Madelyn - four months

Maddie is four whole months old today! Yay, Maddie! It has been a wonderful (and so so tough!) 4 months with her.

Maddie is growing so much! She is about 14.5lbs already (the unofficial home-scale weigh-in a few days ago). She is wearing 6 month sleepers and mostly 3-6 month or 6 month clothes. She is a little doll. We just love her to bits!

Madelyn loves to be where the action is! She always wants to see what's going on and loves it when she gets in on the family fun. Too much action, though, and this little girl tends to get overwhelmed and let us know about it! Though this month has had fewer overwhelmed cries from her. Fewer cries in general, I'd say! She has possibly turned into our smiliest, happiest baby yet!

It's not hard to get a smile from this one. She will give smiles especially easily to me, Nathan, Levi, and Kayden. But on Sunday, we were at a potluck and she was apparently smiling at the grandmas who took turns holding her while I ate. For a little one who seems to play shy sometimes, she sure doesn't play shy at all at other times! I have yet to figure this one out! She also loves to giggle! Tickling and sudden funny noises seem to be the things to get her going right now. If the sudden noise is too loud though, she will look for reassurance. If she can get some eye contact with someone she trusts and we smile and reassure her, she will break out a big grin, even though she was unsure just a moment before. It's pretty amazing to see.

Maddie has learned to roll from back to front this month, just in the past few days actually. I will be cooking in the kitchen and hear her grunting and then turn and look and she's either on her stomach or halfway there, working with all her might to flip herself over. I'm convinced she does it so she can see more than just the boring old ceiling. The other day I heard Levi talking to her, saying, "You really like our ceiling, don't you?" When I asked him why he thought she liked it, he said that she spends a lot of time looking at it! I think it will soon be a lot less time as she starts to do more than just lay there on her back!

Madelyn is learning to sit right now! She loves to be on her bum and able to see even more of the things going on around her. I anticipate she might be sitting on her own within the next month or so. She still has to work on her little ab muscles a bit, and balance of course, but it's coming! And once she can sit, I don't think we will be able to lay her down ever again...

Madelyn has been introduced to the exersaucer and the jolly jumper this month. She doesn't really know what to do with either of them yet but it seems like she likes to be able to be upright and look around more. (Are you sensing a theme?!) She gets help jumping whenever she's in the Jolly Jumper from Kayden, who is quite sure that she'd rather bounce a little than spin in slow circles. It's not unusual for one of the kids to beg me to put up the Jolly Jumper so their sister can go in it. Kayden also had a turn in it this month and boy, did she remember what it was for!

Madelyn is starting to grab toys when we hold them out to her and, of course, they all go straight into her mouth. She doesn't seem to be drooling quite as much lately, but a bib is never a bad idea to keep the shirt from being soggy. She will suck on anything and everything. Toys, bibs, exersaucer seat, our hands, blankets...yup. It all goes into her mouth. She is still working on holding onto toys and manoeuvring them exactly where she wants them (unless it's her mouth), but we've noticed a big difference in how she grabs toys from last month to now.

Maddie's sleep is much improved since last month. YAY!! It's not perfect and just when I seem to think that we're doing well, she will resist sleep for a couple hours before bed again. BUT, it's not every night anymore which is making me feel so much more patient and human! Maddie now naps in her crib in her own bedroom which is much less stressful for me since you can hear almost nothing in there from the rest of the house. With all the bedrooms right off the kitchen, and our master bedroom with doors to both the main bathroom and the kitchen, I spent the first 3-3.5 months of Maddie's life shh-ing the older two and trying to get them not to even breathe next to our bedroom while Maddie was sleeping. I was walking on eggshells ALL the time because you can hear everything from our bedroom and how to you keep a 2 and 4 year old quiet all day long?! So I came up with the brilliant idea of napping her in her own room, since I'm not with her while she naps anyway, while keeping her in our room for nights. It is working quite well. We've also got a nursing-->diaper & pj's-->swaddle-->song-->bed routine going which relaxes her enough for her to put herself to sleep most nights! She is up usually 1-2 times a night to eat and goes right back to sleep. She naps 2-3 times a day and is awake for 1.5-2 hours between naps and 3-4 hours before bed. I feel like we're finally at a good place with sleep. Such a relief!

Madelyn is such a joy to have around. She lights up every time she sees us (even right after waking up!) and gets so excited about interacting with us. She is such a happy baby these days, only crying for food (if I don't respond to her complaints soon enough) or because she's tired or shy. But you know what? Even if she was still fussy and didn't go to sleep that well, we would still just love her to pieces because she's Maddie! Happy four months, little girl. We're so glad you're part of our family!

And because I have two other adorable kids who wanted their pictures taken today...

Levi being a goof...and a pesky fly beside him. 

Beautiful Kayden.