I see my little update posts on parenting ground to a halt at 7 weeks. From memory, that’s when things started to get easier (more sleep, less time spent frantically jiggling Edward to keep him happy), and I think I started doing other things and not focussing entirely on the baby.

Four months old is a great age, although I keep saying that with every week that passes. He’s generally a happy, easygoing baby, smiley and relaxed in most situations.

Things I’m enjoying at 4 months:
1. Laughter! Oh, the laughter, every day – when his father arrives home from work, when I dangle a cloth above his head, when I pick him up to take him to the bath – joyful gurgling little chuckles, and the most utterly delightful sound on earth.
2. His intense concentration and happiness when he manages to do things like roll over (which he now does quite a few times every day, from back to front), and his contented peaceful expression when he sucks his thumb.
3. His ridiculously huge thighs and calves – I’m pretty sure most of his weight is concentrated in his legs.
3. I can finally put sleeping in the enjoyment column! After a tiny bit of a regression, he’s back to generally only needing two feeds a night, which is resulting in much more sleep for us both. He does wake up very early (between 4:30 and 5:30, generally), but I’ve started putting him back in his bassinet for his first sleep of the day, and having between an hour to two hours by myself, which is utter bliss.

Things I’m not enjoying at 4 months:
1. I am getting rather sick of the way he only sleeps in the carrier during the day – it is now particularly uncomfortable in the current sticky summer humidity. I’m slowly trying to break him of the habit (hence the first sleep of the day in the bassinet) but it’s a slow process.
2. I need to express milk for my return to work in January, and for some reason I’m finding it really hard to get organised enough to do these even once a day, let alone twice. Fitting it in around baby caring is frustrating me.
3. He has started teething, and while he’s not making too much of a fuss, he is a bit more clingy and grizzly than usual. It’s not quite as easy to palm him off to his grandparents, alas. I’m hoping his easy gregariousness will return when these first teeth come through.