We kind of missed month three (oops!). But as I recall, I felt at that time she was a lot the same as month two except bigger and a little stronger.
Now at four months she has really changed! She smiles and giggles and plays little games. She still stares in awe when someone or something new comes along, but for the most part she reacts to everything! She stopped babbling temporarily and has instead chosen to communicate her thoughts through high pitched squeals. She isn't necessarily happy or excited when she squeals. She just discovered one day a week or two ago that she could make a funny noise with her voice that made her two favorite people laugh. Ahhh.
We're working on sitting up and pushing up onto her hands for tummy time. Just in the last week she's started sitting straighter in her bumbo seat. She still doesn't roll over regularly. I can tell she's getting over the surprise of it though.
She is still being nursed full-time. While nursing, she enjoys stretching her top arm and whacking me in the face with it.
Since doing a bit of sleep training a couple weeks ago, she sucks her thumb much more. She also has discovered her new favorite chew toy, my hair! She likes to grab a fist full of hair and then suck on her thumb with the hair.
I must have great tasting conditioner! Sleep training has also made bedtime 20 minutes shorter and much happier. If she cries, it's only for about 5 minutes. We're still working on self-soothing for nap times, but it's definitely better! I no longer spend 15-20 minutes rocking her every time she sleeps, unless I want to. It had gotten to the point where she would only go to sleep in my arms, holding a fist-full of hair, and nuzzled into my neck, arm pit, elbow, or cleavage. Now she snuggles for a few minutes and then goes into her crib.
She stopped sleeping all the way through the night, and I don't know if she's actually hungry at night or not. We wake up usually only once, eat then sleep again until 6:30am. It's really not too terrible.
The rest of her schedule only changes slightly every day. She wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30am. Then she eats and goes to sleep again in an hour and a half to two hours all day long. She usually takes 3 naps. The first two had been only 50 minutes, but I recently learned that she would probably sleep another hour if I just let her cry. Today I just picked her up and held her for 5 minutes and she slept another hour and 15 minutes! The last nap is usually about 30-40 minutes at about 5 pm. Every other day we go on a walk around the neighborhood at 4pm and she falls asleep right before we get home. Then from 6-7p we are taking a bath, reading stories, and generally calming down for bed time. She's been falling asleep about 6:45p. Peter said it feels like a date every night because it's like we're escaping from the baby. Hehe!
Her feet are still fairly small. They aren't chubby like the rest of her. She doesn't quite fit into size one shoes which are supposed to be 3-6 months. I can pinch the toe of the shoe while she wears them. But the rest of her is squeezably and deliciously chubby!
She very comfortably wears 6 month clothes and will likely be transitioning into 9 month clothes within the next month. At her pediatrician visit on Wednesday, December 7, she weighed exactly 16 lbs and was 25 inches tall.
We won't be starting solid foods for at least another month to give her eczema more time to clear up. We don't want to confuse an allergic reaction with that. Her eczema is looking much better. The doctor thinks it is just a temporary baby thing induced by drool. My mom called it "acid spit"!
She has ticklish ribs and likes to play peek-a-boo. I read to her every day, but she's not terribly interested. She also doesn't care to watch tv. She'll look over occasionally but quickly gets bored and squirms away. She laughs a lot when she's tired, but not yet overtired. She doesn't spit-up or drool a ton. She also doesn't cry all the time. She can get whiney though! She also loves to stare at this musical turtle that lights up.
She's stopped crying every time we get in the car. I think it's because we got a mirror for her with dangling animals to look at. She loves to stare at it!
That's about all there is to know about Claire right now. I'm sure I'll get around to posting more later. Being a mom is demanding stuff!
oh my gosh she is adorable!! Second cutest baby girl ever (I'm a little biased toward mine!) And I am insanely jealous of how chunky she is! Abigail has never, ever, been a chunky baby. Glad to see you all are doing well!
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