Well, better late than never, right?
Landrie turned 4 months old yesterday, October 6. How in the world is that possible?! She changes every day. Preston and I couldn't be more in love with her! We were talking the other night about how we can barely remember what life was like before her! We feel so incredibly blessed to be her parents...she truly is the best gift we've ever been given.
Her 4 month appointment was today, which included shots. Oh how I hate seeing her cry like that! :( We're traveling a lot over the next few months and heading into cold/flu season, so it gives me comfort to know that a few minutes of tears are keeping her protected from a lot of nasty stuff!
Here's her stats:
Height: 24 3/4 in. - 75th percentile
Weight: 13 pounds 3 ounces - 50th percentile
Head: 41.2 cm. - 55th percentile
The doctor noticed at this appointment that she had 2 folds of skin on one leg and 3 on the other. As a result, she's referring us the hospital for x-rays to make sure she doesn't have hip dysplasia. She said she didn't feel or hear clicking, so she's probably fine, but she wants to make sure. Of course I'm worried, but I know it could be a lot worse! If she does have it, we'll have to put her in a brace to fix it. Say a prayer that everything is okay!
She's eating 5-6 times per day (every 3-4 hours), and I'm still exclusively breast feeding. I hate not knowing how much she eats, but according to her height and weight, she's growing, so she's clearly eating enough. I'm not sure when we'll start solids. I'm thinking a little closer to 5 months, as she seems to be doing just fine right now.
Like I mentioned earlier, she seems to be growing and changing every single day, but this is what she's been up to lately:
*Can roll from tummy to back. She can do this to both the right side and left side...seems to depend on where she places her hands.
*Can roll to both sides when laying on her back.
*Can grab/bat/push toys with ease.
*Sticks EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING in her mouth!
*LOVES sucking on her toes.
*Can sit up with a little support.
*Likes to stand instead of being held.
*Can take her pacifier out of her mouth and put it back in. Sometimes getting it back in is a little tricky for her, but she's getting pretty good at it.
*Has totally discovered her thumb...who needs a pacifier when you have a permanent one on your hand?! Uh oh....mom and dad do not want to have to pay for braces due to thumb sucking!
*Preston discovered this the other day...during tummy time, if you put your hand on her feet, she likes to push off your hand and move across the floor. She seemed pretty impressed with herself that she could move across the floor.
*Speaking of moving...she is a wiggle worm! When I put her down on her playmat, she always moves at least a half circle, and she's all over the place in her crib. I put her in the middle at night, and when I go to get her in the morning, she's at one end or the other a lot of times.
*Loves to have someone sing to her. If she's ever fussy in the car, a quick "itsy bitsy spider" will usually cheer her up.
I'm sure there is more, but that's all I can remember for now!
Her sleep habits are totally and completely wonderful! We feel so blessed to be able to sleep through the night. During her first 3 months, she was sleeping well, but she had to be bounced to sleep and held for almost every nap. The bouncing/dancing/jumping/lunging/walking stairs (haha) would typically last 10-30 minutes, and then I had to VERY carefully lay her down in her crib. If I stopped the bouncing too early or put her in her crib wrong, the whole process started all over. NOT FUN!
This resulted in her taking a lot of naps in my arms or laying on my chest. I also had quite a few nights of sitting up in bed until 1 or 2 a.m. to get her good and asleep before I dared to put her down in her crib. While I must admit, I loved the cuddles we got in during that time, the lack of sleep and inability to get anything done around the house was beginning to wear on me.
That's where sleep training came in. I know some people are totally against any type of sleep training that allows a baby to cry, and I completely respect other people's opinions. However, after doing some research, Preston and I decided to try BabyWise. If you're not familiar with BabyWise, it's basically a system to get a baby on schedule of eat, play, sleep, and going to sleep on their own, without rocking/bouncing/etc.
I'm not going to lie...the first day was pure torture! I cried outside her room during her first nap and totally started to doubt if I was doing the right thing. Thank goodness my sweet cousin, Cammie, also started doing the program with her son, Cooper, who is 2-and-a-half weeks younger than Landrie. We called each other for support and reassurance, and we were both able to make it through those tough first days.
The end result? Landrie now takes approximately 3 2-hour naps during the day and sleeps for about 10-11 hours at night. She usually doesn't make a peep when going down...maybe a minute of yipping on occasion, but generally, I lay her down, and she falls asleep. She wakes up smiling, and she's a happier baby during her wake times because she's slept well.
In addition to giving us all some much-needed sleep, implementing this program has helped me be more in-tune with Landrie and her needs. Before starting BabyWise, Landrie would sometimes cry, and I wasn't sure what was wrong (I now know she was just over-tired). Now when she cries and it's not nap time or bedtime, I know something else is going on. I'm also loving playing with her during her wake times. I feel like before I was constantly holding her for naps, so when she was finally awake, it was my time to throw in a load of laundry, pick up, etc. while she played on her play mat. Now I can do those things when she's sleeping in her crib and when she's awake we play together.
Clearly I'm a huge advocate of this program! :)
All in all, life has been great with our sweet little Landrie. She's such a great baby, and we feel so blessed and spoiled to call her ours! Here's a few of my favorite pictures from the last 4 months...
So that was more than a few...! I promise I'm going to try and update this more often, so my next post isn't such a novel! :)
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