Scarlett :: 4 months!

Can't believe this little one is 4 months old! It feels like she's been with us for way longer and yet, she's still just our little baby girl! She's changed so much since her birthday back on January 20th! We haven't had her official 4 month appointment yet, so these are approximates until then when I'll update this with the real stats.

Stats (approx)

Weight: 18 lbs (7 lb 5 oz at birth)
Length- 27" (20.5" at birth)

Update: Real Stats at 4.5 months old
Weight: 17 lbs 1 oz
Length: 25 3/4"

Details
Eating: She still eats every two hours during the day, about 4 oz or so at a time. And wakes up once or twice at night to eat. Not much has changed in this area. We're going to delay introducing solids to her for the time being. We will re-evaluate this at 5 months.

Sleeping: She is a little cat napper! When put down to nap, she won't sleep longer than 40 minutes but her norm is about 20. She does, however, sleep for over an hour if someone is holding her. This means she takes about 5-6 naps a day. She's relatively consistent. She always takes a morning nap about an hour or so after she wakes up followed by an early afternoon nap around 11 or 12, another afternoon nap around 2, another around 4 and then another around 6. She then goes to bed around 8pm. In month three until month four she had been waking up twice a night, maybe 3 or 4 times during that month she would only wake up once. Now that she's four months, she is starting to be more consistent with only waking once but I am still up another time to put her pacifier in so that she'll go back to sleep. But it's progress! Like I said, she goes to bed around 8pm and usually sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00am. She sleeps on her tummy like she has been for a couple months now, this helps her to not startle herself out of sleep but transferring her from arms to crib can be challenging!

Activity/Skills: Whew, she made some big leaps in month three. She started sitting in her bumbo and at first she was a little slouchy but now is a pro! She rolled over for the first time while I was in the shower but now consistently rolls from her back to her tummy. She hasn't mastered from tummy to back yet, but that's actually a good thing, I don't need her knowing how to roll all over her crib just yet! She props herself up well on her arms when doing tummy time and loves to grab at her toys and shove them into her mouth. Sometimes her aim is off but she keeps working at it! If we put her on one end of the activity mat with a toy she wants on the other end she will get there. She scoots and trys to get her knees under her body so I'm sure this is the beginning stages for crawling. She is a mover and a shaker! My parents gave us a little car that she can sit in and push around with her feet. She loves it! She scoots all around in that thing! She is definitely not a sit still for long kind of girl which will surely make her toddler years fun (and probably tiring). She likes to sit in our dining room and look out at the backyard and she likes to take walks around the backyard and around the neighborhood in her stroller! She is a very smiley little girl and she likes to laugh. She follows us around when she's sitting still and we're moving around the room. She definitely knows who her mommy and daddy are when she's in a group of people which melts our hearts. It feels like she's growing up so fast because she can do all of these new things in such a short amount of time! Soon, we will start teaching her baby sign language, which she won't be able to sign back right away but will know what they mean when we do them. Then once she perfects her fine motor skills, she'll be able to sign back at us! How cool is that!?

Other: Let's see, what else. She will get some shots at her upcoming appointment, and we're not really looking forward to those but we gotta do what we gotta do. I'm looking to buy a glider if anyone has one for sale? I used one this past weekend at Alex's Aunt's house in Richmond and it was awesome! Our rocking chair is good but it can't hurt to have both, right? :) We're headed to the beach soon for Scarlett's first beach trip and we already know she loves the bath so she'll love pools and swimming and hopefully the beach and the water! This summer is going to be a fun one!

Scarlett, you are a beautiful and fun little girl. We love you so much and it just keeps growing every day. You honestly don't know how much love your heart can hold until you have a child. Our hearts are practically bursting at the seams daily. We savor the little moments we have with you as a little family of three. You're the best thing we've ever done and we can't wait to guide you through life and see where it takes you! ♥

Scarlett :: 3 Months!

Friday was Scarlett's 3 months of life anniversary! She is growing and changing daily and it's so exciting to watch!

Stats (approx)
Weight- 16 lbs (7 lbs 5 oz at birth)
Length- 25" (20.5" at birth)

Details 
Eating- She is still a little piglet in this category. She eats about 4oz give or take every 2 hours or so. It still feels like I'm nursing her all the time when I'm home but that's probably normal. She still spits up a decent amount, in fact this morning she projectiled 3 times in a row and basically emptied her tummy of everything she had just ate.. Tmi?

Sleeping- She takes her first nap about an hour after waking. How long this nap lasts is anyone's guess. As I type she has been sleeping for about 50 minutes and it's probably bc I have her sound sheep on. Her 2nd nap isn't as predictable but it's usually around noon. She takes a 3rd nap around 3 or 4 depending on the days activities and she takes a cat nap in the evening around 6 sometimes. We try to put her to bed at 8:30.. So we start the routine around 8. Sometimes she doesn't go down until 9.. It's not an exact science. She wakes twice to eat at night. This ranges from evening to evening. Her longest stretch ever is 5.5 hrs.

Activity/Skills- She constantly sucks on her hands. We just know she's going to be a 'taste everything' child. This will probably include dirt and maybe sand. I'll do my best to block it but no promises can be made. She loves laying on her activity mat in the morning watching the lights and listening to the music, that's usually when we have the radio on as well. On the mat is also where she does some talking and laughing. She'll lay there for a good 10 min by herself which lets me get things done around the house quick or make breakfast. She's in 3-6 month clothing now so there's lots of new fun outfits to wear. The changing table is her favorite place to be next to the bath, so changing her clothing is a good time! She really enjoys carrying on a conversation with cooing and it's the cutest thing to see. Her smiles and giggles melt my heart every time!

Enjoy her most recent pictures below! :)

Previous Posts:

1 Month

2 Months

Scarlett :: 2 Months

Stats
Length- 24.5" (20.5" at birth) 96th percentile
Weight- 12 lbs 13 oz (7 lbs 5oz at birth) 97th percentile

Details
Eating- She seems to be a bottomless pit! She still eats about every 2 hours during the day and about 3 times per night. While I'm at work she'll eat about 5 bottles, each at 3-4 oz. She did go through a growth spurt a couple weeks ago where she was (what felt like) constantly eating and getting fussy when she wasn't eating. She's a long and lean little blue eyed baby girl! I can't believe how much she weighs since she's not getting too chubby yet!

Sleeping- She sleeps like a dream for other people during the day when I'm at work. When I'm home and on weekends, she likes to sleep in my arms (or Alex's.. he's just better about putting her down). Some days it seems like she won't let me put her down at all for naps so I give in to holding her so she can get a couple hours of shut eye. I don't mind at all but hopefully having her crib in our room now will get us accustomed to laying her down in there for naps and for bed. Night time is still pretty unpredictable, some nights (mostly nights I let her sleep with me) she sleeps for up to 5.5 hours. Nights she's been in the bassinet have averaged about 3-4 hours at a time. Again, hopefully the crib in there will help. She was getting too long for the bassinet and the fact that she could touch the sides and kick the bottom wasn't helping her sleep.

Activity/Skills- She's getting so good at holding her head up while sitting (with support) and while we're walking/moving around with her. She's getting better and better at tummy time too, when she feels like doing it. She's been smiling and talking up a storm in the last week or so. She has certain periods where she's completely satisfied with life and will smile and chit chat for at least half an hour. Having her look right at us and smile is heart melting! She's also sucking on her hands a lot more which is hopefully helping her self-soothe. She still startles herself when she's sleeping which wakes her up, so hopefully she's going to grow out of that soon. Doesn't it sound irritating to be asleep so soundly only to be startled awake?

Other thoughts- The cloth diapers are still going well. I think this has helped us prevent blow-outs because sometimes she'd go a couple days without pooing, so when she did it was monstrous! Now she's back to normal. This month we started putting her in the swing from time to time and rocking on the rocking chair. She enjoys both things greatly and they help her fall asleep from time to time.

At her two month appointment she got two shots, one in each leg. She was quite fussy that evening and slept from about 6:30pm until the next morning (but waking up to eat of course). And now she's been pretty happy. I'm hoping that last night was the worst of it!

We feel so lucky to have a happy and healthy baby girl! She is an amazing little person!

See Scarlett's at 1 Month

Scarlett :: 1 Month

Guess who is 1 month old!

Big girl! Ignore the spit up on her pants, lol.

I was going to post this last friday when she turned 4 weeks but didn't have time this past weekend or even Monday the 20th when she actually was 1 month, so I took the pictures today! Still counts, right?

Stats
Length- 21 3/4" (20 1/2" at birth)
Weight- 10 lbs 3 oz  (7 lbs 5 oz at birth)

Details
Eating- This girl is a champion eater. Look at how much she's gained since birth! She eats on demand every 2-3 hours day and night. For all the issues we had breastfeeding in the beginning (see this post), she's basically a pro now. We've also gotten pretty good at using the hooter hider, I don't know what it's actually called, it's that thing you wear when you're in public so people can't see your boobs. Who would've thought that takes practice to use!

Sleeping- Scarlett does not really have much of a sleep schedule at this point. Which we are totally fine with. She does have more alert times during the day and not too many at night which is all the progress we can ask for at this point. We are trying to adjust one of her 'alert times' though to earlier in the evening instead of from 9pm - 12am at night. Most of the sleeping she's done in the past 4 weeks have been while being held. I looove holding her while she's sleeping. Alex has been soaking up his paternity leave by holding her as much as possible. I don't believe you can spoil a newborn with too much holding, so I do it every chance I get. She often sleeps on my chest or spooning at night in bed after feeding. I'm working on staying awake long enough to put her down in her bassinet but honestly, it's difficult when I fall asleep waiting. I'm a very very light sleeper, so I find no issue with this. Feel free to berate me in the comments section.

Activity/Skills- She's been holding her head up pretty good since Day 1. I joke that it's because I spent the last 6 weeks of her life in utero pushing on her head to make sure it was still her head. I'm pretty sure I strengthened her neck because most of the time she would push back! Regardless, she does great when we're holding her upright as you can see in some of the pictures. She is also working on tummy time and is getting better every day. She makes a lot more eye contact with us now as well. She definitely knows who mommy and daddy are! We haven't gotten any real smiles yet, just the fake ones, but we still enjoy those.

Other Thoughts-
Diapers.. We're doing cloth, yes we are! But we haven't officially started yet. Scarlett's little thighs are too thin still and the diaper is not tight enough not to leak. Last week we did a trial run and she ended up peeing through onto our comforter and sheets which I then proceeded to change at 3am. So we bought another pack of size 1 diapers. So far we've spent $100 on diapers. I hope this is our last pack we have to buy because the couple of cloth diapers I did get to use went awesome!

Exhaustion.. I don't want to make it sound like it's easy, but I don't find myself to be exhausted at this point. Is it because I get those small blocks of sleep at night and that's enough? I don't know. I just don't feel tired, at all. I hope this continues. This week Alex started back to work. Now I understand how difficult it is to get things done during the day when there aren't two people there to hold her.

Love.. We are totally in love with this little girl. She is amazing. We stare at her constantly and just can't get enough of her. We can't wait to see how she grows but at the same time we want to freeze these moments in time. I told Alex the other day that we need to really try to remember how great the first month of her life was and how awesome it was that we got to spend it all together.

Thank you to Amy and the rest of the Lewis and Carmichael family for the stickers and headbands!