four months of gwen

My Sweet Gwenner,

A few weeks ago you hit the big four month’er. This letter is late. So late. But I promise, the lateness was intentional. I wanted to wait until we had your appointment to include your stats and then the last few days have been so busy that I wanted to wait until I had time to sit down and really focus on you and all the crazy stuff you’ve been up to. Here’s how you’ve looked this month:

You are nothing if not beautiful and sweet. Girl, you are a joy to my life.This month has been busy, challenging and full of all kinds of new adventures with you. You had your 4 month check and shots last week and once again, just like at 2 months of age, you are right on track with the size your sister was. You weigh 14lbs 1/2 oz and are 25.5 inches long. You are wearing mostly 6month clothes, size 3 disposies, and medium diaper covers. Growing like a weed, as they say.

This month has been our most difficult one yet, as you’ve decided to mix things up quite a bit. I thought I had you figured out. But, you know, just as soon as I think I have anything figured out about motherhood, you babies go and change it up on me. The past month has been spent struggling to figure out your new patterns and routines and schedules. We’ve had many days of poor napping, many nights of poor sleeping and quite a bit of frustration on both of our parts. Somehow,we seem to have transitioned out of a solid 3 nap a day routine to a 4-5 nap a day routine. Many days, you aren’t interested in sleeping more than 30 minutes at a time and you want to have a million cat naps throughout the day. You’ve wiggled your bedtime back from 7:45ish to between 7-7:15 so now you are the first baby to go to sleep in our house most nights. Unfortunately, your nights are no longer predictable. Some nights you sleep 11 hours straight, some nights you sleep 11 minutes straight. Throw in the recent time change, and everything’s messy. It’s all a guessing game now.  We’re figuring it out though. We’re taking it day by day. Somehow, in two short years, I seem to have forgotten that one day babies stop being little tiny newborns and start being active, alert babies and that it can happen overnight. Yeah, I remember it now.

Despite these challenges, we’ve also had a blast this month watching your personality blossom. It is just so cool to see you becoming your own tiny person. You are social. You are talkative. You are funny. You are sensitive. You are the big, blue eyed life of the party. It doesn’t take much to keep you entertained. All we have to do is look at you and we are met with the biggest, sweetest gummy little grin. You are so full of belly laughs, I can hardly stand it! Just the other night you were laying on your back on blanket in the living room without any toys around you at all. I was sitting on the couch holding Baby Jolie, not even in your line of vision, and baby talking to her. Every time I said “Hiii baby” or “Hello” or “Gooba gooba gee ga go go”, you kicked your legs and laughed hysterically. It was hilarious that you thought I was playing with you. And just goes to show how giddy and happy you are. Even when you’re crying, if we talk to you for a just a few seconds, we can easily make you a bust a smile through the tears.

You love your sister and your Daddy most of all. They make you laugh and smile non stop and when they aren’t paying attention to you, you make sure to bust out the fake cough to get them to look your way.

And even though you love playing with them, at the end of the day, snuggling in Mama’s arms or being held tight in a carrier is where you like to be. You are Mommy’s girl and that is a-okay with me.

You’ve had lots of time to spend with your cousins and besties lately. My prayer is that someday you’ll realize what a gift God has given to you in the form of cousins and friends who are the same age as you. We are blessed, baby girl, we truly are.

 

You love tummy time, standing up on your legs and jumping in the jolly jumper. After taking a 2 month hiatus, you’re back on a roll. Literally. You roll from tummy to back like a champ and are thissss close to getting yourself all the way over from your back to your belly. If only that arm would get out of your way. You’ve started to scooch a little bit. Rotating yourself around in circles while you’re on your belly, getting yourself stuck under a chair at Auntie Crystal’s house and worming around in your crib like a miniature Houdini. You’ve started to practice sitting up a little bit. You can hold your balance for a little while at a time with your hands resting between your legs like a little froggy, but you usually end up folding right in half before too long. I’m in no rush for you to begin mastering these skills. You can take your time learning to become mobile, mkay, Little Love?

I want you to slow down. I feel like I’ve blinked and a third of your first year has already passed. Yet at the same time, I know the fun is just beginning and I can’t wait to watch you grow and learn and to create an even stronger and deeper bond as we make so many memories together. There is a piece of my heart that belongs to no one but you.

I love you always,

Mama.