This past week our Genevieve turned four months old!
As you’re reading Genevieve’s update, keep in mind that she was born six weeks early and think about her milestones accordingly.
At Genevieve’s four-month doctor’s appointment, she weighed 11 pounds 13 ounces (6th percentile), measured 23.5 inches in length (10th percentile), and had a head circumference of 15 inches (2nd percentile). This is the second appointment in a row where Genevieve’s percentiles were above the 1st percentile. Both her height and weight are in higher percentiles than they were at three months. It’s so exciting to see her make these gains. With the gestational adjustment, Genevieve has been right in the 30th-50th percentile range the last couple of months. This month, she was even higher than that for height.
Tommy went back to school a couple of days a week earlier this month. Most weeks, at least one of the days he’s in school, the girls and I go out and do something during the morning. For now, we’ve been sticking to indoor activities. As the weather warms up, we’ll do more outdoor activities like playgrounds and the zoo. The first day Tommy went back to school, I took the girls to the orchid show at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Then toward the middle of the month, we had an outing to the Domes for a second round of the train show. Olivia had just as much fun as Tommy did watching the trains this year. It wasn’t very busy when we were there during this visit. She was able to get out of the stroller and walk a fair amount. I’ll share a few of my pictures of Olivia from our visit in her next update.
Genevieve continues to make gains in her general alertness and her ability to focus on people. She also continues to get more snuggly with both me and Jake and more comfortable with other people holding her. Now that we’re past the three-month mark, we’ve seen a few more people and are letting them hold her. It’s gone pretty smoothly. Genevieve also continues to do longer and longer stretches unswaddled and in her activity gym. She’ll often stay in her activity gym for half an hour to an hour at a time. Genevieve still isn’t playing with the toys. But she’s much more active and much more engaged with her surroundings.
Genevieve is so close to smiling. It’s fun to see her get more and more expressive. Genevieve has also started doing the baby eye rub thing when she’s tired, just like Olivia does. It’s the best.
Genevieve has had the worst cradle cap for months now. I don’t know if that’s been apparent at all in the pictures in my last few updates for her. Both Tommy and Olivia had so little hair at this age. It was never an issue for them the way it’s been for Genevieve. The cradle cap hasn’t cleared up on its own at all, even with more frequent baths in the last couple of months. Jake finally sat down with her and spent the better part of an hour working out as much of it as she could. Then I was able to get out what remained in the bath. Genevieve’s hair has looked so much better ever since then. I also bought more hydrating shampoo as well as hydrating conditioner for her, which will hopefully help keep it at bay now.
Genevieve eats either four or five ounces every three or four hours during the day. I pushed her up to five ounces when I mix a bottle with dry formula. We still use quite a few pre-mixed bottles. As they’re two ounces each, I still give her four ounces total when I’m using the pre-mixed bottles. Genevieve does pretty well with the Avent bottles and dry formula most of the time now. But she still eats so much more quickly with the pre-mixed bottles. So I always keep some of them in our bedroom and use them when we’re on the go.
Genevieve is wearing a mix of 0-3 month and 3-6 month clothing. She’s right at that awkward spot where 0-3 month clothing is pretty tight but most 3-6 month clothing is still a little big. Genevieve is holding steady with size 1 diapers. The baby/kids’ clothing situation in my house has been a huge mess since Genevieve was born. I finally went through most of it and got all of the baby clothes organized again. I’ll be able to get what Genevieve needs more easily as she does keep growing.
I’m still in shock that I’m able to tell you that Genevieve has started sleeping through the night. Most nights, I do a final feeding somewhere between 9 and 11 p.m. Then she sleeps straight through until six or seven a.m. As Genevieve was born six weeks early and had such a rough start with her sleep, I’m just blown away that she’s able to sleep so well through the night, especially at this age. There have still been a few nights where she had a rough time settling or woke up a few times during the night. But she slept straight through the majority of the nights this past month.
It’s actually been a bigger challenge getting Genevieve to sleep at least one longer stretch during the day. She still wants to sleep near me as much as possible during the day. Tommy and Olivia also want to be right near me the vast majority of the time. As such, it’s usually not very quiet right near me. When I do get Genevieve settled, inevitably, that’s when Tommy wants to start running laps around the house (literally) or Olivia decides to throw blocks on her. If Genevieve doesn’t get a good stretch of sleep in the morning, usually, I can get her to go down around lunchtime. Then I’ll set her up in her bassinet or somewhere a little more secluded on the first floor and try to keep the kids elsewhere for a while.
You can find all of my baby/toddler updates for all three kids as well as general family updates and other family-related posts in the family section of the blog.
