Another month has passed and little lady turned 4 months old! Acelyn continues to learn new things and grow both physically and in her personality, and we're loving it all! She continues to be our sweet little love, and absolutely loves to chat to anyone and anything. She has her "set times" during the day (usually during lunch time and most times before she's about to sleep) when she gabs and gabs, coos and gurgles, and basically makes any loud, screeching noise she can for a good ten-fifteen minutes, at least! She has learned to scream recently, and will let an intense, loud one out, pause, smile, and then do it again. We're working on rolling, as she can roll to her sides, but still hasn't made it over by herself, yet. I think she's smart enough to know that we will help her, because she doesn't seem too much in a hurry to do it herself! You can see her learning as she practices these things, and we enjoy watching her develop these fun skills!
She loves to make eye contact and gives you a huge smile when she does. Her smile is so gummy and when she's really excited, she scrunches up her nose, which kills me every time. It is theeee cutest thing! We've discovered the things that are guaranteed to give us some grins, like eating her toes, playing peek-a-boo, fake laughing, and saying, "Hiiiiiiiii"! Her brother can no-fail make her smile and laugh unlike anyone else, and she lights up when she is around him. She is constantly looking for him and always wants to be watching what he does. I know this is just the beginning of her obsession with him, and luckily for now, he's totally cashing in on it and loving every second of the attention!
She is most always in a good mood, except when she is tired. We've had a few instances this past month of being out too long, and Acelyn will let out the scariest wails and howls because she is just so mad that she isn't sleeping! The first time we experienced it, she was so upset and crying so hard, that I pulled the car over while on our drive home to see what the heck was wrong with her! I pulled her out of her carseat, looking for something that was pinching her, scratching her, something that was making her upset... and the second I took her out, she nestled into my arms, stopped crying and wanted to snooze. She's done this a couple of times, and each one makes my heart break because she gets SO worked up. She has definitely found her voice (scream) and temper, but luckily it's only on few occasions!
She loves spending time in her exersaucer and most recently, her jumper, and I still can't believe we're already teaching her how to use these things! She's still a fan of her hands and is always gnawing on them, and if she has a toy, that is instantly in her mouth, too. She's grown fond of her Nuby Peacock teether and we bring it with us everywhere. She's getting great at holding things on her own and can also reach for items when she's on her belly, in her exersaucer/jumper, or sitting in her highchair or Sit-Me-Up.
Here's what else Acelyn has been up to this month:
Height, Weight and Sizes:
Acelyn clocked in at her four month well check at 12 pounds, 14 ounces (21st percentile). She is so tall, at 25.5 inches (78th percentile), that her doctor (a new doctor in the group, this time) was a little alerted by the difference between her height and weight ratio. She advised me to return to waking Acelyn during the night, since she recently has started sleeping through, to give her a little extra dream feed to add some calories. Of course, this freaked me out a little, but I'm convinced our old doctor probably wouldn't have thought twice about her weight since she is remaining on the same exact growth curve (steady in the 20 percents) that she's been on since she was born. We're taking it with a grain of salt, waking her to feed for now, but not super worried! Her head is still measuring super tiny at 15 inches (5th percentile), and has a small flat segment that we'll continue to watch. We don't mind helmeting her, if we have to, but also know her spot is much less drastic than Nolan's was, so we plan to visit our orthotist to get their opinion in the next couple of months.
Acelyn is mostly wearing 3-6 size onesies, dresses, rompers and bottoms. I just pulled out her 6+ month clothes to incorporate into her closet and dresser... crazy! She just started wearing some 6 month onesies that I was surprised fit her well. Her pajamas are all 6 months, since she's such a long girl, and fit perfectly. She is still in size 2 diapers and has a growing bow collection!
Feeding:
Acelyn continues to exclusively breastfeed, which makes our trials of trying out bottles scarce since there's rarely a moment that we need to bottle feed her; it's just so convenient right off the tap! I'll be eating my words again when we need to give her a bottle, so I really need to be better about practicing with one for her. She has also become aware of her surroundings and often is off and back on with her latch while nursing; she doesn't want to miss a thing! I love that she will pause while nursing and take a glance up to make sure I'm watching her, smile, and go right back to eating away. She is eating about every 3-3.5 hours during the day, and was recently sleeping through the night (11:30PM-7AM), until our doctor had us switch the routine to wake to dreamfeed, so we'll try that out for a bit to see if it helps with some weight gain. I can't believe we'll be introducing cereal and oatmeal next! I'm sure we will be trying that out in the weeks to come.
Sleeping:
Acelyn is the complete opposite of her big brother when it comes to sleep habits and necessities. Nolan absolutely loved (and still does) his sleep, and often took 2 hour naps as a baby, was very consistent and thrived on a schedule from an early age. Acelyn, whether it's her personality or just the pure luck of being the second born, fluctuates much more randomly with sleep, and can often survive off of a few catnaps in the morning and one longer nap in the afternoon, and sometimes staying awake in the evening for 3-4 hours until bedtime.
Acelyn usually has no problem falling asleep on her own when we're out or in the car, but needs a little extra love at home, because she fights it so much! I've never seen a baby fight sleep like her, and although she doesn't cry when she's fighting it, she does everything in her power to keep herself awake- paci in and out, talking, cooing, flaring her arms, kicking her legs, rubbing her head back and forth. We've gotten into rocking her in the rocking chair, swaddling her bottom half and providing the same soothing sounds and music for her naps and nighttime, which we did for Nolan and didn't have too hard of a time breaking those habits, so I'm hoping it will be the same for her when the time comes!
Likes:
-big brother Nolan, is always looking for him and lights up when she sees him
-bathtime
-Peacock teether
-laughing in response to you fake laughing
-talking, screaming and screeching
-facing forward in the Ergo
-grabbing her feet and eating her toes
-sitting in the highchair
-"flying" in the air above our heads, still one of her favorite things to do
-grabbing everything she can
-watching TV, her favorites are Doc McStuffins, Daniel Tiger and football games
Dislikes:
-carseat
-being overtired
-getting kissed (licked) by Harley
-pacifiers... she's hit or miss with her Soothie now!
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