4 Month Update

Yes, that sign says 4 months! It's crazy how much can change in the course of a month. Here's what we've been up to...

4 month stats-

-Height- 24 1/2 inches -50th or so percentile
-Weight- 15 lbs -80th percentile - You'd think that I fed this child constantly but I don't. And we were worried about her being too small when she was born! Ha!
-Head-38th percentile- I can't remember what the measurement is but she no longer has a 3rd percentile head! Billy's old softball team was called The Freakheads because the guys either had abnormally small or large heads. Avery can no longer be a part of this!

Eating- roughly every 3-4 hours during the day and once during the night totaling 5-6 times/ day. Sometimes she will go longer if she's had a long nap. Dr. Nandwani gave us the green light to start solids so we'll be doing that this Saturday when Bill is home to help! Hopefully, we'll get some cute pictures. Last night I was eating a cupcake, and she tried to grab it. She looked so upset when I didn't give it to her. Like mama, like baby! I guess she's ready for something different than milk.

Sleeping- Since I waited about a week after she turned 4 months to do this post, I have better news in this department. She is getting back to her old self. That is definitely not to say that we have wonderful nights every night now; however, she is having more good nights than bad ones lately. I have just gotten prepared for some bad sleep here and there for a while. I can sleep once I'm 50!

What's new?

-Avery is very much into grabbing and studying faces. She loves touching chins, mouths, noses, etc. It is really sweet until she starts pinching.

-She has found her belly and thinks that it is pretty cool!

-She rolled over from her belly to her back. This really was just her being stubborn. I was trying to put her down for a nap one afternoon. I had been trying for A LONG TIME so in a last attempt I put her on her belly to see if maybe she would sleep that way. She rolled over onto her back as if to say, "Nice try mom!" and then proceeded to smile up at me. She's got some sass already.

-She is really close to rolling over from her back to stomach. She'll go all the way onto her side and then stop. This is a picture of her rolled over to watch the football game. This cannot be my daughter watching the game!

-She has gotten sooo much better on her tummy. She can stay there for much longer and will lift her chest completely off the ground supported by her hands, not forearms.
-She laughs a lot more often. We also noticed that she crinkles her nose when she laughs. It's pretty funny.
-She still loves looking at herself in the mirror. She will giggle and then get shy and bury her face in my shoulder.
-Her 4 month shots went SO much better than last time. She hardly cried afterward.

-I can't remember if I have mentioned this before but she hates riding in her car seat at night. We have to turn on the light in the back to keep her happy.
-She likes grabbing her feet and pulling them up.


Some other pictures from this month-

Are you ready for some football?

Avery and Garrett making their daddies proud

I had to include this picture. It cracks me up!

Her skinny pants earned her lots of attention at church. Gotta love those chunky thighs!

Here is the progression of play in the Bumbo-

1. Lots of toys to play with

2. Down to one and losing interest

3. And we're done. Get me out of here!

The first time she wore a nightgown. I love them!

The outdoors + swing... what could be better?

Happy 14th Birthday, Aunt Laura!

So fascinated with my new toys

although I can't reach the floor yet

You may be wondering what I'm doing. Sleeping, no. Looking at my reflection in the mirror, no. Eating the seat, yes!!!

We love our little one more and more every day!

Sleep...How I miss you!

Something has happened. My once amazingly wonderful sleeping baby has turned into somewhat of a night owl. She has started waking up CONSTANTLY in the night. I have not gotten this little sleep ever in my life.

Everyone expects to lose lots of sleep when they bring their newborn home from the hospital. It wasn't near as hard to handle because I knew that it was coming. After about 3 weeks, Avery started sleeping longer stretches and by 2 months or so she was sleeping through the night in her crib, waking up once around 5am for a feeding. Who would have thought we would go backwards now at around 4 months old! I certainly didn't! Last night she went to sleep around 8pm but then proceded to wake up at 11, 12:50 (twice), 1:30, 2ish (twice), 3 something (I fed her then), skipped the 4 o'clock hour (thank goodness!), and back up at 5:20. At this point, I couldn't take it anymore so I put her in the swing where she slept until 8:30. Surprisingly, I felt somewhat refreshed this morning because I got the three hour stretch at the end. Yesterday, I felt like a walking zombie all day long due to lack of sleep! Her naps have been still decent so I'm not sure what's up.

I've done some research online and found out something called the 4 month sleep regression. Apparently babies' sleep patterns change at this point, and they have to learn how to put themselves back to sleep. I think that this is our problem. She is still swaddled so she doesn't have access to her thumb or hand to soothe her back to sleep. I feel like I can't stop swaddling her because she just thrashes her arms all around. What a vicious cycle! Maybe it could be early teething? She has been chomping down on anything lately. I just don't know!

I'm writing this post, partially for advice and partially so that I can read it when she is older and be so thankful for the glorious nights of sleep that I will be having then! Don't get me wrong, I am SO thankful for our precious, happy and healthy baby and feel so blessed to have her. I think about a time when I would give anything to have her so I realize that I should never complain about minor problems like this. But, if I am doing something wrong or could change this then I am all for it!

If you have any nuggets of advice, please let me know! Hopefully this phase will end as quickly as it came. Otherwise, I will have to invest in some heavy duty concealer for the bags under my eyes!

Pumpkin Patch

With the cool(er) weather here, we decided that it would be a perfect time to visit the Pumpkin Patch! Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE holidays! Halloween just starts off the magical next few months so we had to live it up by taking some really cute pictures of babies by pumpkins. Avery had some friends join her for the fun- Luke, Garrett, Jackson, and Davis!

Avery is still a little too young to be able to prop up next to the pumpkins so we took a family picture holding her. (We tried but she looked miserable and kept lopping over!)

Taking advantage of some of the decor. Don't they look happy?

Next photo-op...line the babies up in front of the huge spider. We had to put Avery and Garrett in the middle so they wouldn't fall over. They first fell one way...

...then the other! Poor Luke was being a champ holding them up!

And this is the best we could get. Pretty cute!

Avery had to get some time in with Kyle.

Having lots of fun!

Of course, we did not leave the PUMPKIN Patch with a pumpkin. We simply took lots of pictures and then decided we could buy them for much cheaper at Kroger. Amazingly, all of the babies were in great moods and cooperated for all of the excessive picture taking. There is also a Christmas Tree Farm attached which made me really excited about the next couple of months!

Road Trip!

Billy had a convention for work in San Antonio this past week, so Avery and I joined him. It was her first overnight stay out of town!

Heading out of town

We left on Monday afternoon so that Bill could check in at the convention. Then we met Kelly, who is in nursing school in San Antonio, for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It is one of my favorite restaurants, and it did not disappoint us!

Cool light!

On Tuesday, Billy was gone at the convention and then dinner with people from work, so Kel, Avery, and I went shopping! We started off at the Shops at La Cantera and then went to a few other stores around the area. We headed back to Kel's apartment so that Avery could take a nap and we could eat some pizza.

I was burping her in the car which happened to be right in front of the mirror over the seat. She loves to look at herself!

On Wednesday, we hung out at the hotel until the convention was over around lunchtime.

She's getting better at tummy time!

Avery was such a trooper the whole trip. She slept the entire three hours home and made us much more optimistic for future trips!

Home at last- the car seat did a number to her hair!