4 Months

My baby girl is 4 months old. Geezum peetes. As for the stats - she's a giant at 15lbs 7oz, 25 1/2 inches long. She was in the 90th percentile in all of her measurements.

I think this may have been my worst month ever for blog posts, but to be honest the only time I have to sit and type is when Kaycie's asleep, and for the past month I've spent every minute of her nap time face first on the nearest horizontal surface.

This hasn't been the easiest four weeks. I learned the term "4th Month Sleep Regression" recently. My sweet girl who slept 10-12 hours a night from weeks 6 - 12 has slowly deteriorated her sleep habits until she wakes up approximately every 2-3 hours and then wants to play for a couple of hours. At 1am. Oh I don't think so. I miss those six blissful weeks of sleep. This past weekend I had to call in reinforcements. My sweet mother-in-law came and took care of Kaycie for a few hours so I could go crash. Greg was sick and I hadn't slept more than a couple of hours in a row in two days. It was bad. Her 30 minute naps are now one and half to two hours. If I wake her up early she just wants to nap again sooner. She's about to make her mama coo coo for cocoa puffs. Thankfully the past two nights have been muuuuch better. And today she developed an ear infection so that she screams every time I lay her down for any reason. Somebody shoot me.

BUT, in good news, I suspect part of the problem this past weekend was a growth spurt, because by Sunday she could wear all those 3-6 month clothes that were too big last Friday. I'm doing the happy dance and half a dozen loads of laundry to refill her closet with new cuteness.

We made our first sick visit to the doc this month. I was afraid she had caught the ickies I had the week before. When I talked to the nurse she was afraid she'd caught RSV. Turns out she caught her daddy's DNA. My poor sweet girl is suffering from seasonal allergies and is already on her first decongestant (which keeps her from going to sleep well) and now has the previously mentioned ear infection. I went ahead and bought an automatic nasal aspirator. Seemed like a good investment.

Kaycie is such a big girl now that she has an aversion to sitting. She wants to stand. I broke out the play saucer this week to give my poor arms a break from holding her up. And my legs a break from being stomped on. She's got some powerful little legs, and they can't be still. She seems to love the saucer, especially if I put other toys within reach that she can pick up and lick.

In a really, really, really bad development this month, Kaycie has developed a serious issue with people. And by people I mostly mean her grandparents. She'll give both grandma's bad face if they try to hold her, but she'll get over it usually in a few minutes. The grandpa's haven't had it so easy. She's terrified of both of them. She can look at them from across the room and start crying. The only way they can hold her is if she's facing outward so that she can't see who has her. It's killing them both. Doc said she has never seen stranger anxiety this early before and the best medicine is more exposure to the people freaking her out. She has to grow out of this soon. She has to. I can live without sleeping for a while, but I can't live with her being afraid of grandparents!

She's also becoming a lot more cognitive. Her hands are fascinating to her, and she will stare at them in amazement. She looks for her daddy when he leaves the room. She'll watch the pup when he's roaming around. The baby that lives in the mirror is endlessly entertaining for her, and it follows her from room to room and even to grandparents' houses. She'll play by herself on her play mat or in her crib for half an hour or more now, just looking at things or licking her feet.

Did I mention she likes to lick things? Anything within reach get slimed. I swear her tongue spends more time out of her mouth than in it. Just a warning to anybody who might want to pick her up...

The next month should be fun. BFF Lauren will be here in a couple of weeks to spend some quality time with us. Or rather, with Kaycie, because I'm pretty sure I don't matter anymore! Hopefully Kaycie'll get to meet her new baby cousin who is getting stronger every day and should be going home from the NICU in a few weeks. April will bring even more adventure, as she makes her first beach trip AND attends her first wedding, all in the same week!