Abigail: 4 Months Old – Trav and Erin + 3

Abigail turned 4 months old on December 16th…hard to believe! She is such a sweet thing and definitely becoming more aware of her surroundings. We are thankful she’s part of our family!

Abigail had her 4 month checkup on December 19th, and it proved what we all know: she’s growing! She weighed 10 pounds 3 oz and was 23.3 inches long. She got closer to being on the growth chart for weight and head circumference and was actually ON THE CHART for height at 10th percentile. Whoop whoop! :) Her adjusted percentiles (for her due date) are 75th in height, 50th in head circumference, and 15-20th in weight. She is pretty long and lean but does have a few fat rolls on her thighs ;)

Abigail is nursing about every 3 to 3.5 hours during the day and doing great with it. We haven’t used a bottle since she started nursing every day, which has been wonderful! There is usually a lot of background noise and chaos going on while she’s eating (wonder why??), but she doesn’t usually let that bother her.

Overall, Abigail is starting to sleep better at night, but she’s not very consistent with how long she’ll sleep at a time. Some nights she will sleep 6-7 hours without waking up to eat, and other nights she wakes up after 3.5 to 4 hours. I never really know what to expect. Once she gets a little bigger, I may try to just put her paci back in when she wakes up crying, but for now I figure she needs the extra calories since she’s still pretty small :) We are still swaddling her for naps and at night, and she is sleeping pretty much solely in the Rock n’ Play we borrowed. I’m hopefully going to transition her to her crib soon…at least that’s the plan! She generally goes to sleep without too much of a fuss as long as she has her paci and is swaddled, although I occasionally will rock her to sleep if she’s overtired. That’s about the only time she gets really upset and cries hard…when she’s been awake for too long. Since she is our last baby, I’m trying to enjoy the times of rocking her to sleep and not get too frustrated that she’s still not sleeping through the night on a regular basis. I know she’ll be big before I know it!

During the day, she generally will stay awake for about an hour after eating before it seems like she’s getting tired and ready for a nap. If we are out and about, she doesn’t always nap very well, so sometimes she’ll stay awake for a couple of hours at a time before finally falling asleep.

Abigail is definitely smiling and cooing a lot more than she was last month. When we hold her and make eye contact, she will talk and squeal, and it’s so cute. We thought she giggled for the first time on December 3rd at Paw and Rae Rae’s house, but that’s the only time it’s happened, so it may not have been a real giggle. I’m sure those will be coming soon though! It seems like she is starting to notice more things like the ceiling fan when it’s spinning or the TV if it’s on. She is also starting to like the lights on her activity mat. Her head control continues to improve, and she is even able to lift her head up off the floor a couple of inches during tummy time. I have also noticed her chewing on her hands from time to time lately :)

Abigail got sick for the first time this month when she got RSV. She got sick right after Brooklyn and Savannah had been coughing/sneezing, so I’m pretty sure she caught what they had. The other girls never got sick at such a young age…it was the most pitiful thing! She coughed and sneezed and was really congested for probably 4-5 days before things got better. She could barely cry she was so hoarse, and nursing was really difficult because she couldn’t breathe well. I think she must have lost a little weight that week because she didn’t feel like eating very much. It was so sad! I was really thankful when she turned the corner and started feeling better. She also had a pretty bad case of cradle cap this month, but Dr. Dudley prescribed some scalp oil for us to put on it twice a day for a month, and that has really helped.

Abigail is generally a pretty happy and content baby. She enjoys being held but also doesn’t mind lying on her activity mat or sitting in her bouncer seat. I guess the third kid has to be pretty flexible, right? She enjoys taking baths and does okay riding in the car. Sometimes she’ll cry when she’s in her car seat, but not always. Just depends, I guess :) Thankfully, her cry isn’t quite as ear-piercing as Savannah’s was, so it’s a little more tolerable to listen to on long car rides.

Abigail is still wearing size 1 diapers and is fitting into 0-3 month and some 3 month clothes. They fit pretty well in the length (most of the time) but still have a lot of room for that tummy to grow :) The smallest socks we have are finally starting to fit her feet, but I’ve never tried shoes on her, so I’m not sure if she’d fit into size 1 shoes yet or not. Her eyes are still dark, and I’m pretty sure they are brown at this point. She still mainly has a curtain of hair around the back of her head, but I’m sure it will start filling in over the next several months. Sometimes Abigail looks a little like Brooklyn to me, but mostly I feel like she looks like her daddy. It will be interesting to see how that changes as she grows!