Cara is 4 months old!

This month has been a big one for Cara--devleopmentally and physically. She's growing and changing so much! I feel like she's finally stopped being a "newborn" and is transitioning to a "big girl baby", if that makes any sense. :)

Stats: We go to the doctor on 1/4, so I don't know for sure yet. I'm guessing she's about 14 lbs 5 oz and 25 inches. We'll see how accurate I am this week! She certainly is longer (look at weeks 13-14 and then 15-17) and chunkier (look at those THIGHS!).

Milestones: Rolling over! She is also blowing raspberries (TONS of spit everywhere) and keeping her head and body moving on the same plane. She holds onto objects well when you put them in her hand, and she somewhat reaches for objects near her (sometimes it seems like it's a more random jerk to touch something, but other times it seems more deliberate). She sits up better when she's propped against something. She holds up her own weight for a minute when you help her to stand, and she has really discovered her voice. She makes coos, babbles, squeals, laughs frequently (still the best thing ever), grunts (a new favorite of hers), and mimics lots of sounds and words that we say. It's fun to get her to echo us, whether it's with a sound or with a raspberry. :) Quite the developmental burst this month!

Feeding: It was all the time for a while, and when she went through a growth spurt between 14-15 weeks, she was eating us out of house and home! Cari recommended I start to feed her more oz less often, so daycare helped get her on a better schedule. She nurses at 6:30, eats 6 oz from a bottle at 10:30 and 2:30 at daycare, then nurses again around 5 or 5:30 and then before bed at 7:30 or 8. Since we've been on Christmas break, she sleeps until 7:30 or 8 and then eats every 4 hours for the day. Sometimes that leaves her with only 4 feedings a day instead of 5, but she never wakes up in the night from being hungry. I guess she's getting just what she needs! When I'm in school, it's hard to find 3 times to pump during the day; my schedule before and after school is demanding! I'm still working on when to do that. But it's much easier to replace 12 oz than 18-24 a day, so I'll take it! I've been taking Fenugreek and trying to drink lots of water, and I'm hoping to make my supply last for as long as possible or through next August!

Behavior: Still such a happy, easygoing baby! We did a lot of traveling and activity during the Christmas holiday, and she really took it in stride. She adapts pretty easily to a new environment with a little fussing, but not a total meltdown. She smiles and laughs all the time, she loves interaction with me and Chance, and loves to be stimulated at daycare. We joke that often on the weekends, she gets bored with just us. I have a feeling she's going to be the child that needs constant interaction and activity, which is going to test my creativity! She's a lot more vocal and into "conversation" in the last month. Talking to us is one of her favorite things to do, especially when she's on her changing pad. She really fusses when she's tired, but usually some "shhhhing" and rocking will get her more still and quiet before she conks out. But until then, watch out--she lets you know when she's tired! Now that she's adapted to her new longer eating schedule, she has sometimes gone 5-5.5 hours between feedings if she takes a big nap. That's crazy! But when she wakes up, she's a hungry mungry and doesn't even want to wait for a diaper change before she eats. Overall, she's such a doll baby and is pretty laidback and content. Are we sure she's my child? :)

Sleep: Like a champ! For most of this month, she was still being swaddled and slept in her Nap Nanny. She had a bad cold for a couple of weeks with lots of coughing and congestion, so I liked keeping her elevated. She would sleep for 10-12 hours that way and usually woke up right around 6:30 when I would go in to get her. Now that we're back from Christmas travels, she's in her crib. We also transitioned her from the swaddler (she was getting too long for the small size ones) and into a sleep sack. That first night was pretty rough as she was getting used to having more limb freedom and being in a different place, and I had to go into her room a couple times to soothe her and offer her pacifier, but she eventually passed out for the night. The next 2 nights were no problem, but I had to go in once Friday night. She comes to every hour or 1.5 hours and rolls and kicks, but she usually settles herself back down. It's funny to watch because I'm actually seeing her learn to soothe herself. Pretty cool. She's taken to her new environment and sleep routine pretty well. She has been waking up earlier than her normal 6:30, which is less than ideal. But today, she woke up at 6, babbled happily for about 20 minutes and then went back to sleep until 8. I can handle that! For naps, she typically takes one big one before her 10:30 feeding (like 1-2+ hours), a cat nap before her 2:30 feeding (like 30-45 minutes) and then sometimes takes one more nap before her 5:00 feeding. Sometimes she's awake from 2:30 until bedtime. I much prefer 3 naps a day to 2 for her!

Clothes: I packed away all her 0-3 month stuff. Her 3-6 clothes are still a little long, but they fit well overall. She's out of swaddlers and into the giant sleep sacks (which don't do much for sleep except act as a blanket). We're going to finish up the package of size 1 diapers we have and buy more size 2. On her 13-week-day, she wore a red fleecy pj set that Chance wore as a baby. He was about a month old when he wore it, and it fit her perfectly at 13 weeks! It was really sweet that she got to wear it, plus it happened on his birthday. I'm so glad Cindy saved it for us. Her 3-6 month outfits included a TON of Christmas clothes, so she wore a lot of them to parties. She has several fleecy outfits, jammies, jackets and boots. And we're doing a hairbow and sock refresher because so many of hers are too small already. Stop growing, CB!

Likes: snuggling, sitting in your lap facing you and having conversation (especially with her Daddy when he gets home from work), playing "Let's Go Bears!" where we clap her hands and then throw her arms open as we say the cheer--gets giggles from her every time, blowing raspberries, having tummy time for a bit when she can hold her chest up, riding in the Baby Bjorn--forward facing!!, being on the go, playing with her friends at school, reading books

Dislikes: when we put her down and don't interact with her, having to cry it out before a nap, when I clean out her nose with a wipe or an aspirator (which I did a lot when she had her cold--it made her an angry elf), waiting too long to eat, waking up alone in her crib at night

Favorite moments: Definitely spending Christmas together and getting to spend most of my school break with her. She didn't go to daycare the week between Christmas and New Year's, so we got to relive some of my maternity leave days. It seemed easier to spend the days with her because I knew more what I was doing, but it also seemed harder because she needed more attention and activity. We could go out on errands for longer than 2 hours this time, but she also didn't take as many naps as she used to. Give and take. Our weekends this month have also been really sweet because I cherish my time with our little family a lot more now that work is in full swing. We try to not do too much except be together on the weekends to make the most of our time. It was also a month of experiences--meeting Santa, being baby Jesus at church and growing big and strong.

Most challenging: Figuring out her new schedule for eating and sleeping. I stressed (and still kind of do) about having enough milk to feed her at school each day, but it's better now that she eats fewer times there. It's hard to transition her into a new sleep routine in her crib, but so far it hasn't been too terrible. I'm hoping she keeps taking to it like a fish to water! It was really difficult to spend Christmas without Cindy and to mark 6 months since her passing. But that 6-month milestone was also one year to the day since we found out we were pregnant, so it was a mixed bag of emotions. We've come so far, and we have a lot of happy memories to focus on instead of sadness.

Looking forward to: Ringing in the New Year with our friends (while Cara sleeps in the pack n play in another room!), and just the rest of her upcoming milestones. We've said very often this month, "She's such a big girl!" and I know it will just keep being true. Soon she'll be rolling like a pro, sitting up on her own, crawling, teething (not looking forward to that one), cruising. It's all happening too fast!