wonder Week 19

WAKETIME EXTENSION

I decided Brinley likely needed longer waketime lengths. There is a great chance that when baby starts taking shorter naps and nothing has changed that waketime length needs to be extended.

You of course have other possible factors, like wonder weeks. Despite that obviously going on, I whipped out my optimal waketime chart and started to work on figuring it all out.

And I was right.

She went from about 60 minutes at each waketime to:

65 minutes
75 minutes
75 minutes
80 minutes

The last waketime was often 70 minutes. We moved it by quite a bit, so she was definitely ready for an extension. I usually only add 5 minutes at a time.

>>>Read: When and How to Extend Baby’s Wake Time Length

CLOTHING

During the day, I usually just have Brinley in socks and a shirt. She sleeps all swaddled up so the pants can be too hot. Once she had longer waketimes, however, I realize she needed pants on during playtime.

She would get fussy after a while and her legs would be cold. So I put pants on her either before or after she nurses and she is much happier. Then I take them off at nap time.

>>>Read: Dressing Baby for Sleeping

MILESTONES

After the wonder week seemed to have left, she started being much more capable with her hands. She reaches purposefully and grabs toys now. She is no pro–still an armature but she is doing it.

She also finally laughed at me! And quite a bit. She found me quite amusing. Oh how I love those baby laughs!

SOLIDS

Oh yes! We started solids. She was so incredibly ready for it. I hadn’t wanted to necessarily until after Christmas because once solids are started, you have to bring solids with you when you go places. The girl, however, was so very ready to eat. She would lean toward food with her mouth open whenever she saw it. I happen to love feeding babies food, so her wanting it so much meant I was sold on the idea.

I took a very ripe banana and cut it in half. I peeled it and smashed it up in my Baby Food Mill, mixed it with some breastmilk (one tablespoon) and fed it to her.

She was in heaven! So was so happy. And so good at eating. She had it down immediately. She ate from the spoon and swallowed it very well. She also has very obvious signs of being done eating, which is great. She just starts saying, “Ehhhhhhhhhh” and looks away.

AS FOR ME

Did I mention my hair has started to come out in large quantities? If this is your first baby, don’t worry! It is normal! You don’t lose any (or just small amounts) during the end of your pregnancy and into the first few months after delivery, so it is totally normal. Kind of annoying, but normal.

GAS DROPS

I still give Brinley gas drops after every feeding.

>>>Read: What To Do If Your Baby Has Gas

4 MONTH GOALS

Supposedly I want to drop the dreamfeed this month. I don’t know. I had that in my mind (after saying three months old…) and now that four months old is here, I am not so sure. Now five months old sounds nice. But I can’t put off forever. So it might happen this month.

I do plan to drop the swaddle sometime this month. I think it is highly likely that will happen this month.

We will continue to slowly introduce solids.

SCHEDULE

Our schedule was more normal this week.
7:30–feed
8:35–nap
11:30–feed
12:45–nap
2:30–feed
3:45–nap
5:00 or 5:30–feed
6:30–nap (80 minutes after waking)
7:30–feed, then bedtime
9:45–dreamfeed

>>>Read: Babywise Sample Schedules: Four Months Old

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