Four Months

Francie is as cute as ever. She's now four months old and I can hardly believe just how much she's grown. She's really not such a little bean anymore, at least no compared to her newborn self. She had her well-baby check-up Friday and got her recent stats:

Weight: 13.0 lbs (25-50th %ile)
Length: 25.5 inches (90th %ile)

Her little baby butt weighed her in at 13 pounds even.

Somehow she's tall, at least for the time being.

Appearance: Like a real, live baby. Neck rolls, chubby cheeks. A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. Beady blue eyes. No more, no less, hair than when she was born. Very fair, reddish hues in the light. Seriously big lower pouty lip. Big feet. Long fingernails (we are too lame to cut them). Little big belly, as Alex says. Or big little belly.

Eating: During the week she takes about 3 bottles of 4-5 oz with Alex while I'm at work. Garbles them down like it's her last supper. Nurses in the morning before I leave for work, nurses a few times in the evening. May or may not wake up in the middle of the night to feed, but side-lying allows me to not even recall if I had a tittie hanging out.

Sleeping: She doesn't technically sleep with us, but recently started sleeping in her bassinet by my side of the bed. Since I've been back to work, she goes to bed with me, I nurse her, and we sleep together until Alex comes to bed sometimes after midnight. He swaddles her up and tucks her into her own bed. Somehow every morning I wake up with the Bean in my bed, but I never do know when she snuck back in. She is very very sneaky sneaky sir. She's not much of a napper during the day, but she lets us sleep well at night, so no complaints. Every so often she'll throw in a nice long nap, usually in the morning, but is more of a cat-napper if left to her own devices. She has been falling asleep in bed with me around 10 p.m., wakes up maybe once in the middle of the night to nurse, sleeps until sometime in the earlier morning, takes a bottle from Alex, and then goes back to sleep until 9ish. She always wakes up happy as a clam, and that's my favorite time of day with her (on the weekends).

Playing/Personality: She's a smiley little bean. She's started to play with toys (rings, Sophie the Giraffe, a rattle) but she doesn't quite have the motor skills to actually put things in her mouth. So she ends up trying to get her head closer to her hands, rather than vice versa, and then cries about it. She's a serious drooler. Like a Saint Bernard. She loves looking at faces, and is so curious to stare at the world around her. She is intermittently fussy, usually in the late afternoon or early evenings. She doesn't cry much, per se, but fusses when she wants to be held or just wants attention. Or when she's tired and needs help falling asleep. She LOVES when we sing to her. She coos along with us, and giggles. It's all Baby Beluga, You Are My Sunshine, and Bean-O in this household. She still farts and burps a lot. And we still think it's hilarious. She likes to look at herself in the mirror. She's getting more comfortable with tummy time. For someone who hasn't been forced to spend much time on her belly, she sure does have strong neck muscles and good head control. She can roll from her front to her back, if her arms are propped up for. If she has her arms pinned under her body, she just wails and squawks and doesn't even try to move. She seems like she's going to start sitting up on her own sooner than later. She loves the Bumbo chair, which we just started using. And the other day outside she sat up on her own for several seconds before teetering over to the side and face-planting in the grass.

"Four months is my favorite!" I exclaimed to Alex the other day. He reminded me that I said the same thing about 3 months. And 2 months. And 1 month. You get the point. It's just so fun to watch someone grow and learn. I marvel at the fact that I grew another human being in my body. And now she's just her own little person, interfacing with the world around her. How badass is that!


And, of course, several of my favorite photos from the last few weeks ...

She loves sitting up, propped on the bed or couch, like a big girl.

Are you mom enough? That's right, breastfeeding in the back yard on the hammock.

Sleeping beauty.

Huck Finn? Tom Sawyer? Or my baby girl, dressed by her daddy.

Mama loves Bean.

Naked baby,

Like father like daughter. Not even staged.

The inaugral seat in the Bumbo chair.

As for Alex, he has has really shined as a stay-at-home daddy. Everyday he manages to do tummy time, keep the kitchen relatively clean, launder the diapers as needed, and seem happy to greet me - and even stay up inappropriately late watching Game of Thrones and drinking cheap beer (hey, we've been a one-income family these days). I've been a self-involved, weepy mess, and he's mostly kept it together. Except if it's the middle of the night.  Mr. Hyde comes out then. It's as though Alex isn't actually awake, but some mean version of him is. Fortunately, I'm so quick to respond to Francie's whimpers or squawks that Alex doesn't get much of a chance to unleash the beast. He seems to love staying home and playing with his little girl, and it's hard to think about when we are both back at work, what lucky person is going to get to spend more time with our little bean than even we are?!?