Today at Raven’s doctor appointment, the pediatrician remarked that the 4-month checkup was probably his favorite of all the checkups because the babies are interactive, they don’t fear him yet (ha ha), and they’re really starting to show off their personalities.
Amen to that!
Having a 4-month-old is definitely a lot of fun.
Quick Stats
Height: 25″ (75th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs., 11 ounces (50th percentile)
Head Circumference: 15.75″ (25th percentile)
Clothing Size: 3-6 month sizes in everything
- Grabs her feet and toes
- Reaches for and holds onto toys, blankets, Mom’s hair…pretty much whatever is in her immediate line of vision and/or within easy reach
- Can sit up unassisted for a few seconds (can sit up assisted easily)
- Arches back and scoots around when put flat on her back
- Has full vision now instead of just the 12-18″ that babies can see at first (because she’ll smile at us when we smile at her across the room)
- Shrieks with delight
- Can almost fit her whole fist in her mouth (an important skill, indeed)
- Sleeps regularly for 12 hours (!) at night
- Got the clearance from the doc today to start on solids, so we’ll be doing that first thing tomorrow!
- And just today (at 4 months, 6 days), she rolled over from back to front, meaning that she can now roll both ways. We’re in for it now!
What I Love About This Stage
I feel like Raven is learning a new “trick” just about every day–her progression is going at a much more noticeable rate, and she is seriously almost all smiles, all the time. We’re in a loose schedule now, which allows me to plan my days a lot better and get a lot more done for myself because I know what to expect. I also find it easier to take her places now because I can predict her behavior much more easily.
I also love that while she’s so interactive, she’s also getting better at independent play and exploration. Near the beginning of her life, she seemed to want us in her sight all the time (even better if we were holding her), but now she’s pretty content for decently long stretches of time to practice rolling over, chew on toys, or try to get her feet into her mouth (which she hasn’t accomplished yet, but I’m sure she’ll get there within a week or two). It’s a great balance right now between interaction and independence, which I really love.
Challenges
Because I think it’s important to note the hard(er) stuff as well, I’m adding this new section this month. Overall, Raven really is quite an easy baby, but the challenge of the month is definitely with the weaning process. She absolutely refuses to drink formula plain, so we’ve been mixing it with breast milk and trying to fiddle with the ratio so that she’s gradually getting a little bit more formula each time. It’s kind of working, but she’s still not happy about it. Part of the challenge was also because she’s also taken bottles pretty grudgingly from the beginning, so having to do about a third of her feedings (at this point) from a bottle has not been her favorite. We’re hoping that when she’s completely weaned in a couple weeks time that she’ll be much more used to the whole bottle-and-formula idea and not going on a hunger strike. Guess we’ll see.
Things I Don’t Want to Forget
- The THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of her legs hitting her mattress when she’s awake in the morning and trying to worm out of her blanket (which has recently been accompanied by the little *scratch, scratch, scratch* of her fingernails against the side of the pack ‘n play)
- The way she stopped crying immediately when I picked her up after getting her shots today at the doctor–she screamed while they were doing them, but the second she was in my arms, she stopped screaming and smiled
- How she’s started to show interest in books–we’ve been reading to her from the beginning, but she wasn’t very interested for the first several weeks, so reading was a bit sporadic. Now, we read to her daily, and she’s much more attentive and curious, even starting to reach her hands towards the pages to try and manipulate them
- Her smile first thing upon waking up and seeing that one of us is standing over her bed to “rescue” her. She really fights naps a lot of the time (although she goes down really easy at night), so getting rescued from her bed is pretty much her favorite thing ever, next to being nursed.
- The way she “dances” her fingers along my shirt while I nurse her, like she’s telling a little story with her hands.
- How she starts to babble ever more loudly the more tired she gets, culminating in a siren-like imitation. It’s not really fussing—it’s just really loud jabbering, and it’s pretty much hilarious.
- She still tries to suck her thumb while she’s eating (whether from me or from the bottle), and it just kills me every time.
- How much she really seems to know me, and how I seem to be the one who is able to calm her instantly and (usually) know what she needs. I always wondered at how moms could do that, and the whole process has been much more intuitive than I thought it would be (much to my relief!).
- How she’s started to suck on her lower lip. It makes both Matt and me totally melt.
- Her discovery yesterday that one of the toys on her “pink playground” plays a song when you pull it down, which none of us knew about. Now she loves doing it.
- Her absolute fascination with our wall clock. Apparently, the second hand moving around is the funniest thing she’s ever seen because every time she looks up at it (which is very frequently), she shrieks with delight and starts to giggle. There have been many days when I have joked that it seems she is much more interested in the clock’s jokes than in mine.
And, because I’m one of “those” moms, here’s a bunch more picsbecause I just couldn’t narrow it down any more:
ANNND, the picture that will probably become my new screensaver:
Happy 4 months (last week, anyway), little Raven sweetie!
