Four months old

You are now four months old! I can’t believe you are already 1/3rd of the way through your first year. At the doctor’s visit for your check-up you weighed 12 lbs. 8.5 oz. and were 24 inches long, so you’ve gained four pounds and 6 inches since birth! You are such a cuddly, round little thing. I took your footprint this month and it’s definitely larger than it was at birth.

Standing is still your main interest. You even want to stand in the car seat! Sometimes your legs get tired from all the standing (we still have to hold you under your arms or hold your hands to balance you) and you get upset that you can’t stand anymore.

You are also much more interested in toys; you even have a favorite one! It’s a cloth cube with a bell in it and crinkly fabric and rings. You’ll hold and mouth and stare at that thing for quite a while and even got upset once when we tried to take it away! Progress with your hands is continuing. We think you’re right-handed, because you always go for toys with your right hand. You just caught onto cause-and-effect, too, by banging at a mobile and watching it move. You thought it was pretty neat!

Pudding, one of our cats, is your good friend. You love to watch her and we help you pet her sometimes. You also get a kick out of watching the dogs eat their bones and play around in the kitchen while you watch them from your swing. And we visit with our parrot, Alice, throughout the day and you like to look at her, too.

And this is exciting: you’re starting to be able to entertain yourself! You’ll watch your feet move, or stick your fingers and your mouth and look at things, or talk to yourself (ahhh, ahhh, ahhYAHHahhh, uh uh uh, eh, eh). You’ll do this in the car seat, or the swing, or the crib when you wake up. You really have a lot to say! You’ll talk to us, too. You LOVE it when we repeat back to you what you say. Sometimes you also communicate by blowing bubbles, and, especially with your daddy, will have whole conversations by taking turns blowing bubbles and giggling.

Speaking of which: when Daddy tickles you or really does something funny, you do more than giggle now! You have a real, full kid laugh now! I actually got both that and your discovery of cause-and-effect on video.

This morning you practiced aiming your hand for something you wanted to grab. I held my hand with my fingers spread out before you, and you wanted to grab my thumb. You concentrated and used both the feel of different parts of my hand and your eyes to move towards and grasp my thumb. It was really fun to watch you discover that.

The love affair you have with your reflection in the mirror is ongoing. You just love to laugh at that silly baby you see there!

We took you to the Bailey Family Christmas luncheon last weekend and everyone got to meet you. You were the star! We are VERY excited for your first Christmas in a few days. I made sure to take you to see Santa and though you didn’t really notice him at the time, I’m sure you’ll like seeing a picture of you all dolled-up and not even four-months-old with him when you’re bigger.

Your smiles are the best thing. I love when you are eating and you look up at me and just give a big grin. It’s so sweet. You are a very special and loved baby.

With much love from your
Mother

3 months old

Now you are three months old! You are so grown up now it seems, compared to when you were brand new and couldn’t do anything at all. Of course, sometimes I miss that sleepy floppiness, but you are so much fun now!

Currently you are obsessed with standing—you can support all your weight on your legs! What a strong baby—you’re doing this very early. You can’t balance at all yet though so we hold you by your hands or around your torso. You smile and wiggle and dance this way. We say, “Ready? One, two, three” and you know how to use your body to help pull you up from a seated or lying position into standing. You have sort of rolled from your back to your side a few times, but you don’t find rolling that interesting as you would rather stand!

Finally your thumbs are finding your way into your mouth when you want them, and I’m also happy to say you have now developed a regular schedule. Right now you are taking your afternoon nap in your crib and look very happy. One thing that makes you happy is to look into a mirror—you love to laugh at and talk to and smile at the cute baby you see there. You can hold toys now, too, and like to shake your seahorse rattle. And the last couple of days you discovered squealing; if you are very excited (like if Daddy is playing with you) you will squeak so loudly. It’s very cute!

You’re a sociable, sweet baby who loves to cuddle and chat and we love that we get to be the ones who take care of you and see you every day.

You’re waking up, so I’ll go get you and we’ll play or read a story or you’ll help me do housework (you like to oversee my doing the dishes from your swing in the kitchen) until Daddy comes home.

Love from,

Mama

10.5 weeks old

Today is mommy’s birthday and you gave me a lovely present (beside the flowers your Auntie E helped you send me). You laughed for the first time! Daddy was playing with you while I held you and he poked your little nosey and you smiled and said, “Heh, heh, heh.” It was so cute! What a sweet baby. You are 10.5 weeks old. At your two month appointment a couple of weeks ago you were 11 lbs. 8 oz.

You have been very happy lately and we are getting into a good rhythm, and you are so easy to take places. We have lunch with friends, we go to parks, we go shopping. Everyone comments on what a pretty, easy baby you are. We’ve meet two other babies about your age in the last week and you were so much chubbier and cuter than they were!

Now you smile every day and are starting to be able to hold rattles. You love to look at your mobiles—particularly the one with animals. Your friends make you smile as you watch them dance around. You almost have total head control at this point and once even lifted your chest off the crib mattress while you were on your tummy (but you still hate tummy time!). You have been working on using your hands—for reaching towards things and for sucking.

Daddy and I love you very much. We are always looking at you and talking about how precious and amazing you are, and how happy we are you’re here. We are so lucky! What a wonderful birthday present you are. This was the best year of my life because you came to us. We had been waiting for you for so long! You are the baby I always dreamed of.

Love from

Your mother

6 weeks old

Today you are six weeks old! You have changed and grown so much. Your head control has really improved, and you have started to reach out for things like toys that interest you. You are awake and alert for more time every day, and can track things and people with your eyes better. Since birth you have been a very talkative baby, and two weeks ago you said your first vowel-consonant combination: A-GAH. Usually you grunt for food and say things like “meh” and “nyah.” Right now you are cooing in your crib, looking at your mobile, saying “ahhh.” You hate to yawn—you always fuss after—and you are starting to smile often. Usually you smile when something feels good, like having your tummy rubbed or waking up happy.

You don’t really like tummy time and start to fuss, maybe because you are still not quite good enough with your head control to keep it up to look around as much as you like, and of course you fuss some every day, but you are still a very easy baby. Usually when you get upset you are relatively easy to soothe. You like to put put up over one shoulder and have your bottom or back patted, and you very much like to be supported in a sitting up position so you can look around. We either hold you like that or you sit in your Boppy or bouncy seat. You love the bouncy seat!

You weighed 10 lbs. 11 oz. today, so you have gained more than two pounds since birth! You’re very healthy, too. You saw the doctor for your one-month visit a few weeks ago and she said everything looked great. You are growing so fast you have already grown out of your coming home outfit—you are too long for it! Our relative Edith who lives in Arizona and is a pediatrician visited last week and told us how well you are developing—and taught us how to keep you awake so you would sleep at night and not all day!

Every day we have an outing, usually to a park for a walk, often with friends and their young children. We’re starting to have a good sleeping/napping schedule as well. We spent today with Auntie Brigitte at the baby store, Briscoe Park, a shopping trip to the Fresh Market, and then dinner at our house. You were very sociable and sweet and enjoyed waving one of her silver bracelets around. Whenever I take you out, you are a star. People stop me to ask me how old you are, and tell me how pretty you are, and how you look like a doll. We usually take you out in the sling, which puts you right to sleep. You are so cute in there!

Whenever daddy is home from work you spend a lot of time with him. He loves to talk to you and you love to listen! He’s excellent at swaddling you tightly so that you can’t flail your arms about, which calms you when you are having a little fit. You frequently nap in the crook of his arm while he studies or reads or plays on the computer, and you like to look at the computer screen sometimes. Daddy loves to make you happy.

We are both so in love with you, and proud of how smart you are and how well you are developing.

Love from

Mom

3 weeks old

You will be three weeks old tomorrow.

Your great-grandparents are going to meet you in a few days. They are wonderful people and I hope you get to know them well.

Right now you are in my lap sleeping. You make a lot of sounds—very snuffly. Your little baby snores are adorable!

We have lots of nicknames for you, like Little Miss Bobbledyhead and Snuffleupagus.

Every night when Daddy comes home from work, he sits with you and talks to you and you love to listen. Since you’ve come to us, it’s been so amazing to see your father fall in love with you. Now he loves the baby sections of stores like never before because he always wants to find something to make you happy or help us take care of you.

You’ve been several places now—mostly doctors’ offices and grocery stores. You had a frenulectomy this morning (clipping your tongue-tie) and you didn’t fuss very much. You are very easy-going. I’m sorry you had to have your frenulum clipped, but it will help you nurse, eat, and talk better as you get older.

It is amazing how much you have already changed since being born. You can control your neck better, and are really good now at finding your fingers and keeping them in your mouth to suck on. You are keeping your eyes open more often now and are becoming much more sociable. Daddy thinks your arms are getting longer, and you’re definitely stretching out your limbs more. You always sneeze twice in a row like Daddy, and you like to sleep with one arm under your head like I do.

Love,

Mama

8 days old

Now you are 8 days old. You are in my lap as I type; you just nursed and are very sleepy!

You were supposed to come to us tomorrow, the 28^th, by cesarean section. Your birth was planned because you were in breech presentation (sitting head up in the womb instead of head down). But you came early because Mommy developed mild preeclampsia (aka toxemia; it’s a blood pressure disorder of pregnancy) so you came to us at 10:39 PM EST August 19^th, 2006, via cesarean section. The surgery was scary, but I could feel you moving inside me, with your head bobbing around in the upper right-hand side of my tummy, even after the epidural anesthesia was administered, and I knew you were all right.

The pregnancy was 37 weeks, 5 days long and you were due Labor Day, September 4^th. Your Apgar scores were fantastic; 8 at 1 minute and 9 and 5 minutes. You weighed 8 lbs. 8.5 ounces and were 18 inches long. Your head and abdomen circumferences were both 14 inches. You were a big girl for coming early!

I will never forget hearing your first cry after you emerged from my womb—you made me cry too! After you were born, your Daddy brought you to me all bundled up and we three sat together for a minute. Before you came, your Daddy and I had decided that he would sit with me while the hospital nurses cleaned you up after birth, but as soon as you came we both knew he should be with you. We didn’t want you to be alone with strangers! You were beautiful and absolutely perfect. You and Daddy went back to the hospital room and cuddled while the doctors finished stitching Mommy up from the surgery. When the anesthesiologist wanted to know how I was doing, all I could tell him was how happy I was. You were here!

Of course, what was interesting was how familiar you were to us and we to you, even though you were so new. We had spent almost 9 months together already though. You knew our voices, and we knew your movements. We knew how your body moved when you kicked or had hiccoughs. We had rubbed your head to soothe you even in the womb. When the dogs barked for dinner at home, or Pudding meowed, you weren’t frightened; you knew them too!

Welcome home baby! We love you.

Mama