Four Months (and 9 days…)

So, clearly I am behind! My baby is already over four months old, and she is truly a delightful little lady these days. She had her well-check a few days before she was officially four months old, so keeping that in mind, here are her stats: 13 lbs 5 oz (50th percentile) and 24 1/4” long (75th percentile). Obviously I’m thrilled that she’s still plenty chunky (have you seen her thighs? They are edible. I really can’t imagine what they could possibly look like if she were in say, the 90th percentile?!), but I feel like we are definitely not in the clear yet as far as allergy-avoidance goes. She and Wade are each unique and their growth and development will be as well, but for what it’s worth, Wade was in the 50th percentile when he was Holland’s age. It was somewhere between months four and six that he started to drop. I am encouraged that she doesn’t appear to suffer from eczema at this point. {You can see that I am clearly thinking about these things a lot. The bottom line is that God created Holland, He is for her good, and so I can trust Him to work these things out according to his wisdom which is infinite (and mine is not!). }

{On a recent trip to visit Philip’s family, cousins Kate and Abby were very interested in baby Holland!}

But I digress. Back to my little lady and life with her at four months. I am pretty amazed at how Holland has really worked herself into a fairly predictable routine/schedule. I was so sure I had to put Wade on a schedule, but Holland is showing me that she can and will show me when she needs to sleep/eat/etc. Imagine that! She generally wakes up in the morning between 7 and 7:30 (sometimes in her own crib, but often times it’s in our bed because I’ve brought her in during the early morning hours, which I still love…) and goes down for a morning nap 1-2 hours later. Depending on how long that morning nap is, she’ll want to take an afternoon nap in the early afternoon, or if I’m lucky, I can hold her off a bit and get her and her brother down at the same time! Those are magical times, my friends :) Some days she’ll take a really rockstar nap for me and make me oh-so-proud by sleeping for 2-3 hours! Other days (like today) it’s more like 30-45 minutes, but I’m rolling with it either way (because I’m a totally laid back mom…can you tell? ha! those who know me well will know that comes with a heavy dose of sarcasm!!) She generally wants to get one last little catnap of 30-45 minutes in during the late afternoon. Sometimes this is challenging because it can end up occurring rather late, and I wonder if this sometimes causes a problem with bedtime?

I’ve been working on putting her down drowsy, yet awake (oh that elusive state!), so that she’s able to get herself back to sleep if/when she awakens during her sleep. I’d say this is going fairly well. Sometimes there’s a little bit of fussing followed by sleep. Other times there’s a lot of fussing, in which case I usually go help her out a bit (either by patting her or picking her up). And then there are the times she nurses to sleep. Just like her brother, she sleeps with a sound machine roaring in the background! So much for avoiding that sort of thing so your kid doesn’t grow to depend on them! Seriously, if it will help drown out noise and encourage deeper sleep for my baby, I am doing it. Just try and stop me. If you go upstairs in our house during naptime or at night you may confuse your location for an airport terminal; it really is quite loud!

Holland now happily spends time in her bouncy seat and exersaucer. She’s not really into grabbing stuff (yet?), though she will swat at things and use her hands to explore what’s in front of her. She’s also newly into pushing her feet on wherever she can reach on her bouncy seat—it’s pretty cute! She’s increasingly verbal these days too—it seems as though she loves to hear herself talk very loud!

{yes, that is a runny nose in the above photo! Holland is on her third cold!!! I suppose that’s what you get when you have an older brother who doesn’t really understand the concept of personal space.}

And guess what else? Just this past week, girlfriend rolled over! Both ways! She’d been working really hard on rolling from her back to her tummy (it was the cutest thing to see her keep trying, over and over again!), and she finally got it while playing in Wade’s room. Then, a few days later, I went to check on her after putting her down for a nap (She was very quiet rather quickly). I’d put her down (on her tummy) on one side of the crib, and I found her on the other side holding on and playing with the crib rails! She was just as happy as could be, not interested in sleep at all…I’m thinking she had to have rolled at least one, maybe twice to get where she ended up!

I continue to nurse her without too much regard for what time it is, though it usually translates into every 2-3 hours. I’m not sure I’ve noted here before that she only nurses on one side at a time—this is what she has always seemed to prefer. She’s also a fast nurser (and has always been such), finishing up her meal usually within ten minutes or so, though sometimes she likes to just hang out with mama and linger a while. Speaking of nursing, I’m a tad concerned that my milk supply may be a little low? I don’t know—it’s just one of those things that a mom can sense maybe? When I was putting Holland down for bed tonight she was fussy, frustrated even, and I wondered if maybe she needed more to eat. I was actually able to get her take an additional ounce of breast milk from a bottle (which we don’t typically do). I’m wondering if this may have something to do with why she was up three times during the night last night???

And speaking of the night, Holland typically goes down for bed between 7:30 and 8. She’d been pretty consistently waking up between 12-1 to nurse and then again around 4, though last night she was up more and had a harder time getting back to sleep. Oh to get inside her little mind and know what is going on with her during those nighttime hours! Is she hungry? Missing mama? Gas in her tummy? Or just working out the kinks of getting back to sleep on her own? The Lord only knows!

One thing is for sure, I love me some Holland Elizabeth! She continues to be an absolute delight to her mama’s heart—I am so grateful for my girl!