Brooklyn: 4 Months Old – Trav and Erin + 3

I probably say this every month, but this has been the best month yet! We are starting to get into a little bit of a routine, which makes me (as a creature of habit) very happy :) On Tuesdays, I do laundry…Wednesdays are when we go to Publix…and I’m working on Fridays now. Brooklyn has learned several new things this month, which has been a lot of fun to see. I now understand why parents say that they don’t want their kids to grow up so fast…I look back at Brooklyn’s newborn pictures and am amazed at how big she is now compared to then!

Brooklyn won’t have her 4 month checkup until after we get back from the beach, but I’m thinking she is about 15 lbs and 25 inches long. *Update: At 4 months + 1.5 weeks, she was 15 lbs 7.5 oz (75th%) and 26 inches long (98th%)!! No wonder she is growing out of her clothes so fast! She is obviously still eating very well. She’s still nursing, so I’m assuming she must be getting a lot of milk at each feeding. She has gotten pretty good at going all night without waking up to eat, so she is down to eating about 6 times during a 24 hour period. She will usually want to eat about every 3-4 hours during the day. Her last feeding ends up being around 10 PM each night. Then, we all go to bed!

Brooklyn is still a good sleeper overall! We had one week this month where she was waking up once in the middle of the night to eat, but I’m assuming that was just a growth spurt. I can usually count on her to sleep from about 10 or 10:30 PM to anywhere from 5 to 6:30 AM. Usually after she wakes up and eats, she sleeps in the bed with me and usually doesn’t wake up again until 8:30 or 9 AM. Her best night of sleep was just a few nights ago…she slept in her crib from 10:45 PM to 8:30 AM straight without waking up! Maybe that will start happening more often :) We are still able to put her in her crib awake at night, and she goes to sleep pretty quickly on her own.

Naps during the day have gotten much shorter this month. Brooklyn has turned into a cat napper I guess. She likes to take several short naps throughout the day of 30 to 45 minutes, and she will usually take at least one longer nap (1 1/2 to 2 hours) somewhere in there. She still isn’t napping in her crib, but that is mostly because I stopped trying to put her in there to nap. Her naps are usually on her activity mat, in her swing, or in my arms. She doesn’t nap on any schedule; I just let her fall asleep whenever she’s ready to. Sometimes, she even takes a nap right before bedtime and will still go to sleep…haha!

One of the best things that has happened this month is that Brooklyn started sucking her thumb. It might sound weird for me to say that, but she has just seemed so much more content ever since her mouth found that left thumb (it’s always the left!). She will just lie on her side on her activity mat or on a quilt and suck that thumb for forever. Before she became a thumb sucker, she would fuss after about 15 minutes and want to be picked up or walked around. It’s so funny to watch her find her thumb…she turns her head to her thumb instead of moving her thumb toward her mouth.

Another big development this month is that Brooklyn can now roll from her back to her stomach. It happened for the first time last week, and she hasn’t stopped since! The ironic thing is that she still hates tummy time, but when she rolls over…she’s pretty much forcing herself to do it! As a result, her neck strength has gotten much better just in the last week. She is starting to try to roll over to her back from her tummy but hasn’t quite been able to do it yet. Maybe sometime soon she’ll figure that out too!

I’ve also noticed that Brooklyn is noticing her hands. She likes to hold them together in front of her face and stare at them. She hasn’t started reaching for anything yet, but watch out if your hair gets into her grasp! She can pull pretty hard! She also likes to tug on her clothes (and mine too, when she gets the chance). I still don’t think she knows that she has feet, but I’m sure that will be fun when she finds out!

Not too long after she turned 3 months old, Brooklyn started giggling! Such a sweet sound! Unfortunately, she won’t do it very often, so I guess we’re not very funny. Maybe she’ll start giggling more often sometime soon.

Brooklyn has also started talking a lot more recently. She’s added some new sounds to her arsenal, and she can be pretty loud! She is usually the most talkative in the mornings.

We still haven’t seen that first tooth come in yet. I thought last month after she started drooling so much that she’d definitely have her first by now, but I guess I was wrong. The drooling is pretty much constant these days. Her shirt is always wet!

Brooklyn’s favorite things right now are sucking her thumb, “eating” her hands and shirts, taking baths, watching the ceiling fan spin, playing on her activity mat, lying on her changing table, kicking her legs, standing up (while we help her balance), listening to the singing at church, and watching TV (I think she is mesmerized by the bright colors changing). She still loves attention and loves it when you talk to her and make faces at her.

She dislikes getting dressed and undressed, drinking from a bottle, sitting still in someone’s lap, being rocked to sleep (she fights it!), and being on her tummy.

Brooklyn is still wearing size 2 diapers and mostly 3-6 month and 6 month clothes. It’s so sad to put away all of the clothes she can’t wear anymore. We’ve already filled up a big plastic tub of all of the stuff she’s outgrown. Hope we have another girl to wear it all one day! :)