Four Months

My Dear Baby Girl,

You are FOUR months old (at least you will be on Saturday – close enough)! It has been more than a year since we found out that you were going to become part of our family.

(and Mama can hardly believe it but since she says that every time she won't say it again)

Here's how you've changed this month:

You had your four month check up the other day and you are doing great. You weigh 14 lbs 1 ounce, are 25.5 inches long, and have a head circumference of 41 cm. I was surprised to find out your weight as I expected you to be bigger than that. But that's just fine. You are healthy and growing and that's all that matters.

You are wearing mostly 3-6 month and 6 month clothes. All of our Carter’s 3 month stuff has been put away. You still fit in a few 0-3 month dresses, that are now being sported as long shirts. You are in size 3 diapers at night. And have moved up an adjustment size on the cloth diapers.

We are still exclusively breastfeeding. You nurse about every 3.5-4 hours, which means on most days you have 4 feedings throughout the day. You usually only eat once at night, although sometimes you have two snacks through the night. I’m watching for signs to start you on rice cereal, but so far, it seems to me that you are satisfied with breast milk. That time will come soon enough.

Let's see, what have you been up to this month?

Um, like a LOT!

This month you have developed a strong interest in toys. Over the Christmas holidays while we were away you started to notice and smile at toys an awful lot. Now, you love your toy bin. When I'm nursing you during the day I have to move it or else you just crane your neck to see the toys instead of eating. You like to hold things in your hand and love things that are colourful and make music (um, duh, who doesn’t?) You also love the doorframe jolly jumper and the jumperoo. They have replaced your love for your playmat and bouncy seat.

You have also begun to like books, just like Mommy.

You started laughing between 12-13 weeks but as the month progressed, your laughs got louder and much more frequent. Now, you spend a good deal of your day laughing at and with us.

Also around 12-13 weeks you rolled for the first time. In the same day, you rolled back to tummy and tummy to back but I'm pretty sure both of those were accidents. It was not until 15.5 weeks that you decided you'd like to start rolling from your tummy to your back. I put you down for tummy time one day and you just started rolling. Once you'd get on your back, you would complain to me until I put you back on your tummy so you could roll again. You did it 8 times in a row and haven't stopped since. Tummy time has suddenly become much more enjoyable now that you've figured that trick out. This week, you rolled from your back to your tummy once again but haven't started doing it consistently. I'm sure it's coming soon!

Just like always bath time is your favourite part of the day - only now, you've graduated to bathing in the big tub. You have started splishing and splashing so much that you were getting water everywhere when we put your little tub on the counter in the kitchen. Now that you're in the big tub, I bath with you most nights since the tub is so deep and is hard on the back to lean over. You have a duck that lights up in the water that you love watching. You kick your feet and try your hardest to get yourself to him while he's floating in the water.

Your days have started to become much more predictable. I'm hesitant to say you've got a good routine because I know that as soon as I say that, you'll switch it up on me again! So, I will just say that for now, you have gotten yourself into a routine. You usually get up for the day between 7:45-8:30. You have a 2-2.5 hour nap most mornings and then another 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon. Usually, you take a quick cat nap in the evening, but sometimes you skip it. Bedtime is between 7:30-8.

You still go down for naps and to bed like a champ, but you've started waking up a lot more often at night. Mama is tired! You only like to eat once through the night, but you often wake up and want Mommy to come give you your soosie back. We're working on sleeping without the soosie in hopes of breaking this habit. You've been napping for about a week without it during the day, and soon we'll see if we can get rid of it at night. One time this month, you were playing on the floor and when I left the room for a few minutes to take the bread out of the oven, I came back to find you like this...

You must have been real tired!

You've been battling a bit of a cold this month (just like the rest of us) but you've been in a pretty good mood regardless. You've only had a few days where it is obvious that you aren't feeling good. I think we're finally on the mend now.

What else has happened this month?

You celebrated your first Christmas.

Your family and church family prayed over you and the other 2010 babies as we pledged our commitment to you at the baby dedication service.

Mommy started back to work so you and Daddy get to spend one night a week together.

Here are some more pictures of how you've looked this month...

We've had a lot of fun together this month, Little Miss. Let's see what kind of mischief we can get up to next month, mkay?

Love you,

Mama