This past week our Annie turned four months old.
At her four-month appointment, Annie weighed 12 pounds 10 ounces (14th percentile), measured 24.25 inches in length (34th percentile), and had a head circumference of 15.75 inches (27th percentile).
Annie loves sitting up. When someone is holding her, she almost always wants to be sitting up as opposed to lying in their arms. Annie has had amazing head control and neck support right from the start and does so well sitting up with minimal assistance. Annie is constantly lifting up her head while she’s lying on her back as well, wanting to sit up so much. Right around when she turned four months, we put Annie in the bumbo seat for the first time. She did so well with it. I’ll be featuring lots of pictures of Annie in the bumbo seat in future update posts.
Annie still gives us the biggest smiles and also laughs on occasion. She gives huge smiles to everyone – me and Jake, the other kids, grandparents, friends, doctors, people sitting near us at church, etc. There’s nothing quite like the open mouth baby smile with no teeth. Annie often sticks out her tongue when she smiles as well. Annie does a lot of little chuckle laughs. On occasion, we get almost a full laugh.
Annie continues to love the activity gym and kick ‘n play. She moves all around on the toy mats and grabs at the hanging toys constantly. When Annie’s in the right mood, she’ll stay in the activity gym or the kick ‘n play for an hour. More recently, Annie has also started holding toys for short periods of time. She prefers to grab her blankets and clothes but will hold onto toys as well.
We spent a lot of time with family this past month but didn’t do a lot of outings on our own. The only outing where I brought my camera was to the Domes. It was Annie’s trip to the Domes. I’ve been documenting my kids on Domes’ outings regularly for the past six years (here’s Tommy’s first Domes outing), and I love having Annie on these adventures now.
About halfway through her third month, my body made it pretty clear all at once that it was done breastfeeding. As always, as I do my best to keep my own commentary out of these updates, I’ll spare you on this topic. I’m so grateful for the bonding experience of breastfeeding and that Annie got breastmilk through her first three months while her immune system hadn’t yet developed. I’m also so grateful that she’s done so well with bottles and formula. Annie eats three to five ounces every two to four hours during the day. She’s able to go at least a six-hour stretch between feedings at night.
From the very beginning, Annie has been motivated to hold her own bottles. We have both four-ounce and nine-ounce bottles in rotation right now. At four months old, Annie can hold the four-ounce bottle much more successfully. Sometimes she does well drinking a whole bottle on her own. Other times she prefers that I hold the bottle. I feed her during the night and make sure to sit and feed her at least a couple of times during the day.
Annie transitioned up to size 1 diapers. I’ve moved her out of the newborn clothes. Annie is wearing a mix of 0-3 and 3-6 month clothes. She’s wearing these same sizes of Zutano booties as well. Annie’s feet get cold really easily, so I have her in the booties all the time except when she’s wearing footie pajamas.
Annie has settled into a schedule of taking two or three naps. It depends a lot on when she eats in the morning and what we’re doing on any given day as to exactly when she naps and if they’re longer or shorter naps. Annie is a great car napper and can almost always be counted on to get one nap in the car. She also does better and better at taking naps in her bassinet.
A couple of weeks before Annie turned four months old, she started sleeping six to seven-hour stretches at night. Annie’s slept through the night a couple of times. Generally, she sleeps from about nine p.m. to two or three a.m. Annie wakes up for a feeding and then sleeps until six or seven a.m. She might sleep later than that on her own. But by then, I’m getting up, so that I can get Tommy to school and/or one or more of the older three kids are awake.
You can find my baby/toddler updates for all of the kids as well as general family updates and other family-related posts in the family section of the blog.
