Unable to continue a numbered list in a separate text block.

[Anthony-123]

I want the content on my page to look like shown below.

1. This is the first item. 

2. This second item refers to the image below. 

3. This is the third item. 

4. This is the fourth item. 

You can not place both text and images in the same block. 

You can not start a sentence with "1." without it becoming a Numbered List.  

You can not start a Numbered List with "3.". 

You can start a sentence with "3." then indent it. This does not share the same formatting as the previous text block which is forced to be a Numbered List that starts with "1.". 

How can I either continue a numbered list in a separate text block, start a Numbered List with a number other than 1, or how can I start a sentence with "1." without it becoming a Numbered List?  

My workaround for now is to use "1 - " or "(1)". Are there any other suggestions? 

[#2]

I see your question is over 2 years old, have you received any answer in the meanwhile? I'm converting one Word document into a modern page today and I stumbled against this as well.

[#3]

My solution is to start the sentence with something like 's1. ' and then delete the 's'. This seems to work and I am able to tab or increase the indent without the formatting changing.