Natalie: Four Months
This four month update is a bit late! This girl is already going to be 5 months next week! Oops.
Things for the most part seem “mostly normal” for us now, but we often feel overwhelmed. Things just always seem chaotic in our house. There is just crap everywhere, it’s like a bomb went off and we just feel so tired by the time we finally get them in bed and have zero energy to clean up the house. When I get home from work, it’s just craziness trying to get dinner ready quickly, giving one or both girls a bath, and then getting them to bed. Natalie basically goes to sleep between 8-8:30 and sleeps all night. She could wake as early as 6am, but typically sleeps until around 7:30am which is amazing. She’s getting a bit big for her rock and play though and I think it’s about time to switch her to crib, which was not the easiest transition for us when Maddie was 5 months old. I’m kind of dreading this change!
In the last week, she has finally figured out rolling over! She was able to go from her tummy to her back pretty easily, but now she is able to roll from back to tummy. Whenever we put her on the floor, she immediately starts to roll over. It’s weird though because she does not like being on her stomach unless she is trying to nap. Her tummy is pretty sensitive and she spits up a lot so even though she keeps rolling to her stomach, she gets mad after a minute or so.
Natalie has really started to show interest in toys over the past month. She loves trying to hold different rattles or dolls. And of course, putting them in her mouth. This is sometimes a challenge with big sister. I put all of our baby toys in storage once Maddie got older and am now pulling them back out slowly and Maddie seems a bit jealous even though they used to be hers and she has a gazillion of her own age-appropriate toys. Natalie has also been grabbing at her bottle during feedings and can hold it herself for a few minutes here and there.
This girl continues to be a drool factory. We go through about 4-5 bibs a day! I keep buying more and then half of them end up not being absorbent enough. She eats pretty well, about 24 ounces a day. While we plan to wait until she is 6 months to introduce solids, I started making some baby food last weekend as a I had a lot of squash left over from a recipe so I think I am going to start making some things for the freezer over the next month so I have some homemade baby food ready for her.
At Natalie’s last checkup, she weighed in at 13 1/2 pounds. I feel bad for her, but she is SO short, just in the 10th percentle. Her doctor also recommended we see a neurologist to evaluate her head shape because its a bit flat in the back. We have an appointment next week and are obviously hoping she doesn’t need a helmet! When she was born, I know the back of her head and soft spot was particularly soft as we felt and her pediatrician commented about it so I don’t know if that has made her little head more vulnerable to being flat?
And I know these are supposed to be baby updates on Natalie, but Madeline has also been acting up a bit lately, especially at night. She’s been really clingy and upset with me when I put her to bed and now she keeps asking for her daddy to come say goodnight to her before she will finally lay down. If I’m the last person in her room, she cries. I think part of it is separation anxiety. Since Natalie was born, I haven’t been spending as much time with Maddie. Sean often will take her to the pool or do other things with her and he thinks Maddie is easier to take care of so if it’s something we don’t want to drag the baby to, I end up staying home with her and he takes Maddie. Plus I work full-time so I have been feeling a bit of mom guilt lately with her. I’m going to try to do some things just with her soon.
I think Maddie may also just be about ready for a toddler bed. This is kind of stressing us out because we also think it’s time to move Natalie to her crib and the thought of moving them both to a new thing at the same time kind of seems like a horrible idea, but they are ready for these changes. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Natalie’s crib is currently set up in a loft that is in between our master bedroom and Maddie’s room so it is open to the stairs and such. We’ve been putting Natalie down in her crib for her afternoon nap, but Maddie is usually sleeping at the same time and we have to be really quiet. I’m just not sure how this set up is going to work with her sleeping at night there as we like to watch TV, eat dinner, or cleaning dishes. If she is going to be that sensitive to noise, how the heck will this work? I do not want to move her into the same room as Maddie yet. Sean said if worse comes to worse, we will have to move our dresser out of our room so we can put the crib in our room. I’ve been dreading this transition since I found we were expecting. I see some tears and lots of wine in our future.
I’d LOVE advice from those of you who have had to deal with similar situations!