Fourth Month "Fun"

Well, clearly Penelope is having fun!

With each passing day, she becomes so much more active and interested in the world: throughout the day, I move her from play gym, to swing, to bumbo, to bouncer, to my lap, back to the play gym and back to my lap to keep her happy! She is also so close to sitting up on her own (and not able to sit contentedly in her Boppy chair anymore):
We are immensely proud of our smart and fun little girl...so why the "fun" above? Three words: lack of sleep. With so much fun to be had, our little P hates to sleep! And when she does sleep, she doesn't for very long because she gets real hungry from playing all day (as opposed to all of the eating she did all day when she was less aware of the world around her), not to mention that many babies experience a major growth spurt during month four. I sometimes spend almost two hours trying to settle her down for the evening...she is clearly tired but fights, fights, fights that sleep! Some nights I frankly need a break so badly that I want to simply walk out of the house. It does help to remember that this is a phase but I'll tell you what: sleep deprivation doesn't allow for the clearest or most rational of thinking. How women work outside of the home and stay up all night with their babies is beyond me...same goes for moms with more than one kid. Hats off to you gals!

Because I am not comfortable with the "cry it out" methods of getting baby to sleep, I am learning that there is a greater degree of patience required to caring for Penelope than I could have ever dreamed of. I have done extensive reading and thinking about this issue and have concluded that having my child in another room and screaming for hours (she will do this...we have seem glimpses) is not worth my sanity. If I have to deal with a skimpy five hours of sleep, so be it...for now. I really try to put myself in Penelope's shoes; I don't believe (like it was once believed) that she cannot adequately feel emotions--she must be terribly overwhelmed much of the time! I am...that is for sure.

So while I am having so much "fun" being a mommy right now, I trust my feelings about this...she'll be okay...I'll be okay...someday! Yes, it is hard (sometimes I really don't know where I'll find the energy to deal with her nursing for the nteenth time in the middle of the night as Doug and the dogs contentedly snore away) but I have to believe that someday I'll have a full night's sleep and so will she.

Besides, who wouldn't willingly live at the edge of sleep-deprivation-induced insanity for this:

BTW--will you please remind me of my own words, when necessary? he he.

4-Month Check Up

Penelope is just a brave and strong gal! She had another round of vaccinations yesterday and while she cried, she recovered so quickly and was smiling within minutes!

She is growing so well...she weighed in at 14 lbs and 1 oz, and measured 25.75 inches! She weighs double what she did when she was born...wow.

Sleep update: fingers crossed--she has been sleeping so well at night...almost every night this week, she woke me up only once, after having gone to sleep between 9-10:30 PM! She has consistently slept in four-hour chunks at night this week and according to Dr. Sears, a five-hour chunk of sleep at night is considered sleeping through the night. We are almost there!

4-Month Penelope Update

Here we are at four months! Penelope is growing, growing, growing! We are having a blast with our baby girl; everyday is a new adventure with her, that is for sure.

She is scheduled for a doctor's appointment this week so we'll have to update everyone on her height and weight stats later...we figure she is right around 14 pounds and 25 inches. She continues to be long and lean, in fact, I had to buy her 6-9 month sleepers for her and, just in the last few weeks, has pretty much grown out of any 3-month clothing she has. I was tidying up her changing table and found a newborn diaper that came with us from the hospital and wow...how tiny! It's hard to believe she was so tiny only four months ago.

Not only is she growing physically but developmentally! She can nearly sit up by herself and almost rolls over. She is definitely more interested in sitting up than rolling over, however. Although, over the past couple of days, whenever I lay her on her back, she immediately rolls to one side or the other. She is also rarely content to just sit and swing in her swing or look at fun things in her bouncy seat...she really wants to get up and go!



In addition, she is turning out to be quite a talker! A couple of weeks ago she discovered two important things: her tongue and how to raise her voice! As a result, she has been spitting and squealing to her heart's content. She also coos like crazy...she sounds like the many doves we have around here. And she laughs! While somewhat infrequent, her laugh is truly delightful.

We think that teething may be partly responsible for the spitting/blowing bubbles/drooling. I didn't expect to have to deal with teething this soon but seems like that is what we are dealing with. She puts everything she can in her mouth, including her toes! See?



The biggest challenge lately has been sleep...her somewhat unpredictable schedule. Now, don't get me wrong, while I fantasize about her sleeping through the night and taking two solid 2-3 hour naps every day, I know the reality...she doesn't do that. But the other reality is that I need sleep and an occasional break. I bought Dr. Sears Sleep Book to try to help troubleshoot how we can get her to sleep for longer periods of time. For awhile there, she frankly refused to sleep until she was completely exhausted, usually about 10 PM. She'd be up again around midnight and would sleep for perhaps another four hours. She'd eat and sometimes stay awake for another 2 hours...ugh! And if she did take a nap during the day, it would be right after eating and on my lap. As soon as I set her down anywhere else, she'd almost always wake up. What did Dr. Sears say about the lap napping? He says she'll grow out of it and that I should enjoy it while it lasts.

So we have to make adjustments, particularly when I have schoolwork to do. One of those adjustments is this laptop. Thanks to this laptop (that turns into a notepad) I was able to complete my presentation for CCCCs, despite the fact that we couldn't make it to New Orleans to present it myself. Now I feel like I can be more flexible during her naps...I can now get some stuff done. I am less flexible at night, however--if I cannot sleep during the day, I really need to get decent sleep at night. So, we began a little bedtime routine three nights ago and so far, so good! She has let me sleep for about seven total hours at night...I can definitely live with that. Things are going to have to change again soon, however...she is close to growing out of the cosleeper...which means she'll have to go in her crib. This makes me really sad...there is nothing like waking up with her sweet grins and giggles next to me in the cosleeper. Oh well, I guess this is parenthood: a mixture of happy and sad.

As far as Mama goes, it seems like my body is just about back to normal. I am under my prepregnancy weight and my hormones seem to have regulated. I am losing hair like crazy...it's kind of gross, actually. As many of you know, when you are pregnant, you tend to not shed normally and then right around month three postpartum, all the hair you should have shed for nine months falls out at once! And I am far enough away from the overwhelming intensity of labor to not have a panic attack when I think of our maybe having another baby. That isn't going to happen for a while, however so don't even ask about it. :)

I'll let Doug continue this update...