Four Months Old

This month has been a good month! Matilda is becoming a much more pleasant and fun baby! I’m so glad we are out of the newborn phase and that she is a lot more social and active now.

Stats: At her four month appointment, Matilda weighed 11 pounds 5 ounces (3rd percentile), was 22.5 inches long (1st percentile), and had a head circumference of 15.75 inches (30th percentile). We moved her into 6 months clothes about a week ago.

Sleep: She still sleeps swaddled in her bouncer, but we’ve tried to 1) start weaning her from her swaddle (by leaving one hand out) and 2) lay her in her crib for some naps. Both have been met with limited success. Jason worries about what we’ll do when she doesn’t fit into her bouncer with her cast on, but I think it will be a hard adjustment either way and we’ll just address it once we’re there.

During the day, her naps are still all over the place. I would say the most common pattern is two 45 minute naps in the morning and two in the afternoon.  Most nights she goes down between 6-8 pm and wakes up between 6-7 am. She usually wakes once around 3 am to eat. We have a pretty good bedtime routine. She wakes up from her last nap shortly before I get home around 5:30 pm. Once I get home I feed her, play with her a bit, give her a bath (which might be her favorite part of the day), put her in her PJ’s, then nurse her to bed.

Eat: After two and a half weeks of being back at work and Matilda not taking a bottle during the day, we have given up on bottle feeding. Jason’s mom and grandma came to help the second full week I was back at work, and they could not get her to take a bottle either. I now come home during my lunch break to feed her, and then Jason brings her up to my work mid-afternoon so she can eat again. I’m basically a drive-through restaurant for my baby.

I think this has been one of the most frustrating things about parenting thus far, because nobody ever warns you your baby might not take a bottle. Sure, you get warned about colic and lack of sleep or even breastfeeding trouble, but nobody ever mentions that a baby could hate bottles. I always thought that all the different bottle designs were more for the benefit of the parents (i.e. which bottle the parents chose to use), not because babies are so picky and have preferences for how they eat.

We’re hoping to start her on rice cereal soon, so that way maybe I could just meet them once during the day instead of twice. Let’s hope we have better success with sippy cups, because eventually this girl is going to have to learn to eat/ drink on her own.

All that being said, I do enjoy breastfeeding and I’m very thankful that have the ability to see her several times during my work day. I’m thankful I live close to work and that my managers are flexible enough to allow this to happen. I’m also thankful I don’t have to deal with pumping and cleaning pump parts and bottles. I’m also going through an approval process to donate most of my frozen milk stash to babies in need, so I’m happy that someone will hopefully be able to benefit from it.

Play/ Milestones: Playtime is fun these days. One of Matilda’s favorite things to do is to smile and chat with you. Heck, she’ll even babble to herself if nobody is around to listen. We’ve also heard plenty of happy squeals and a few giggles (even though those are hard to get out of her!)

While she’s shown no interest in rolling yet, we still practice tummy time to help build those back and neck muscles. She loves to sit up supported, and if she’s leaning back or lying down she’ll try to do baby sit-ups to get in a sitting position.

Jason built a toy bar and Matilda loves to bat and grab the toys. I think her favorite toys are still the taggy blanket I made her last month, along with her green O’Ball rattle. About a week or so ago she discovered her feet and loves to grab onto them, especially her right foot.

She also enjoys being sung to. Jason plays children’s music on Pandora during the day, and sometimes singing to her is the easiest way to get her to stop fussing. Maybe she’ll have more musical talent than Jason and I.

Hip Dysplasia/ Leg Update: Not too much to report here.  We're just in a holding pattern until her surgery next week.  I give this first surgery a 50/50 chance of working.  It would be great if it works so we don't have to go through it again in 4-5 months, but if it doesn't we'll just enjoy her squishy legs for a bit longer.  She really loves being somewhat mobile and playing with her legs, so it's going to be a hard adjustment.  But, I know it's better to get her leg re-located sooner rather than later so the socket has more time to form correctly.  Wish us luck!