Four months has brought some fun times in Baby Hanna’s life
{and in the life of her parents!}…we returned to the east coast, moved, spent
lots of time with friends, and met many new people. Let’s look at some
statistics!
How old: four
months
Weight: at her
appointment on Monday she was 13 pounds ten ounces {& 25.5 inches long}…this baby is on the slow end
of weight gain but has always been consistent; about a pound a month
Likes:
·
Her play mat; she grabs onto the hanging things
now and pulls them to her mouth.
·
Facing forward in the stroller; we started using
an “umbrella” stroller that is much lighter and more compact than the big
jogging stroller/car seat duo we had always used for her.
·
A pacifier! Yippee!! This came after much
prodding from mom. I hadn’t wanted our child to like a pacifier but that was
before we had a child. It buys us
some quiet time here and there {in the car if someone’s next to her to pop it
back in when it falls out} and seems to calm down Hanna Lu a bit so that’s
Good.
·
Watching mom and dad eat; we put her in the
Bumbo seat at meal times and she’s very interested in our actions…we won’t
start her on food until closer to six months but I’m hoping this interest is a
good sign of a happy food-eater.
·
Holding onto toys, especially soft ones.
·
I let Hanna Lu see/play with a tow we received
as a gift that plays music and has lights; this was a big hit. I try to shy
away from electronic toys mostly because I have an irrational fear of them
turning on on their own ala some horror films. This one has an “off” setting
but I’m still uneasy, though the child was very happy. It’s hard plastic so
it’s not the easiest for her to manipulate {since it’s not a soft blankey type
toy} but she was very content holding onto it and accidentally playing the
different songs.
·
Watching people as they talk/have conversations;
especially daddy. This is new in the past week or so. Hanna Lu’s always been
pretty aware for a tiny baby but she can look super involved in someone else’s
conversation, though she’s not adding to them yet. BUT! She does have little
“talks” with us where she’ll coo, we reply, and she coos back. This is
adorable.
·
She’s into the dog now; she especially likes
feeling his fur though we monitor the interactions very carefully {obviously} and
really make sure she isn’t grabbing onto/pulling Guinness’ hairs too hard.
·
Library story/singing times; these are a Hanna
pleaser. We’ve gone once since returning. She also likes the new moms’ group I
go to much more now than before; she’s totally into flirting with people and
other babies and I think that’s why.
·
Bath time; she has a foam mat we put in the
bathtub and though I thought it would be too thin it’s perfect {&
affordable - $5 ish} for her to be able to feel the water all around and kick
and splash as much as she wants. Usually she’s tired at bath time so there’s
fussing when she gets out {the cold probably doesn’t help} so I try to lotion
her up while still holding her, get a diaper and jammies on quick, and swaddle
the kid before she gets too worked up.
·
Sitting up; Hanna Lucy loves seeing what’s going
on around her.
·
Her new “room”, which is our giant walk-in
closet. We decided to stick with a one-bedroom for the time being which isn’t
that bad considering how spacious/full of storage this place is compared to our
last apartment, and this little closet baby situation actually works quite well
for us right now – the door cracked open a bit for air circulation, her white
noise machine, the pitch black, and her pack n’ play all seem to work well for
sleeping little one…she’s actually taken some decent naps this way, better than
any prior, so we’re all happy so far. And she’s still really close to us. We
can switch to a two-bedroom in our same apartment building/management group
pretty easily when we’re feeling like moving again {never…but not really}.
Dislikes:
·
The car; she screamed {not cried} the whole way
to her doctor’s appointment on Monday and was totally chill when we arrived and
got out…though the saddest thing I’ve ever seen was when we parked, she was
making little whimpers in her sleep and had on her “sad face” {when the lips
are turned upside down}.
·
Being cold after her bath.
·
Being left alone for too long; I feel as though
she used to be a bit better with “independent play” but she might be feeling a
wee off these days or perhaps the precursors of teething are starting which
could explain it, or she could be way more into keeping an eye on us, which I’m
sure is a phase she’ll grow out of eventually.
Milestones:
·
Moving into her pack n’ play from the bassinet
when we got home from our travels.
·
Her four-month vaccines; she had a sad afternoon
that we mostly napped through and has seemed OK since then {this was four days
ago}.
·
Her first BBQ party with friends.
·
Her first Fourth of July and fireworks; we
watched them from afar on our rooftop so she wasn’t really aware.
·
Wearing size two in disposable diapers and
three-month or three-to-six month clothes quite comfortably.
·
Sitting in the Bumbo.
·
Taking her baths in the big-person bath-tub;
prior to this month it had been sink baths all the way!
Sleep and eat:
·
Eating every one to three hours…as far as how
much she eats at a time, she took six ounces in a bottle last night but it’s
hard to say how much she takes in when nursing.
·
There’s been some crummy sleep – waking up when
we put her down, waking up every hour or two, only sleeping well in bed with us
– and we had decided to do some serious training this week but the past few
nights she’s been doing quite well on her own in her little closet-crib set up
so we’ll see.
·
Napping several times a day; she’s tired right
after she wakes up in the morning basically and usually has around two hours of
good awake time before a nap is neede.
Miscellaneous:
·
I go back to work on August 18th, her
five-month day…so little girl has one more month of all-mom-all-the-time…let’s
make the most of it!!
xoxo, natty ♥
