Charlotte's 4th Month

Firsts: pair of shoes, trip to Calico Fort, grabbing your feet and other things, first time staying in the church nursery but only for the second hour, first Easter and Easter egg hunt, first baby shower for mommy’s cousin’s wife.

Mommy and Daddy’s Favorites: We love watching you smile and laugh. We especially love watching you interact and smile and laugh with Aubrey!

Milestones: Grasping objects and reaching out for toys. You’ve found your feet and like to play with themJ Lifting head at a 90 degree angle during tummy time. You also have been bearing weight on your legs really well for a while now.

Measurements: 14lbs (50%) and 25.75in. (90%), 3-6 month clothes, and size 2 diapers

Like Aubrey: You’re a little goat babyJ Just like Aubrey you love putting things in your mouth.

Unlike Aubrey: you like to sleep a little more, thankfully! Also you seem to like a paci.

Memorable moment: At lunch one day you started to get fussy and Aubrey had been about to get in trouble. She came over to you and you both got happy. She started playing with you and you started smiling at her. You both love each other so much already!

Challenges: You’ve had another cold…and so have the rest of us. You’ve been very congested and its waking you up at night. This has been hard when Mommy has also felt pretty yucky. Also going to the grocery store. You don’t like to sit in your car seat during the trip and you are hating the ergo and k’tan right now for some reason so we’ve had some screaming trips to the grocery store lately.

How we spend the day: You typically wake up between 6 and 7. This gives us a few minutes to spend with you before Aubrey wakes up about 7:30. You normally go down for a nap about an hour and a half later and sleep anywhere from 35 minutes to an hour and 35 minutes. Its normally a little on the shorter end. We’ve been working on the eat/play/sleep pattern but aren’t too rigid with it. You are normally ready for bed about 7:30 (sometimes a little earlier depending on when your last nap fell, but we try to wait until 7:30)Mommy normally gets you ready for bed while Daddy gets Aubrey ready and you get your last feeding and are asleep for a while. This month your wake up times have been a little off, but on a good night you’re waking once at night on other nights twice.

Feedings/Eating: You go about every 3 hours on average. Sometimes its more and sometimes less. You are still exclusively breast fed. We talked to your pediatrician and will wait until about 6 months to start solids since you are gaining weight so well.

Sleeping: Its been a little off this month because of the cold. It was rough… There were several nights you were awake for a while in the middle of the night or up really early. Normally you go right back down after a feeding…this month it was a struggle. I’m hoping it was because you were sick and you’ll get back to being a better sleeper! However, one game changer…you take a paci when you get tired which really helps lull you to sleep! It has been great with helping get you down for naps. When Aubrey was 4 months old we did sleep training with her. I’m still not sure what we will do because you are doing better, but we will see! We are also going to have to start weaning you from the swaddle and sadly, from the rock n’ play. I’m not sure when this will happen…but hopefully we will have some smooth transitions!!

Personality: You are SUCH a happy baby! You are always smiling and “chatting” with us unless there’s something wrong. Normally if you are crying you are tired. You do have a few different cries, one is a really high pitched pitiful cry. It normally occurs after your bottom lip pokes out and its so sad! You absolutely love Aubrey and she always can get you to smile. You seem to be a bit of a mamas girl which is to be expected since we spend a lot of time together. You have recently gotten upset if someone else holds you but will stop as soon as mommy gets you back.

Likes: Mommy, Daddy, and Aubrey…we all get SO many sweet smiles as soon as you see us! Your hands and feet, “soother” pacis (but only the wubbanub kind or the 0-3 month softer ones), being swaddled, playing with your play mat

Dislikes: the ergo in the grocery store…you’ve screamed this way in several trips, when certain people hold you that aren’t family members, being left alone,

Mobility: You are pretty close to rolling but haven’t yet. You are doing a really good job holding your head up and are getting really strong. We have to be carful when we prop you up because you’ll use those little baby abs and kind of fall forward.

Favorite toy: You love your wubbanubs, your bunny lovie, and your play mat. Sometimes if you’re fussy we lay you down on that and you play for several minutes…you must enjoy just getting to stretch your legs and wiggle around!

New Explorations: Your toes! You have found your toes and love to grab them. You’ve learned to grab onto objects really well and grab the toys on your play mat. Sometimes it makes you mad because you want to put them in your mouth.

Sounds and communication: You talk to us all day. You love to join in our little family’s conversation. Sometimes you get really loud and make these crazy loud pterodactyl sheiks.

Teeth: No teeth yet, but you’re starting to drool all the time.