Four Months Old

Yet another month has gone by and left me wondering where the time went! Our little Peanut continues to be a little angel, and fills our days with coos, giggles and huge smiles for anyone who looks her way.

I’m so thankful that she is such an easy baby!

She does get fussy at times, but she’s on a pretty tight schedule so as long as we keep to it she’s happy.  When we are out and about during naptime she let’s us know she’d rather be in her bed, but for the most part she is rarely fussy. 

Her schedule right now is:

Wake up and eat: 8:30-9

Nap: 10-12 (although she naps fitfully at this time)

Eat: 12:30

Nap: 2-4 (her best nap of the day)

Eat: 4

Nap: 6-7

Eat: 7:30

Bed: 8-8:30

She is sleeping anywhere from 11.5 to 12.5 hours a night.  She’s our good little sleeper and rarely wakes up in the night, and if she does it’s a few little fussy noises and she’s back to sleep.

As you can see we moved to a 3.5-4 hour schedule so she is only nursing 4 times a day now.  I felt like she was too young to go to only 4 feedings a day, but I was waking her up for every single feeding, and when I started having to wake her up in the mornings too, just to get five feedings in I figured she was ready to switch over.

She’s been doing great with the four feedings, and since she isn’t falling asleep during every feeding now she has started eating only 10-15 minutes on each side instead of 20-30…big time saver! 

Some of her new developments are:

*laughing/giggling

*rolling over (tummy to back)

*chewing her fists and fingers (has gotten the thumb a few times, but not consistently)

*playing with her burp rag – her favorite toy!

*“talking” – she is quite the chatterbox! T and I watch things on Netflix at night after the girls go to bed and if it was a late evening and she is still eating we have to pause after she’s done because she is so loud we can’t hear the TV!

*says “Ma-ma” – I know she’s too young and it might just be a coincidence, but T and I have both (at separate times) heard her say it loud and clear!  And if she’s hungry and I’m not getting things ready fast enough she will sound frustrated and say, “Mmmm, mmm, Ma-ma!”

*has found her tongue!  I got a funny video of her that I’ll have to post.

She had her 4 month check up on Tuesday and the Dr. says she looks great!  She is growing great and her stats were:

Height: 25 1/4 – 75%

Weight: 14.4 lbs – 50%

Head Circumference: 16.5 in. – 85%

She really liked the Dr. and kept smiling at him.  He kept saying, “Stop smiling at me! I can’t get any work done!”

She still hates bathtime, and fusses her way through it. I have to warm the bathroom up to 85-90 degrees or she SCREAMS her way through it. It might be a coincidence, but sometimes if you say, “Do you want to take a bath?” she will start fussing. :P

Her sister’s definitely keep her entertained all day long.  She loves to sit in the bouncer on the floor and watch them dance around. 

Bug is the best at getting her to laugh!

We are so thankful for our little Peanut!  She brings so much joy and laughter to our days.  We just can’t get enough of her!

Wordless Wednesday

The Christmas Play

This weekend was the Children’s Christmas Play at church.  Our three girls had starring roles as Mary, Sheep, and Baby Jesus. :)

I know I am biased, but they were too darn cute!

Boo was so excited! I thought she was going to be shy and just sit there. I was hoping she would be brave enough to sing her little solo. Turns out I was worried for nothing and should have been wishing that she would be a little MORE shy! Haha :) She was calling out, “Hi Daddy! Hi Noni! Hi Papa!”

Here is the girl’s song that we’ve been working on for weeks now.  The video wouldn’t focus at first so I missed Bug’s start, but I got most of it.

The little ones started to get restless towards the end…spurred on by our little lamb!  She got the other lambs all riled up.  Buggy was trying to keep her under control…so funny!

Then she totally hijacked the end of the show. 

Don’t worry she was fine!  Haha :)

Silly lamb!

“Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus”

This is the little boy Buggy claims she is going to marry.  They came over the other day and afterwards she said to me, “N says he is in love with me.  I am going to marry him when I get growned up.  Wouldn’t it be funny if C (his little brother) married Boo?”  Oh boy!!! :P

Our three little actresses.  Love these silly girls!!!

I think they’ve got a future on the stage! :)

“Laugh With Me!”– Part 18

May 15th

We were outside when K all the sudden yelled, “P - O - S we’re going to town!”  Me: “I think you mean P.S.”  K: “No, it’s POS.”

June 6th

We were eating lunch and T and I were talking about how my cooking is going to look a lot different when our girls are older than it would if we had boys (salads vs. burgers, health food vs. cookies, etc.)  Bug piped up: “We have 5 girls!”  Me: “Yes, with Izzy we have 5 girls and only 1 boy.  Should we get a boy dog for Daddy?”  T cut in, “How about a big shop?”  K: “Yes!  A REALLY big shop so Daddy can go there to cry.”

June 15th

The girls started thinking it was funny to say potty words (pee, poopy, toot, etc.) and I tried to explain to them that we need only say those words when we are going to or using the bathroom.  Later they both went running into the bathroom and started shouting potty words at each other and giggling.  I don’t think the message quite got through. :)

June 30th

I always think it’s funny when our kids say something that is old beyond their years.  Noni must have been talking to them about things because Bug saw a flagpole and told us, “I love our country because our government let’s us talk about Jesus!”

July 5th

We were talking about the baby at lunch one day.  Daddy said, “What if our baby comes out and it’s a boy?”  The girls both protested, “NO!” and K, looking shocked, said, “Daddy!  That is HATEFUL!”

July 6th

I threw my hair up in a messy bun just to get it out of my face one day.  K looked at me and kind of shook her head as if sorry for me, “I don’t like your hair like that Mommy, but you can wear it that way if you want to.”

July 22nd

Bug ALWAYS stalls at bedtime by asking question after question.  This particular night one of them was, “Mommy?  Why do I ask so many questions?”

July 26th

The song that Bug’s dance team used for their parades this summer was I Love Rock N’ Roll and after that Bug would go around the house singing loudly, “I LOVE ROCK N’ ROLL!  PUT ANOTHER DIME IN THE JUICE BOX BABY!”  Now that’s the only way we sing it.

Changes–Part 2!

Well now we have even MORE big news from Buggy!  She has had three loose teeth for months now…we first learned that when we went to the dentist back in the beginning of October.  Ever so slowly the bottom right has gotten looser and looser, until this morning she came down and said, “My tooth is crooked and it won’t go back!” 

Daddy has been asking her for weeks now if she would let him pull it and she has been adamant that he leave it alone. I was always a big fan of leaving my teeth alone until they were literally hanging by a tiny thread so I agreed that we should just let it fall out on it’s own, but when I saw it this morning…crooked and kind of jagged around the gums, I started reasoning that she should let Daddy give it a try.

She remained firm on her stance until I finally told her that Ali, her new pen pal, just lost the same tooth and showed her the picture (only the last picture…didn’t want to scare her, Rachel! Haha).  She then decided it was ok to let Daddy pull it out.

We got the tissue and Daddy got a grip on it…

She looked a bit panicked at first…

And thought about crying, but all that came out was a bit of a whimper.

But wait…”Oh, that’s cool!”

“My tiny tooth!”

“See Mommy!”

Ugh, there is no way I could have pulled that tooth!  These pictures are still making me squirm!

So I guess THIS is the face we’ll be getting used to!

Changes

BIG NEWS around our house!  Buggy got glasses!!!  She is thrilled so we are going with the flow and being excited about it. :) 

A few weeks ago she complained of a headache.  She had a few sniffles so I thought maybe she was getting a cold.  Then the next day she said the same thing and again, I thought she was just getting sick, but then she kept complaining.  Every day she told me, at some point in the afternoon or evening, that she had a headache. 

I started to think I needed to take her into the doctor, and then I remembered in the very first chapter book we’d read together that the little girl started having headaches and had to get glasses.  We figured it could be a possibility, but didn’t think it too likely since she’d never NOT been able to see something we pointed out. 

I called my optometrist (who happens to be literally two blocks down our street) and got an appointment for the next day.

Bug didn’t mind the extra attention one bit and it became obvious in about two minutes that she did indeed have some trouble seeing.  It was interesting to watch as she would read one line and then on the next would simply say, “Nope.  Can’t see it.” or she would get the first letter of the line but then she couldn’t get the rest of them.

Our doctor did a few more tests and then explained that her eye muscles are working overtime to compensate for her vision problems.  They would immediately contract so she could see the first letter, but then they couldn’t hold it so the rest of the line would go fuzzy.  She also explained that the brain has to be taught to read smaller and smaller, and if it isn’t taught at a young age it will be impossible to read a certain size font as an adult.  The brain simply will not comprehend font of a certain size as a letter. 

This became apparent when Bug would read one line of letters, but then just slightly smaller she would say, “Can’t read it.”  The doctor said, “Can you give me a guess?” and Bug said, “No.  They aren’t letters.  They’re just dots.” 

The doctor said it was great that she has had no trouble learning to read with the extent of her vision problems. I can’t remember the exact statistic, but she said something like 70% of learning disabilities in public schools are actually later diagnosed as vision problems.

The doctor worked with her for a while, but then had to dilate her eyes just to get her muscles relaxed enough to figure out what prescription she needed.  Her eyes have been working so hard to see clearly that they couldn’t stop contracting…and that’s why she’s been having so many headaches. 

So the gist of all that is that Buggy is farsighted (which is why she could see things we would point out) with astigmatism.  I think the doctor said 20/50. I'm pretty sure I have astigmatism too, but I am nearsighted like Noni.  Aunt Karen told us she is farsighted, and Grandma said she got glasses when she was six years old so, as you can see, eye problems run in both sides of our family. 

We are very happy that Bug is so excited about her glasses and not upset about it.  She tried on all the pairs of girly glasses, and ended up picking black ones with flowers on the sides.  I think she mostly picked them because they said Disney Princess on the front. :)

They called today and said they were ready to be picked up so Daddy grabbed Bug after work and took her down there to get fitted.  She waited outside for him to get everyone together so she could walk in and show us her glasses.

Her expression was so sweet.  She wears her heart on her sleeve.  I could just see her thinking, “I like these.  I hope everyone else likes them too.  Do I look funny or cute?”

Once we all exclaimed how cute she looked she was back to her confident, independent, silly self. :)

She is really proud of the pink Princess case!

T said when she first put them on at she looked down and said, “Hey! There are bumps on the floor!”  She couldn’t see the pattern in the carpet before.

We are supposed to go back in a couple of months to see if things are improving with the use of the glasses, and get an updated prescription once her eye muscles get used to letting the glasses do the work for them.

Until then, we’ll be getting used to this face!

:)

Wordless Wednesday