Well it appears I just blog when my kids reach certain age milestones. Wish I could do more, but I guess this is better than nothing.
Brooklyn had her 4 month check up today and she is doing great, and SUPER BIG. Here are her official stats:
Weight: 18 lbs, 2.5 oz
Height: 27 3/4 inches
Head Circ: 17 1/4 inches
She is completely above the percentile charts in all 3 categories. If you map out those measurement with age, she is about the size of an average 8-month old! Santa's bringing this growing girl some new clothes for Christmas! She's outgrown the 6 month sizes already and on to 9-12.
We're going to start some solid foods in about a month. She needs to be able to sit up better because the way she hunches over is not good for swallowing and keeping food going down. She isn't showing an interest in food, yet, and a breast-milk diet certainly seems to be working for her!
I thought for sure she'd roll over several weeks ago, but she still has not met that milestone. Any day... But I'm actually nervous about her getting mobile. We're going to need to pack away some of Hayden's smaller toys and trucks with removable tires/parts. We had a friend's crawling 7 month old baby over recently and I was noticing all the baby-proofing things we've let slip since Hayden is old enough to know better. Wake up call!!
The doctor also prescribed some low-dose baby Zantac for possible reflux. Because of the way she cries in pain and arches her back when laid flat, and makes a sour face after burping, makes us think she might have an issue even though she doesn't spit up very much. I may also try going off dairy again more strictly to see if that helps. We don't want our baby to have tummy problems, or a burning esophagus! No fun!
We have a sort of routine down with sleep, but I would certainly like to see her take longer naps and longer stretches of night sleep. Lately, this is approximately our day:
7am - Wake up
8:30am - 1st Nap
9:15am - Wake up (Grr... wish this was longer)
11am - 2nd nap
11:45 - Wake up, get her back to sleep if possible
12:30 - Wake up again if fell back to sleep
2:30 - 3rd Nap with Mommy while Hayden naps
5pm - Wake up
7pm - Bedtime
11pm - Wake up - feed, right back to sleep
3 am - Wake up - feed, right back to sleep
7am - repeat above.
So she's taking 3 naps a day, but the first two are usually only 45 minutes, which is frustrating because by 2pm she becomes a total Fussmunchkin (stealing the nickname our neighbor's call their little baby!) And of course, she takes a great 3rd nap because I lay down with her. If I sneak away after she falls asleep, she often wakes up within 5 minutes. She has Mommy radar and is a very light sleeper. A loud truck going by our house, dogs barking, or kids outside yelling usually wake her up, even with the white noise machine on it's loudest. Really wish we lived on a quieter street. I find myself consumed by getting her to take good naps.
The doctor suggested that we could try getting Brooklyn to sleep more than a 4 hour stretch at night without feeding, if we wanted to. That basically means not responding to her when she wakes up, or trying to get her back to sleep without feeding her so she learns that it's sleep time and not eat time. If you know me, you might know I'm a supporter of the Attachment Parenting philosophy and I personally do not believe letting my baby Cry It Out is OK. (If you click that link, you can read more about why Cry It Out is believed to not be best for babies.) So I'm not really going to push the effort to "train" Brooklyn to sleep longer. If I stay up until that 11pm feeding then I only have to wake up for the 3am feeding and that's not so bad. We'll get to the longer stretches someday...
It's not the nights that are hard. It's the NAPS! My day often feels 'good' or 'bad' depending on whether she napped for more than 20 minutes unassisted or if I had to get her back to sleep 15 times throughout the day. It's hard too because Hayden has to occupy himself quietly while I deal with Brooklyn, and I feel guilty for how many Thomas the Tank Engine, Elmo's World, SuperWhy, and Mighty Machines shows he watches.
Hayden is doing amazing as a big brother. I haven't really noticed any jealousy signs and he is getting used to her noises and cries. He is gentle with her and helps me whenever I ask him to hand me something. (We'll see how he does when she starts getting mobile and can grab his toys.)
We spend most of our days at home. The weather has been below freezing lately and I'm nervous about going to the mall or other kid-friendly indoor spots because of all the germs flying around this time of year. Brooklyn isn't old enough for the flu shot yet, so I need to protect her as much as possible. And with her nap schedule and light sleeping, she does better when I don't over-schedule our day. I've even been going to the 6am Stroller Strides ("Just Strides" because no babies) class so she can have a better morning nap. Hayden and I have been doing lots of craft projects, Play-Dough, Legos, baking, watching out the window at all the cars and trucks, reading books, setting up trains, and watching TV/Movies (*gasp!*) at home. We went to the park this afternoon and Hayden's hands got so cold he wouldn't touch the cold metal playground equipment and was asking to go home after 20 minutes. :(
We did, however, brave the 20 degree temperatures for our neighborhood Christmas festival last weekend. Luckily, there was an indoor cookie-decorating craft Hayden enjoyed, and Story Time with Mrs. Claus. After standing in line for the horse-drawn wagon ride and freezing our buns off, we decided to call it a night!
Bundled Up!
Yummy Cookies!
Story Time
Wagon Ride
There was also a live nativity display, complete with real barn animals AND a REAL CAMEL! We spent about 30 seconds looking at them because it was too cold. And there was live outdoor music, but I don't know how the musicians managed to play their instruments with frozen fingers. We also passed on visiting the "Santa" because he looked kind of lame and I didn't want to risk a traumatic Santa experience before we got Santa pictures done. Which we did this week! Yes, I braved the Mall and the germs for a Santa Photo:
I can't believe neither kid is crying! This is the face Hayden makes when you ask him to smile. I told him if he cooperates and sits on Santa's lap and smiles while they take his picture he would get a candy cane. So I was very pleased that he was so cooperative. Hayden likes Candy Canes. :)
