Nora: 4 months

Personality:  Still mostly happy, and very charming with her ever ready smile.  Soo soo charming!  Still mostly easy going and up for all the turmoil and coming and goings of our lives.  But not always!  Every once in a while now she is mad and doesn’t want to go along with what we are doing.  She was inconsolable at hockey once and someone else had to do Joseph’s skates.  She screamed the whole way home from Lincoln the other day.  So, she can get the crabbies and have strong opinions, just like the rest of us.  But not much!  Mostly she is happy.  She has the absolute best laughs and giggles and is totally ticklish all ready! 

Physical:   We had our 4 month appointment Monday and I had been predicting 19 pounds.  I was shocked that she was only 16 pounds 13.5 ounces.  Seriously that sounded so small to me (Joseph was 21 pounds 12 ounces at his 4 month appointment).  Of course she is another big baby, just not as big as her brother.  85th percentile for weight,  25 3/4 inches long (60th percentile), and 17 inches head circumference (95th percentile).  She has tons of chub—so much so I have to work hard to clean all her creases and try and air them out. 

Still steely blue eyes (much like mine) and I now think there is a possibility that they will stay bluefish.  It is very clear now that she has blond nearly invisible eyelashes like me (I always hoped if I had a girl she would have Joseph’s lushes dark lashes, but nope).  Her hair is still pretty much peach fuzz.

I grease her up with eucerin and baby oil every day which is VERY greasy.  Her skin seems slightly better in most places, but one cheek got very bad this week.  She started batting at her cheeks all the time and somehow rubbed it so raw that it got infected.  So she is now, sadly, on her first antibiotic. 

This past month she started rolling back to front all the time—but then after a bit she gets mad because she has forgotten how to roll front to back.  She can certainly squirm herself into different positions (it still shocks me thought to leave her in one place and then find her a different place).  She is also very interested in toys and can pick things up and is starting to manipulate toys. It is just amazing how fast things change.

Eating habits:   Nurse, nurse, nurse!  She loves to eat.  She eats about every 2-3 hours all day and night.  She’s a hungry girl.  She also seems pretty ready for solid foods.  On Christmas Brad gave her squash and she appeared to love it—diving for the spoon with open mouth like a little bird.  Since then he has been giving her a bit of food almost every day.  She seems to prefer squash—kind of rejected applesauce. We will probably do more soon.  I haven’t tried a bottle again, but probably will at some point, though I am not very optimistic about how that will go.  She does suck down her medicine out of the syringe (which smells totally gross to me) so I have the crazy idea today that maybe, if really necessary she would take milk out of the syringe?  I also have been considering giving her formula in a bottle every once in awhile.  That would take away all the pressure of pumping and stressing about whether the milk might go to waste.  Haven’t decided if this is a good idea or not.

Sleep:  Pretty much down the drain lately.  I am at the point where I don’t really know how much she is waking and she often ends up in bed with us.  I felt so on top of things before and loved the predictability and the SLEEP.  From 0-3 months she was so regular: about 5 hours of sleep then 2 wakings.  But no more.  I guess there is just a lot going on at this age and she is processing it all, plus growing bigger and bigger.  My best guess is that she is just sticking to eating every 2-3 hours all night long.  She goes down for bed at 7:30 and wakes for the day between 6 and 7—that has always stayed the same.  I think she is waking 3-4 times, and lately it seems to be calming down a bit.  She is falling asleep again easier and more often in her own space (usually her Rock N’ Play).

During the day she only wants to be awake only 1-2 hours before napping again.  She has been pretty regular about this in the morning for quite awhile.  I just love watching her fall asleep!  She does have a bit of a tendency to stay awake if there is a lot of action, even though she is tired, BUT it doesn’t really seem to come at a high cost, the way it did for Joseph. Lately she really seems to be settling into a solid three naps a day pattern, though I don’t think she is staying asleep as long as would be best for her (she naps for about an hour).

Further confusing things is the fact that I am trying to “transition” her to her crib.  We finally got the crib mattress about two weekends ago and then just started using it a week ago.  It’s a big change for her.  Currently she is taking most of her naps in the crib and starting the night in it, but it doesn’t really last long at night. 

Nicknames: Bunky baby, Noranator, Baby, Norabelle, Stinkerbelle

Mom stuff: I think admitting to myself and others that I was struggling a bit was a huge help!  This month has been better, and now with the holidays past I am really feeling relieved.  Of course getting a little more sleep has helped too.  I probably would feel even better if I would just go to bed early with Nora, but I can’t seem to get myself to do that. It is also a huge relief that Brad has finally finished with his seven days a week work schedule—for most of the fall he was working what seemed like non-stop.  I haven’t lost any more weight, but am hoping to get serious about eating healthy with the new year.  I am also attempting to really get the house in order, including all the random totes that haven’t been unpacked from the move yet.  We also had a bout of sickness lately that was stressful—first I got a bad sore throat and felt like road kill, then Nora got her skin infection and passed it on to Joseph, then Joseph got my sore throat which turned into strep for him.  He was hit hard-probably the most sick he has ever been-besides the very sore throat he was throwing up, developed a rash all over his body, a fever of up to 102.4, and pretty much was a pile of drooling mush on the couch.  Anyways, we made it through the sub zero temps and horrible roads to the Dr.’s today and he is on the mend.