Oh what changes month 4 brought! Lucy continues to amaze me, surprise me and keep me on my toes. This month unfortunately has been full of a lot of tears... but also some laughter, smiles and drooly kisses. Not sure what changed, but my once quiet baby has now found her voice! Ben and I both agree that this month Lucy has cried more than the first three months combined... I thought things were supposed to only get easier!?!? This month, Lucy consistently crys after nursing, when getting her diaper changed, when putting her in her car seat and when going down to sleep. Part of me wonders if teeth may be causing this change? But I'm not totally sure... she's got all the signs - drooling, biting on things, fussiness... and most seasoned mothers swear she's teething, but who knows - I'll believe it when I see some pearly whites in her now gummy grin.
In addition to the crying we've been on a bit of a sleep rollercoaster, going from Lucy not making a peep over an 11 hour night time stretch (yay!) to Lucy waking every hour crying throughout the night. This constant waking led me to do some hardcore research on whether to give the paci up as I realized that Lucy is a great sleeper, she's just got a major sleep addiction, I think I'd call her a paci-aholic. She loves that thing! I polled other moms, read books, looked up information on the internet (I swear I spent more time on this decision than deciding where to go to college) and finally decided it was time to throw the paci out. Of course, as soon as I made that decision, the night crying stopped and the Lucy started sleeping through the night.... so not sure who won this battle, but for now, the paci is going to continue to stay at the Wehner household. Currently, Lucy tends to wake 0-2 times a night, needing a paci pop, which doesn't seem too bad for now!
As I mentioned Lucy is a great sleeper, she typically sleeps for 4-5 hours broken up over 3 naps throughout the day and gets 10-11 hours at night. She typically goes to bed between 8 and 9pm and wakes like clockwork every morning at 7:30am. While I love all the time this nap schedule gives me during the day, it's kind of crazy because Lucy tends to really only be awake for 1.5-2 hours between naps, with part of that time being nursing/diaper changing. This, of course, only leaves me small windows to make it to the store, run errands, go to lunch, etc. So I've found myself spending a lot more time at the house this month as I want Lucy to get good long naps in her crib at home (she doesn't fall asleep as easily as she used to in her car seat).
Naps have also brought some struggles though... some naps Lucy lays down without a peep, other naps she crys for 30-45 minutes, while I go in every 3, 5, 10 minutes to check on her and put her paci back in (even as I write this the little munchkin has been screaming in the other room for about 50 minutes now... I may start slowly pulling out my hair if it doesn't stop soon!!!)
Other changes this month - as I mentioned in previous posts, Lucy is on the move. She is constantly working to get to toys that are out of reach and pushing up on all fours - but hasn't quite figured out how to move forward yet. She does scoot backwards, but I'm pretty sure that's only by accident while trying to figure out how to get forward.
Despite all the crying at the above mentioned times, she is overall the rest of the time an extremely happy baby - she continually smiles, and people always comment on what a great temperament she has and how lucky I am... which of course I know I am. I have gotten Lucy to laugh more this month, even though it's usually only once every couple days, but none the less, hearing that deep belly chuckle from her makes me crack up every time.
Lucy likes to scream a lot - I'm looking forward to the day when those screams turn into mama's and dada's, but for now Lucy let's us know she's got a voice by letting out a raspy scream every once in a while. She also enjoys making a wet razzing sound this month and scrunching up her nose and breathing heavily in and out of her nose (both new, funny discoveries this month!)
Another amazing thing that happened this month - Lucy started nursing in under 10 minutes. My once 45 minute eater, now is super speedy! I even wondered for a while if she was even getting enough. I have come to like nursing her a lot more with this change and have found it's much easier to go places and feed Lucy knowing I'm not going to be camped out in one place for 45 minutes at a time. She is eating 5 times a day now, going anywhere from 3-4 hours between feedings.
Stats: No doctor appt this week, but I think Lucy is around 15-15.2 pounds
And now it's time for my 5 month photoshoot...
Notice the drool...
I am still working on being a lady when I wear dresses...
Reaching for everything these days! Even the camera...
To the untrained eye, it may look like I am bald... but I actually made a lot of progress in the hair department this month...
I typically like to keep one or both of my arms up in the air... it helps me with balance, and I may make an attempt to fly some day
