4 Months

Wow!  Whoever said it gets easier after the first three months is right.  It has been so much easier and a lot of fun.  Their little personalities are really coming out now.  They all love to smile, coo, and laugh.  They are so ticklish, especially on their necks.  Ben has become a great source of entertainment for the boys.  They love to watch him.  It's fun to watch them as their eyes follow him around the room.  They grin from ear to ear when he gives them attention. All of the boys are now rolling over from front to back.  Chase mastered this skill last month. Ryan about a week before they were four months. Tyler mastered it about a week after they turned four months old.  Chase is already trying to roll from back to front, but has not been able to master it yet.

The best news is the boys are now sleeping through the night!!!!!! It took some encouragement on my part in the beginning to get them to sleep 8 straight hours.  I was hoping they would start sleeping through the night on their own, just as Ben did, but it became clear that one of the babies (who shall remain unnamed) was waking the other two up.  On the weekend of the time change, I decided it was time to cut out the middle of the night feeding.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be...no more than 15 minutes of fussing and everyone was back to sleep.  Then a few weeks later, Derek and I were sooo tired one night that we couldn't find the energy to do the 11:00 pm feeding.  This feeding had become very tough.  We were having to wake them up to feed them and they did not like it.  They were very grouchy, but we were scared to cut out the feeding and have them waking up in the middle of the night to eat again.  Our exhaustion gave us courage to see what would happen if we didn't feed them at 11:00.    
Can you believe they didn't wake up until the next morning?  This has been the biggest relief to us.  Now Derek and I can get all the kids in bed by 8:00 pm and enjoy our evening.  I am starting to feel human again!  The other bonus to cutting out 2 feedings a day means 6 less bottles to make and 6 less diapers to change.  That's over 40 diapers a week that I no longer have to change.

 4 Month Weights
Chase: 14 lbs. 9 oz.
Ryan: 12 lbs. 11 oz.
Tyler: 13 lbs. 1 oz.

There are not any 4 month pictures for this month.  :( We got busy and never found the time.  We will do better next month.  Here is the family picture that we did take.  This will have to count for this month's picture.

The Daniel Family
From left to right: Ryan, Chase, Tyler, and Ben