4 month old baby girl

Elyse,

You are now four months old and I go back to work in three and a half short weeks. I’m going to miss spending so much time with you, but I’m excited to see my coworkers again and do work I enjoy – digital market research. You will go to a Montessori day care, where I know you will be well taken care of, but I also know my heart will break a little every morning I drop you off.

So what have you been up to this month? You eat, actually nurse, really well and have the cutest chubby cheeks and legs. We haven’t tried food yet. You nurse 10-50 minutes a session, so we cuddle a lot during the day. I’m writing this blog on my phone as you nurse right now, actually.

You are becoming more exhausting as you hate sleeping at night and are taking shorter naps during the day. It takes about two hours to get you to sleep every night. You basically nurse to sleep every night and want to stay in our bed, rather than your co-sleeper now. The first and longest stretch of the night you usually sleep in your co-sleeper or swing. The rest of the night you sleep with me so I can nurse you and rest. It’s not the best for the long-term and I need to work on that.

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I wish you would fall asleep to books like I do. Instead, our bedtime routine is clean diaper (disposable), lotion/massage, and pajamas in your nursery. Then, we walk around the house to our bedroom and put you in a sleep sack, turn the white noise machine on, and nurse for almost an hour. I set you in the co-sleeper and you wake up about five minutes later, crying, and it takes us 15-30 minutes to get you back to sleep. We start this around 8:30pm – 9:00pm and I think I need to start earlier.

For play time, you still like your activity gyms. You started sitting in the exersaucer and jumperoo given to us by your Auntie Alexis, although you are still a little small to play with the attachments.

Sitting in the Bumbo and tummy time aren’t your favorite, but we do them a little every day to make you stronger. We read a few books like Cat in the Hat and Usborne black and white stories. You also like to pet your dog brothers, scratch different fabrics, and feel new textures. We go on weekly family walks with the dogs and you enjoy falling asleep in your stroller even if it is 30*F.

You are starting to laugh and it is adorable. Overall, you are still pretty quiet and occasionally say your name, “Ellay”. You stare at your feet and are beginning to realize that you are controlling them.

Your Auntie Clare dressed you up so cute on Christmas day!

We celebrated your first Christmas at many houses, except our own. The one present I ordered for you did not arrive on time, but you received many gifts from other family and friends. I figured this year it was okay to not buy you much since you have everything you need and you don’t know what’s going on anyway. Next year we will need to make time for our family Christmas.

And since we missed Santa Claus, Dad’s friend put his Santa onesie on and posed for a picture. He was a great sport.

We also celebrated your Grandma Cathy’s birthday at a restaurant. I think she liked holding you more than the presents.

Your dad and I went on our first date night to dinner and watched Rogue One while Aunt Gina, Uncle Caleb, and his friend McBride watched you. Luckily, you love to be held by just about anyone and did great. It makes me less worried about day care.

Our second date was on your four month birthday exactly and we went to the Seahawks wild card game against Detroit. Your “gam-gam” Toni watched you and it was the longest I have been away from you yet. Everything went well! I was so happy to see you when I got home, but was also exhausted.

Love,

Mom