Four Months

Little bug, you are just growing cuter and cuter by the minute.  I can't seem to soak up enough time with you.  Although some days are long, you warm my heart with all the jibber jabber and that big adorable smile of yours. 

Today you were 11 pounds 13 ounces and 23 inches long

My favorite thing that happened this month was hearing our little girl giggle for the first time.  Words cannot describe how my heart melted hearing that sound.  On the night of July 2nd, during bath time, that sweet noise escaped her mouth.  We had finished up our normal wash and started with playtime.  That meant D started making faces at her while running water over her belly.  I squish her cheeks and tickle her belly.   I'm not sure if he was sticking his tongue out at her or if it was the sounds he was making, but she had the biggest smile and kept trying to get a noise to come out of her mouth.  Then, to our surprise, she made a few giggles.  The best part was that her laugh was much deeper than we expected!  It killed me that I didn't get it recorded.  My phone was right there, but it didn't have enough space to capture any video.  I’ve since made sure that won’t happen again, but she has been stingy with the giggles since. 

The other major transition we made this month was moving our pumpkin to her own room.  She spent the whole night in her crib on the first of July.  She hasn't been back in our room since and really sleeps well in there.  It was very cute to see D ensure her crib was all secure before we left her alone in her room.  We thought that we would try combining the transition with also not swaddling her.  Yeah, that didn't last a full night.  She had the hardest time falling asleep and finally we gave up and swaddled her again.  She isn't rolling over from back to front yet, so we are still okay with swaddling her at night.  I must admit I was a little sad to move her out of our room.  It wasn't that I couldn't be with out her in the room, but I loved hearing her little chatter she makes when she wakes up.   Her sleep pattern didn’t change with the transition, which was nice.  She still has a few nights where she sleeps the entire night, but most have her waking up once to feed.   A lot of it has to do with her getting herself unswaddled and she wakes herself up.  I sleep about the same when she was in our room or in her own.  

Let’s talk about her fingers, this girl can’t keep them out of her mouth.  We’ve been trying to keep her from sucking her thumb/fingers, but it’s a battle every day.  We’ve gotten her a new pacifier, a wobble, and a teething toy that’s supposed to mimic her fingers.  They’ve all distracter her for a little while, but the moment you turn around, she has her fingers in her mouth again.  She’s really been able to grab/reach for objects on her own, whether it’s a toy or pacifier. 

Isla is still in 3 month clothing right now.  She even as a few newborns (like items from the Gap that run huge) that she can still fit in.  I’ve gone through a ton of her newborns and stored them with her premie clothes she had. 

Isla is such a happy baby.  She just LOVES to talk.  We could lay and read books for half of the day and she would be thrilled.  She likes to lay there and talk while we read to her.   Morning, of course, is the best time to see her being her goofy self.  However, nights have been much better lately.  Our new nightly activity has been to let her get naked and kick around on the floor.  She has the best time kicking her legs and flailing around.  She pushes on the ground and arches her back like she wants to twist over and roll.  Hasn’t happened yet, but she did decide to pee on the floor a few nights ago.  Silly girl.

We haven’t transitioned to a new schedule quite yet, which means she nurses 5-6 times a day and naps 4 times a day (in between feedings) for about 30-45 minutes.  If I’m lucky, I can get her to sleep the full hour, but not very often.  Our normal day starts with a feeding and getting changed for the day.  We usually play a little in her room before she comes in the kitchen with me for breakfast and doing the dishes.  Isla’s favorite book right now is Brown Bear Brown Bear, but any Dr. Suess book is pretty great too.  Her first nap is usually in her car seat during a walk with the pups.  The rest of the day she is usually with her grammy, while I work until 2:30 PM.  Then it’s our time to play in the afternoon.  We read a few more books, work on tummy time and sitting up and standing.  She is usually ready for her bedtime routine around 6:30 PM, which involves a bath, nursing and then getting rocked to bed.  I know we should starting working on bedtime with out nursing, but I still enjoy that time with her. 

She still doesn’t love tummy time and will push herself up a few times, but tends to be lazy after a few minutes.  Pretty quickly she is shoving her face into the mat and getting angry.  She hasn’t found her feet yet, but I’m sure it will be soon.   Her head control is great now and loves looking all over the place.  Unless she is tired, she has no problem at all holding it on her own.  She’s just growing up so fast. 

Baby girl, I can’t imagine what wonderful things will happen with you in this next month, but I can’t wait.