Four Months Old!!!

Four Months Old - August 20, 2012

My sweet little Ann Parker is four months old today!  One third through her first year ALREADY!!  AP is such a wonderful baby and we are all enjoying this addition to our family.  We don't go to the pediatrician until Wednesday so we'll have her stats then.  She is currently sleeping 11 1/2- 12 1/2 hours through the night and we are thrilled.  She goes down about 7:30-8:00 and sleeps until 7:30-8:00 the next morning.  She likes to be swaddled, have her paci, and listen to her sleep giraffe (C wouldn't give up the sleep sheep so we got a new giraffe for AP...which C now also wants).  We put her down awake and she puts herself to sleep within a few minutes.  She takes two little cat naps during the day if we are home.  If we are out she will sleep much longer - 2 to 3 hours!  I think that when we are home Caroline's constant noise keeps her from sleeping too long :)  Speaking of Caroline, AP loves her sister!  Caroline can get the biggest smiles.  Other then Caroline, Ann Parker seems to equally prefer me to Adam.  At this stage, Caroline was very much a daddy's girl.  If he was in the room that's who she wanted to hold her.  Ann Parker doesn't seem to mind either way, as long as it's one of us.  She has just started crying when new people hold her some of the time. 

She is wearing size 1 diapers still and I think she'll be wearing those for a while longer.  She is wearing mostly 0-3 month clothing with some 3-6 month and some newborn sizes mixed in!  She's still our itty bitty girl.  She eats 5 times a day, mostly every three hours.  Sometimes she's hungry after 2 hours and sometimes she makes it to 4 or 5 hours.  She eats roughly at 7:30, 10:30, 1:00, 4:00, and 7:00.  She's eating 4 oz. at each feeding but I imagine we'll be bumping her up soon.  If I give her more than that now, she will spit it all up so we're staying at 4 oz. for the time being.  She is still getting all breastmilk.  She may be getting some formula soon as well since my supply is a little lower than normal and I'm having to supplement with some frozen milk.  We have decided not to start solid foods this month.  We didn't start until later with Caroline as well for health benefits (lower chance of food allergies, childhood obesity, diabetes, etc.) but AP just doesn't seem big enough yet.  She hasn't shown interest in our food yet (C constantly grabbed for our food).  I think that her smaller size contributes to that.  She just doesn't have the body mass to be strong enough to hold herself up and grab at food.

She smiles all the time and has started cooing more this month.  It's the sweetest little sound.  She loves her toes and is almost always holding them.  She also loves her swing, bouncer, paci, bathtime, mirror, and playmat (same as before).

As embarrassing as this is to admit...AP is still in the bassinet in our room.  C was in her crib at 5 weeks.  At almost 18 weeks, I haven't even tried AP in her room.  She sleeps so soundly that we never felt the need to get her to her room so ours would be quieter ;)  Plus, Caroline still wakes up at night and their rooms are right next to each other.  The pediatrician says that there's no harm keeping her in our room, just as long as she isn't in our bed.  Hopefully I will have in her the beautiful nursery that we worked so hard on before she outgrows it!!  ha! 

Happy four months baby girl!  We love you so much and are so thankful for you.  You make us smile every single day and are certainly an answer to our prayers.  Love you!!