baby girl: 4 months

I can’t believe MacKenna will be 4 months tomorrow!  I’m really wishing time would slow down just a tad.  Sure, I would love for it to be summer so I can spend every single second with my little girl again, but she’s growing up way too fast!  While I’m excited for every single one of her first and anxiously await each one of them, I am trying not to wish this time away with her.  The limited time I get to spend with her now is a blessing and I take full advantage of each second I get with her.  I guess that’s the one good thing about going back to work…

Accomplishments + Milestones

My favorite milestone finally happened this past month:  MacKenna is sleeping through the night!  She’s sleeping through the night for almost 3 weeks now and it has been amazing!  I have so much more energy during the day and I think it is helping a lot with my stress.  The only thing I hate about it is that it is one less feeding I get with her.  I am probably one of the few people who didn’t mind getting up in the middle of the night simply because it was extra time with her.  And now I miss that, but I’m still thankful for a good night’s sleep!

Of course, the past few nights she’s been waking up extra early because she has discovered her voice and wants to “talk” all the time!  She definitely takes after her daddy!  (I’m a “writer”, not a talker.)  It is hilarious to listen to her babble and make silly faces in the process.  And she loves to have conversations with us, talking back and forth.  And she talks LOUD – I can hear her all the way across the house sometimes.

She’s also discovered her hands.  I love watching her try to grab at everything you put in front of her.  She loves her birdie that hangs from the carseat and she has actually started trying to hold the bottle when she’s fed at the babysitter’s house (we never give her a bottle at home as long as I’m there).  We’re still working on her hand-eye coordination, but I love that she’s starting to really play with things.

MacKenna is getting really strong.  We’re spending time every day in the Bumbo and the babysitter has started putting her in the exersaucer this week.  She’s still a bit of a bobble head, but she’s much better than she used to be.  I am breaking out our exersaucer this week and also the booster seat (we decided against a high chair because our house is small) so we can prepare her to start eating solid foods.

She definitely knows who we are and she knows her name.  I love coming home, saying “MacKenna!” and having her look at me and smile.  It makes my day!

The day Daddy dressed her…

What We’re Working On

We’re doing tummy time at home as much as we can, but it hasn’t been nearly as often as when I was home with her.  She gets some time at the babysitter, but with 4 other kids running around, she stays off of the floor for the most part when they’re awake.  I think this is part of the reason she’s not rolling over back to tummy yet.  And, she just shows no interest in doing it.  I think she loves being able to look at everything and being on her tummy doesn’t let her do that.

We’re definitely focusing on sitting up right now.  Like I said, she is getting stronger every day and becoming less and less of a bobble head.  I practice pulling her up to sitting and slowly laying back down and sitting unassisted in the Bumbo seat.  I’m so excited to get out the exersaucer + booster seat this weekend!

Mama’s Miles

Training for the GO! St. Louis Half Marathon has been going great.  I have been having a few aches and pains in my feet + knees, but nothing that I need to worry about.  My mileage has definitely ramped up and I’m starting to see my speeds back to where they were pre-pregnancy, which has been amazing!  Overall, in the past month, I have run 78.15 miles (averaging 19.5 miles/week), my longest run has been 8 (horrible treadmill) miles last weekend, and my fastest run was at a 7:52/mile pace.  I’ll take it!

Random Tidbits

• Weight last month:  10 pounds 9 ounces – PEANUT!
• Next doctor’s appointment:  Tuesday!  Can’t wait to see how much she weighs now
• Breastfeeding:  Going well.  Still doing it exclusively, which 4 months was my short term goal, although I’m still hoping to make it to 6 months.
• Unscheduled doctor’s visits:  1 – we thought she had pink eye,  but it was just a clogged tear duct
• Current concerns:  M has really bad dry skin on her stomach that I’m worried is something more than just dry skin, like an allergy.  Luckily, she doesn’t fuss about it.
• Other questions for the doctor:  Her opinion on when/what to supplement, the skin rash (obviously), when we can start baby cereal and solids, something I’m more than a little excited for!
• Cutest baby contests entered:  1 (St. Louis Magazine’s contest)
• Number of times I’ve considered quitting my job to stay at home:  Countless.  I still think about it every single day…

I’m excited to see what this month has in store for us!

What’s your guess at how much MacKenna weighs now?  (For awhile, we were averaging 2 pounds per month, but slowed down to 1 pound last month.  My guess is 11 pounds 6 ounces.  She still weighs less than the cat…)