Four Months

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Yikes!  Time is flying!  One of the things I LOVE about now having two children is comparing them.  And not comparing them in a negative way, but it is really fun to watch how two children with the same genetic make-up (nature) and the same parents (nurture) can be so different.  It is very fun for me to go back and look at PFB's monthly updates (PFB Four Month Update) and see how different or similar Haddie Grace is.

From our Four Month Visit- weight- 14lbs 7.5 oz (50th percentile) length- 25.5 in (84th percentile)

Eat- Haddie Grace is eating about every 3 hours during the day.  She takes between 4 and 5 ounces.  She has actually started to get a bit finicky about taking her bottle.  Sometimes she will only take it if she is in a quiet dark place (a bit of a challenge with a toddler running around...) or if she is sitting in her car seat.  Weird, right?  But we're going with it.  Much of the time she seems to take the first 3 or 4 ounces fine and then will finish the rest of the bottle 20-40 minutes later.  (I keep working to get her to finish because you can bet I don't want to waste of drop of my precious breast milk.)  I have still been able to give her exclusive BM thanks to Anna's donor milk, but I will run out of that probably in the next week or so and then we will supplement with formula.  I realize this is a lofty goal, but I really would like to try to continue to pump for a full year this time so that I can continue to give her the breast milk through the winter and flu season, but we will see what happens. I am going to start her on solids around 5 months.  With Phoebe I could not wait to start making baby food for her- it was such a novel thing.  But since PFB only would eat baby food for the longest time I got very sick of making it and quite disillusioned with the whole process.  All that to say, I am not looking forward to the process this time around...

Sleep- Haddie Grace doesn't sleep at night as well as Phoebe did at this age.  Just after she turned three months she started waking up to eat in the middle of the night again.  And I would say she does this about 5 nights/week.  She will only sleep 8 or 9 hours without eating.  When do they start sleeping a solid 12 hours?!?  Please let that come soon :)  She also wakes up multiple times/night because she loses/wants her paci.  I've been waking up and going in to give it to her, but I really need to start letting her cry and figure it out because getting up so many times each night is killing me.  I typically don't swaddle her anymore at night, but will still occasionally swaddle her for a nap to help her settle down.  I do put her down to sleep on her back, but she always rolls over to her belly and wakes up on her belly. She takes a good 2 1/2-3 hour nap each afternoon and in the morning she just goes with the flow and sleeps whenever she can.  We are on the go most mornings so she doesn't really get a chance to take a solid morning nap.  The joys of a second child.

Play- Haddie Grace is SO active!  She has found her feet this past month and loves playing with them and sucking on her toes.  (How appealing does that sound?)  She reaches and grabs for everything and has started not only sucking her her hands and fingers a lot but also anything else she can get a hold of.  I feel like I need to watch her and PFB closer now because Phoebe loves to give her toys that may or may not be safe for a 4 month old to be putting in her mouth....

She has also started getting up on her knees.  Now that is a SCARY thing...  I don't think PFB ever got up on her knees.  (Really, we eventually had to have PT to teach her to crawl at 10 months...) She loves her bouncy swing and the exersaucers in the church nursery.  She could be entertained in one of those for hours!  Shame we don't have one.