4 Months and Counting

I may not be able to write daily, but seeing that I write another blog on Jackie's picture site, I thought I would just post that same one here with a few updates. Here's one I just wrote:

Jackie turned 4 months old November 29. When I was taking a walk with her the other day on a beautiful (and oddly warm) afternoon, I realized that a year ago I was pregnant. We had just found out and hadn't even told anyone yet! And now, here we are with a beautiful baby girl, who is growing, learning and exploring every day!


She received her 4 month shots this past Monday and it went better than expected. It seems that she knows what "the doctors" is as when her ped was doing the basic exam Jax was screaming. She actually screamed more during the exam than when she got the shots! Her ped even said, "she seems to be very aware of her surroundings." I totally agree with that, as with anything new, it looks like she is studying it and making mental notes.

I told Joe this evening, that although she may not remember small details, I do think she is remembering basic concepts and making connections.. such as when she has met one of our friends a number of times and recognizes her, or with this doctor example, when she lays down and sees a mirror to her left, she knows she's somewhere where unpleasant things may happen (such as shots, or being cold). It's pretty cool to watch although it does pain me when she is so upset.

On that note.. following up with her weight conundrum, it seems as though she has gained weight steadily since November 11 when I took her in for her weight check. We have been supplementing (either with expressed milk or formula) and she went from the 16th %tile to 21st %tile in a matter of a couple of weeks. Her ped was happy and acknowledged me for the result.

I also found out the possible reason for her weight stabilizing.. sleeping thru the night. It didn't even occur to me as she was gaining weight by exclusively breastfeeding from month 1 to 2, but right after that was when she started sleeping thru the night fairly regular. It would have been great for the first nurse that I spoke to at her peds office to tell me that she may be missing a feeding in there if she's sleeping thru and to make sure she's getting X ounces of milk during the day, but no one told me this until I met with her doc at the 4 month appointment. I happened to mention that she was sleeping thru the night and she said "already?" I said that she had been for the past month and a half or so and she said that maybe that was the issue.. if she was nursing the same amount of time and not being more efficient in her feeding, she was not getting enough ounces. Duh.

I then did some other research with a couple books I use often, and found the sleeping thru the night issue associated with slow weight gain. Joe reminded me that I had stopped reading books and getting advice around that time as it was all conflicting! I just wish I had gone back to my trusted 2 books that I have used since the beginning.. it would have saved me a lot of worry, heartache and upset over the past couple months. These are the things I hope to pass along to other moms and friends with new babies. I'd hate for someone to go thru the same things I have if it can be avoided. As an aside, it seems that most kids will wake 1-2 times per night until about 9 months. So why is it that everyone asks you if your kid is sleeping thru the night starting at about 2 months old???? I just don't get it.

But in the end, Jackie is thriving and doing well. She's laughing up a storm, is more involved with her playgym and just recently started sucking her toes! She's also rolling from back to front more now, although I think she has forgotten how to roll from front to back as she was doing just the other day! I think once she is able to put both of them together, we'll see her sitting up in no time.

Last, we are traveling to MN for the Christmas holiday and I'm trying not to stress about that as well. Right now, we're just trying to get everything in place on our end and also make sure we have an entire nursery set up at my in-laws place! It's so generous of her and for Joe's cousin to allow us to borrow so much stuff. It will be just like home :)

In other news, we just got our first real Christmas tree today and in all honesty we got it because of Jackie :) First real tree and first true snow fall today. I do have to say it was beautiful.