It's amazing how time flies - Samantha is already 4 months old! She has started smiling all the time and she even giggles now. She especially thinks Calvin is hilarious and watches him walk all around. She smiles really big and opens her mouth when he sniffs her and laughs sometimes when he barks.
She had her 4 month check up at the doctor today and the admitting nurse, doctor, and vaccination nurse all commented on how happy and smiley she was. She only cried for 2 seconds after her getting her shots and even smiled at the nurse once I picked her up. She's pretty much always happy, except when she's tired or hungry.
Her eating has slowed a bit and we saw the results in her stats at the doctor's office: 13lb 8.6oz, just 47th percentile vs 81st percentile at 2 months; 24.5" tall, just 59th percentile vs 93rd percentile at 2 months. The doctor wasn't too concerned as many kids will grow really fast after birth and then slow down. But I'm worried because she's only eating about 20-25 ounces a day vs the recommended 25-40oz for her age. And just in the past few weeks, she's started refusing her evening feeding and going straight to sleep at 7 or 8pm after having not eaten anything since daycare (usually between 2:30-4pm), and she sleeps for at least 4 or 5 hours before she wakes up hungry. It seems like her "night" (i.e. the time between last feeding of the day and first feeding of the next day) has moved to ~4pm-2am instead of 8pm-6am. I can't seem to get her back on schedule for more than 1 day at a time. She's napping the same amount each day (about 4 hours)...I just don't get it.
Other than that, though, life is grand. She is so much fun to play with. She has started making a growl-like sound (it sounds sort of like static) and she anticipates incoming tickles with a smile and a giggle. She has mastered grabbing the animals on her bouncer and can pull the middle one, which plays music, over and over again. We also play "ride the pony" where she sits on my ankle and I raise her up and down over and over again while holding her hands. She smiles and giggles, and it is so precious.
I can't wait to see how her "school" photos came out - she just had professional photos done at daycare last week. She had a beautiful white dress to wear that my Mom had gotten her, but she had a blowout just as she was about to get strapped into the car seat. So she had to wear a beautiful green dress instead. I hear the pictures came out great, but I haven't seen them yet. Here are some of my photos from the past month, though.
The beautiful white dress, Samantha, and my Mom.
Bath Time
Oktoberfest outfit
Our daycare's Harvest Festival is coming up next Friday - all the kids get dressed up in costumes and have a parade (the infants get into the buggy and get wheeled around). It should be lots of fun and great for photos!
What an absolute doll she is!!! I can't wait to see her again.
ReplyDeleteAnd I remember Charlotte going through a 4-month sleep regression. I've read in a lot of places that it's pretty normal. I thought maybe it was the going back to work thing that screwed things up, but it also coincided with this time, so who knows? Samantha might be gearing up for some major developmental milestones or a growth spurt. Hopefully you can get her back to a schedule that works better for you!
She is soo cutie! I was thinking about you guys on the 19th and was wondering how you are all doing. It is very cute to think that Samantha took school pictures. You'll have to post them once you get them.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about her sleep issue, but from our experience and what I've read, you could try putting her to sleep earlier and seeing if it will somehow reset her sleeping. It seems like the opposite of what you'd want to do, but it worked for us. I thought that putting Amélie to sleep earlier would make her wake up earlier the next morning, but instead she's sleeping more at night.
We hope to see you all soon.
We've learned over time to just bring the "photo clothes" to school for the teachers to put on (and they actually like this approach). It's not a 100% guarantee, but it really helps the odds if you want a particular outfit for the shoot!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad she received a good bill of health! Good luck with the change in schedule.