Four Months Old

Ro turned 4 months at the start of November and she is changing everyday.

 

-Rowan really loves books at this age, she even grabs for the pages to help turn them.....or maybe just to put them in her mouth

-She rolled from tummy to back on Oct 8th but has only done it 2 times since then. Good thing I caught it on camera or I would start doubting she ever did it in the first place!

-We have started introducing her to a lovie. Noah and Alana bought it for her. It is a little dog head with a deflated soft body. Sounds kinds creepy describing it this way but it's cute. We had a couple soft lovie blankets given to us, but she seems to favor this one with the dog head so far. It has been coined "puggy," a combo of puppy and snuggie (thank you Matt and my mom).

-She can now take her binky out of her mouth with her hands and put it back in some of the time. The other part of the time she hollers at us to come help her. She has started to chew on it instead of suck on it. She also sucks on her pointer and middle finger sometimes. I never know what I will end up finding when I go check on her during naps.

 

-A week shy of 4 months, we have stopped swaddling. It has been quite the adjustment. I am told when they start breaking free from their swaddle and reach about this age, it is time to stop so they can move freely and keep developing. So we thought we would give it a go. Unfortunately she also hit this 4 month awake period I keep hearing about around the same time AND day light savings happened. This has lead to almost no napping during the day and even waking some at night. Out of desperation I tried swaddling her during a nap or two this week but that solved nothing. Still not interested in a nap. So with that, I am officially done trying since that did not lead to any comfort for her. I am hoping like everything else, this bad sleeping is just a phase. Even though she is cute, I do not like hearing her talk to herself over the monitor at 2 am. Nor do I like the grumpy pants she becomes after not napping from 9 am til 7:30 pm when she started her day at 5 am (that was our hell of a Monday post day light savings).

-She is breastfeeding better again, praise God! She went on a stint of refusing to nurse a few weeks ago. She would cry and turn her head away and get all frustrated. We weren't sure if it was from all the bottle feeding that she was getting used to when I worked or what. It was like she had to learn to breastfeed all over again. My milk would let down and she would latch for 2-3 sucks, then rip her head away and scream....as I am dripping all over the place. Most feeds I would try to walk and rock and shush her, while trying to get her to latch. She was so distractable no matter where we fed. She would skip feeds all together because of this behavior and I was pumping all day to try and keep myself comfortable. She was also fussy all day long, probably because she was hungry but also she was tired from all that crying. I never knew if I should try to feed her again or lay her down for a nap. So stressful. But we turned a corner and she now is back to eating fine, breast or bottle.

-She is starting to giggle when you tickle her under her arms

-She can pull her own pull toys now with ease and grab onto anything you hold out for her.  When she is on her tummy, she will reach for things that you put out in front of her.

-She still doesn't understand her johnny jump up, she just likes to be swung in it.

-She loves to stand upright and bear weight on her feet.

-She is talking a lot more and will make all sorts of noises. She just learned the blowing bubbles noise this week.

-We started her on a set bedtime and wake time everyday, loosely based off her normal schedule. We now get up at 6 am for our first feed and go to bed at 9. She eats every three hours during the day still so it works well if we stay on track. If she wakes up at all during the night or early morning. We will give her a binky but not acknowledge any more than that....at least that is the game plan for now.

-We moved her tub into the bathroom and now give baths in their, opposed to the kitchen by the sink. This lets her splash around a lot more.

-She likes to watch other kids play. We recently had Sutton come visit us and she was laughing at him going up and down the slide. Leslie has also said that her and Lynley will laugh at each other too.

-We have taken down the pack n play in our room and now she only sleeps in her bedroom. We transitioned her to her own room when I went back to work 6 weeks ago, but Matt would still sometimes bring her in with him on nights I worked. Not anymore though, she spends all her sleeping time in her crib now.

-Favorite toys include, her O-ball, cloth cubes that make noises, butterfly with crunchy wings, pull toys like her lion and duck, cold teethers, and of course books.

-She wears a size 2 disposable diaper at night and is on a 1/2 setting around her waist, 4/4 setting around her legs in her fuzzi bunz.

-She loves to watch the TV, so Matt and I have to face her the other way when it's on so she doesn't zone out and stop playing. She will be in a trance over it but as soon as you distract her, she will start playing with her toys and interacting again. We figure TV time will come eventually but we would rather her be playing for now.

-We also went to Wichita to visit the Drehers and Gina took some super cute pictures of her. We got to preview them but they are not all up on her website yet, guess you will have to stop back by the blog later to check them out :) Here is the sneak peak she posted earlier this week!

It is hard to imagine it was a year ago that we found out we were pregnant with you Rowan! Now it is hard to imagine you not being a part of our family. I love that you are usually a happy smiley baby and that you now respond to your dad and I with that gummy grin. It is so fun watching you learn and grow. We love you!