The Best is Yet to Come: Four Months Old

Cailtin,

You turned 4 months old on Sunday (Sept 26th)! This month has been full of new and exciting things for you! We went to the doctor today, and you are still a little peanut. Here are your 4 month stats:

Weight: 10lbs 8oz (<5th percentile)
Height: 25 inches (75th percentile)
Head Circumference: 39 cm or 15.4 inches

Because you are such a little peanut and gained less than a pound during the past 2 months, your pediatrician (Dr. M) is a little concerned. We suspect that the reason for you not putting on the lbs is because you are distracted and only eat enough to get a top off so you can move on to bigger and better things and/or because my supply has dropped a little since I returned to work. In order to remedy this, we are going to start you on rice cereal. We are going to put 1 tablespoon in each of the bottles that you get while I'm at work and then on the weekends, we're going to try to feed it to you from a spoon. We go back in 3 weeks for a weight check, and we are praying that these things work. If they don't work, Dr. M is going to make us get you up at night to feed you. We do not want to start doing that, so please consider gaining some more weight for us, ok? You are still wearing size 1 diapers and 0-3 months and 3 month clothes. You are still long and lean, but I think you are getting a little buddha belly! Last month, I talked about how your hair was starting to fall out. Wow, I thought it was really falling out last month, but this month, it has really become more apparent. We find your hair everywhere! You have a few bald spots here and there, but you do still have a lot of hair! You are eating about every 3 hours during the day and now that I'm back to work, you are taking 3 bottles a day (usually about 4 oz) during Daddy Daycare. Breastfeeding is going ok. Now that I'm back to work, I've had some plugged/clogged milk ducts, and the thrush has returned yet again. Some days I really feel like we can't catch a break, but then I remember how I thought breastfeeding was something I wouldn't be able to do when I was pregnant and I realize that we've made it four months and that is longer than I ever thought would be possible. So, we'll just keep plugging along and trying to make it work.

What are you up to this month? At the beginning of the month, you were obsessed with your activity mat - squealing and talking to your animals and kicking you legs a lot! While you still like it, sometimes we think you're getting a little bored with it. You are Grabby McGrabberson these days. You are still working on grabbing things with one hand, but you are pretty good at "gathering" things to your chest/mouth with both hands. We've started giving you your lovey's and you are pretty good at gathering them to your mouth. You still love your mobile. We can always count on the mobile to keep you occupied when we need to get something done around the house (folding laundry, getting your bath ready at night, etc.). On exactly your 4 month birthday, you rolled from your stomach to your back. The next day, you rolled 5 times, but haven't really done it since. Maybe you wore yourself out with the rolling? You are pretty much a pro at holding your head up. You smile ALL the time, especially when we smile at you or if Daddy makes a funny face at you. We seriously cannot get enough of those smiles! We think we may have gotten a few giggles out of you, but the things we do when it happens do not consistently make you laugh. For the most part, you are a pretty laid back little girl. You love watching yourself in the mirror. We have a mirror that sits on teh floor that you can look in while you're doing tummy time. This has been a really good distraction for you when we put your on you belly. I also like to take you into the powder room or our bedroom and have you look in the mirror. As soon as you realize that there is another baby in that mirror, you smile really big and look away. You keep looking back and smiling when you see that the baby is still there. You are still a big fan of the TV, especially when the Phillies are playing. You've gotten really good at turning yourself around on the activity mat so you can watch the TV. We also tried having you sit in the Bumbo seat, and so far, you kind of like it. You don't love it, but sometimes it will keep your attention.

Let's talk about sleeping. You started sleeping in your crib full-time at 3 months, 1 day old (August 27th). The transition to your crib was actually pretty easy; I think you may be happy to have your own space now. In your 3 month post, I was bold enough to talk about how you were sleeping through the night and how proud we were of you. Well, let me just tell you, we are still awful proud of you, but you have stopped the sleeping through the night business. We are still swaddling you at night, but most nights you break yourself free of the swaddle so you can get your hands, which in turn wakes you up because you haven't figured out that your hands can help soothe you back to sleep. Instead, you just start fussing because you want the pacifier back. Because you are waking up multiple times at night, Daddy and I have started rotating the nights that we get up with you so that at least one of us is getting a full night's sleep. We also had to borrow breathable bumpers from your friend Morgan because you cannot keep your little legs behind the bars (see your 17 week post). We are currently working on teaching you to sleep without the swaddle. We have a pretty good routine at night, and you definitely seem to still enjoy bathtime. Some nights, your legs go crazy kicking and splashing and some nights, you prefer for it to be a quiet, relaxing bath. It's the nights when you are really quiet that are the problems - you have pooped in the bathtub twice!

Another amazing month has passed (way too quickly), and we can't wait to see what new and exciting things the next month brings! We love you so much, baby girl!!

Love you like no other,

Mommy

Here are your 4-month pictures with your bear: