4 Months Old!

Well, it's that time again. OK, technically, it was that time over a week ago - but, you already know about my inability to get things done on time. :-)

So, back on May 15th, our little girl reached FOUR MONTHS OLD! I cannot believe how fast time is flying by. Do I say that every time I do a monthly post about her? Well, it's true!

Here's a bullet-point style recap of what's happening at this stage:

• Riley loves to talk. No, really. I don't think you understand. SHE NEVER SHUTS UP. (Unless I get the camera out to videotape her, but I digress.) It's the cutest freakin' thing you've ever seen, though! There are no discernable words just yet, but she has the vowel sounds down pat! And squealing. And growling. And this weird inhaling-throaty-squeal-thing that had her Daddy convinced she was choking the first time he heard it. She is quite entertaining!




• She is finally able to grab onto things and really hold on. Intentionally! And most of said "things" go directly to her mouth.




• Speaking of her mouth, did you know my child can fit her entire fist in her mouth? Yeah, she rocks like that. And sometimes, she can even fit one fist PLUS part of the other hand.


• She is **THIS** close to rolling over. I expect it to happen any day now!


• We've been trying to get her to eat some rice cereal in the evenings. We put it in her bottle for a while, but didn't see any difference in the way she was sleeping at night. The doctor said to keep trying to feed it to her with a spoon. So, we do. For the most part, though, she doesn't love it yet. I think she just has NO idea what to do with it once it's in her mouth. The better her mood, the more she tolerates it, though.




• Speaking of night-time, she is still sleeping OK, but that's it. Just OK. Not exactly what I would call "sleeping through the night" just yet. She tends to fall asleep downstairs on the couch with us after her last bottle - we lay her on her boppy to rest and she falls asleep (around 8pm). Then we transfer her (still sleeping) to her bed. She usually stays asleep until about 4am, when she starts to get restless. Giving her the paci will usually calm her back down and then she'll sleep another hour or two. But not always. Sometimes, after the 4am paci retrieval, she wakes up wanting it back every 30 minutes. THOSE are long nights. So....the doctor says it's time for some "tough love." We are ready! I repeat, We are ready!! We just have to find a few good consecutive nights when we can focus on doing what we need to do to get her putting herself to sleep. Cross your fingers for us!!




• Fussiness--Our sweet Riley has what we have lovingly call "meltdowns." These usually happen when she is sleepy. She screams and cries and can usually only be calmed down by....you guessed it....me. I certainly never intended for that to happen, but it has. I'm really really really hoping she grows out of this phase soon!


• Doctor Stuff--We went to the doctor last week for her 4 month checkup. I'm happy to report that she got a fantastic report! She weighed in at 14 pounds, 6 ounces (75th percentile) and her length was 25 inches (also 75th percentile). Wow! I knew she was growing, but, Wow! She got another round of shots and she hated it. The first of the three shots was OK because I was letting her get her first taste of a sucker (Doctor's suggestion, I swear!), but that distraction didn't hold long before she started wailing. She calmed down pretty quickly, though, thank goodness!

Ok, I guess that's all I can think of for this month!

Here's her "Four Month Picture." I'm still doing videos too, but I can't find a good way to upload them on here. Maybe I'll work on that this summer.

And here is a picture that.....well......I just think is kind of hilarious!