A newborn no longer

Sweet Hadley,

You are coming in to your own more and more each day! Even though this post is really late, this picture was taken on your four month birthday. Taken between rushing around trying to take care of your sick brother and get your big sister to and front school. I definitely couldn’t say that your life is calm or that you are the center of our attention, but your life is definitely full of people who love you and lots of different experiences so that has to count for something!

This month you learned how to roll from your back to your tummy. You did it first on James’ birthday during your nap and screamed and screamed. I went and flipped you back over and you just proceeded to flip over again and scream. So I turned you over again and a few minutes later when you started screaming again, I looked on the monitor and you were back on your tummy! I ended up feeding your early because I couldn’t get you to calm down. Thankfully you mastered the art of sleeping on your tummy within a day or so and now flip over almost as soon as you get in bed.

At your four month appointment you weighed 11 pounds and 12 ounces (10%), were 24.5″ tall (50%), and your head was 16″ (45%). These stats are pretty consistent with your siblings. Even though you now seem huge to us compared to where you started, people are still surprised that you are so old given your smaller size when we’re out and about. We think you’re just perfect the exact way that you are!

You are wearing 3-6 month clothes and sometimes even 6 month outfits or sleepers. Some of the 3 month onesies that we’ve been using from near the start still fit but we’ve phased out some that were too small. You are wearing size two diapers (I’ve totally given up on cloth right now) and are eating (were eating at 4 months) six meals a day.  Your schedule is wake up around 4 am, eat and go back to sleep, are woken up at 7:30, eat, nap from 8:30-11, eat, nap from 12:30-2:30, eat, nap from 4-5:30, eat, nap from 7-8, eat, go to bed.

You are getting better at sitting supported in your Bumbo and we introduced the activity bouncer/saucer this month which you really like. You prefer to just chew on the hard plastic pieces that you can reach but sometimes play with the beads and roll the rattles around also. You are about as big as your bouncer right now but still enjoy it when you’re strapped in and can’t go anywhere.

You drool all the time and constantly have your hands in your mouth. We thought you might be getting a tooth but your doctor says that there’s no sign of that. You go some days without spitting up and then will spit up constantly for a few. Your reflux dose got upped due to your weight gain and we really think that it’s making a big difference and making you feel so much better. You still don’t really like it though which is a bummer and makes morning’s when we’re trying to get out the door to school a little crazy.

You love to smile and squeal at us when we’re silly and, believe me, you’ve got plenty of silly situations to work with. Your sister and brother are still smitten with you and always have to give you a kiss and tell you good night when you go to sleep. It sometimes sounds like you say “Hi” back to us but I know that’s just you vocalizing. You have blown raspberries a few times but, like me, seem to have a hard time doing it every time you try.

We love that you’re getting more active and more interactive sweet little girl. Our whole family loves you so much and are so thankful that God placed you in our lives. Don’t ever doubt that you are surrounding by people who wholeheartedly love you!

I love you, every second, of every minute, of every day.

Mommy