4 months old!

Stats:
Weight: 11 lbs 12 oz (10th %)
Height: 23.25 in (20th %)
Head: 39.5 cm (15th %)
Loves:
Monkey rattle
Activity mat
Bouncy seat
TV (Yikes! Taking after mom and dad already... trying not to let her watch it yet)
Minky blanket
Eating
People singing to her
Hates:
Swing
Tummy time
Getting out of the bath
Being strapped into the carseat
Riding in the car
Being held for a long time (she's getting better, but is still not a cuddly baby- very independent!)
Cold hands

I chose to put loves and hates instead of likes and dislikes b/c Maddie is very opinionated. She is generally either very happy or very mad (or very sleepy which leads to very mad).


Time for a much overdue blog update. Today my little girl is 4 months old!!! I can't believe 4 months have already gone by...and at the same time, I feel like I've been a mom forever now. Maddie is really starting to interact with us a lot, which is so rewarding. And the colic seems to be starting to go away too, which makes Mom and Dad VERY happy! She still has her days, and by no means is a laid back baby, but she now has entire days without meltdown hours long screaming fests- so there's improvement :). She's even started enjoying sitting in her bouncer some, which is nice- still no luck with the swing though.

She is just the smiliest little girl in town in the mornings, and loves to smile almost as much as she loves to cry- sometimes doing both at the same time! She's on the verge of laughing, she's got the motions down and just needs to add the sound. She is grabbing toys with both hands and shoving everything she can in her mouth, which I think makes her look like a very grown up baby :). Tummy time is still quite hated in our house, so she doesn't have the strongest head or arms yet, but she's working on it.

At 3 months, breastfeeding was still very painful, so I decided to switch to exclusively pumping. Unfortunately, my supply doesn't quite match up with her demand while pumping, so we have had to supplement with formula more than I would like. But she is still getting mostly breastmilk, which is important to me, as much as I hate pumping! We will try breastfeeding again in a couple of weeks. If successful, I plan to nurse until she weans or 2 years, whichever comes first. If unsuccessful though, I will probably start weaning at 6 months when we start solids.

Maddie continues to be a great sleeper, hooray! We had a few weird weeks where she was wanting to go to bed at 5pm, and waking up 2-3 times a night after that, but for the past week has switched back to once a night again. She sleeps from about 9/10pm to 5/6am, and then goes back to sleep until 8-8:30. Not bad at all! She usually takes a long nap in the late morning and then a couple of shorter naps in the afternoon too.

I've recently joined a playgroup so Maddie can start socializing a bit (and me too!) now that she's more aware of her surroundings. Obviously she can't really play with other babies yet, but she loves to sit on my lap or lay on the floor and watch the older babies play. And it's always nice to spend some time out of the house where a crying fit doesn't mean we have to leave :).

I'm really going to try and update this thing more often, I'll aim for once a week. But as always, I am pretty good about putting pictures on her shutterfly site on a regular basis. That's it for now- Mom needs to eat some lunch before Maddie's morning nap is over!