Big Girl

On Friday we went to Alyssa's 4 month well baby checkup. She weighed in at 14 lbs 6 ounces (75th percentile) and 24 1/2 inches (50th percentile). Her head size was in the 50th percentile as well. So she's a little chubby thing still. She got her 4 month shots and did wonderfully. After the first shot she didn't make a peep and for the second she fussed a little, but only while the medicine was being injected. As soon as the needle was out, she was smiling again. People comment all the time how she is just a happy baby, and she really is. We are continuing to feed her rice cereal before bed and shes eating a pretty good amount now.
She is doing really well sitting up. Since right around 4 months she has been able to sit if her hands are on the floor in front of her but now she can just sit there with nothing aiding her. She can even sit while she plays with toys or pets Brody. Petting/grabbing at Brody's fur is her new favorite thing. Just in the past few days she has gotten a fascination for Brody. If I need to entertain her for a little while I just call Brody over. He lays down right in front of her and just lets her grab at him. He is really really tolerant with her. Occasionally he will try to get up and walk away but if we tell him to stay he will.
And lastly, a big event in Alyssa's life this past week was getting her ears pierced last night! They look so adorable. It makes her pretty little face look even cuter (if possible :)). They pierced them one at a time (but only like 5 seconds apart). For some reason the lady said it was easier that way on babies. I never heard that but if thats the way she felt more comfortable, she was the one doing the piercing. She let out a scream but only cried for maybe 15 seconds. As soon as I could turn her around and talk to her she was fine. They don't seem to be bothering her at all either. They didn't effect her sleep at all last night. I've cleaned them twice already and they don't even seem sore. I guess baby skin does heal really fast. I know some people don't agree with piercing babies ears but heres my reasoning:
1. She is going to want them done eventually. And if for some reason she doesn't (which I've never met a little girl who didn't) then she can just take them out and they will close up. No harm done.
2. She is young enough that she doesn't mess with them. If she were a little older, she'd have the coordination to grab and pull them.
3. She still sleeps on her back, she can't yet roll from her back to stomach. So when she sleeps at night, shes not laying on her ears. I know that when most babies can, they roll to their stomachs to sleep and therefore lay on one side of their head.
4. She had no clue what was going on. There was no anticipation/being nervousness for her before they were done. And she doesn't put on a show and cry longer than it actually hurt, like older kids do.
5. She just looks so darn cute in her little diamonds (fake obviously)! Dave calls them her Bling :)

I am actually going to try and post a few short videos of her on youtube.com/dlalewis sometime today.

Publish Post

weeks 18 & 19

Sleep has been our main issue lately. "They" say once a baby is 14 lbs they should be able to go long enough without eating to sleep through the night. Alyssa is about 14 lbs now. We used to rock her to sleep while she sucked on her paci but shes old enough that she needs to learn to put herself to sleep. I have read/skimmed through 2 books on how to get your child to sleep through the night. We decided to kind of use the "cry it out" method...but modified. We give her a bath, lube her up with lotion before putting her in pjs, semi-swaddle her (both of her arms are free now, its just wrapped around her body...we are in the processing of weaning her from needing to be swaddled), read her a story, and then lay her in bed awake BUT still with a paci. If she doesn't drop her paci she will just lay there and watch her aquarium for a few minutes and drift off to sleep...all by her self. So that is a big improvement. We don't have to rock her/walk around with her for 20 minutes and then slowly try to get her into bed and sneak out without her waking. But she still does need her paci to soothe herself to sleep. If she drops it we let her cry for 5 minutes before going back into the room. We will then sneak in and put the paci back into her mouth and sneak out, trying not to let her see us. It usually doesn't take more than 2 or 3 times and sometimes we don't need to go back in at all. So getting her to sleep is easy now BUT her staying asleep isn't going quite as well. Last night she went to bed at 9 pm and didn't wake up for the day until 7:45 however she woke up at 1 am, 3 am, and 6 am for us to put her paci back in her mouth. We used the same process in the middle of the night and it took about 2-3 times each time. Dave and I are kind of torn as to where to go from here. Should we TRY to wean her off her paci so maybe she won't need it in the middle of the night, which would be a really rough process. She has had an extremely hard suck and desire to suck since the day she was born. Right after delivery the nurse said she looked like she'd be a pacifier baby. Or do we wait it out until she is old enough to find the pacifier and put it back into her mouth herself. We are only awake about 15 minutes each time, which is do-able. If she could just get herself back to sleep when she woke, she would be sleeping about 10 hours each night, which would be amazing. I hate hearing her cry for those 5 minutes (as she is doing at this moment) but I think I am doing the best thing for her trying to teach her how to self soothe.
Nap time we do the same thing. She wakes up after 30 minutes every time though...to the minute...literally. And then sometimes she will go back to sleep after a few crying cycles. When the time comes to pick her up out of her crib at the end of the set nap duration, I hate seeing those little tears and red face. She is so happy to see me though which makes me feel bad.
So sleep is improving but we still have a lot of work to do...
We started feeding her rice cereal last week. Since doing that is when she has been able to go from 9-7 without eating. She is doing okay with it. I'd say half ends up on her shirt and on her face at the end of it, but shes getting better. I'll try to upload a video during tonight or tomorrow.
Alyssa got to see her first snow a few days ago, which got Dave off of work yesterday and not have to go in until 12 today....All for about 2 inches. It was great to have him home so we could work on the house. We tiled/grouted the kitchen and painted the kitchen blue. The appliances are getting delivered Saturday and the countertops in about a week or so.
Alyssa has her 4 month baby wellness appointment this friday and I'm so excited to see her stats and percentiles, but not so much about the shots. I am also going to ask the doctor about piercing her ears. I think we might wait until the sleep situation is under control though, which will hopefully be soon.
She just keeps getting more and more interactive and its so fun to watch her learn. You can really see the wheels turning in that little head of hers as she plays.

sorry...

sorry for not posting this week but Alyssa has decided to essentially stop sleeping this past week. She is awake from like 3-5 am crying/wanting to be awake and then won't nap more than 25 minutes, IF she naps at all. So that doesn't even give me enough time to upload pictures and all. And honestly with the sleep deprivation, I haven't taken too many anyway. I'll try to post some next week...

Video

there are 2 new videos at www.youtube.com/dlalewis
One is Alyssa making a goofy face. She gets excited and straightens her arms out and makes that face. The other is Dave showing off his little 'trick'. She has been strong enough to do this for a few weeks now but Dave just started doing it in front of me because I thought she was too little before.

17 weeks

Our baby girl will be 4 months old on Saturday! She is still doing great and we all had a great Christmas/New years. Sorry it has been a while since I've written but we were out of town for Christmas and then just got internet hooked up at our new house a few days ago. I know some of you (Briana and Mom) have been checking daily for the post.
We went to MD for Christmas where of course Alyssa was spoiled. Dave still has not seen Alyssa roll over because right after she did it for the first time we went out of town and then Dave's parents were in NC with us so she was never layed down to do it again. She was quite fussy today, probably because I actually tried sitting her down and she hasn't been in about 2 weeks. I also think she is getting a cold again. She just got better about a week ago but now she is getting all congested again.
Dave and his Dad installed our cabinets in our new house over the weekend. Its nice to finally be able to put away all of the kitchen boxes that are laying around the house. We are officially living in the new house, we had to be out of the rental at the end of December. The house is in livable condition but we still have so much more work to do. We have already painted the upstairs, tiled both upstairs bathrooms, installed the new bathroom vanities, painted the living room, installed kitchen cabinets, and a few other small things. We still need to finish the upstairs bathrooms (fixtures, etc), put quarterround in the whole house, paint the rest of the downstairs, install the downstairs bathroom vanity and fixtures, paint the downstairs ceilings, change out the outlets and faceplate covers downstairs, landscape, put up a privacy fence, replace all ceiling fans upstairs and down, install kitchen countertops, tile the kitchen, put in all new kitchen appliances, and a few other smaller things. At least now we can see progress. I can't wait until its all finished. We are aiming to have it finished by the end of January, besides the fence and landscaping which we are going to do in the Spring. I can't wait to decorate and get all of our stuff situation. I'm hoping once Alyssa gets a little consistancy as to where we are living she will start sleeping better at night...I hope.
Alyssa is still doing wonderfully. She gets cuter and sweeter everyday. She was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Saturday morning and was laughing at it. She was definitely watching the tv too, it was funny. Dave is excited to have an excuse to watch Saturday morning cartoons again.
She is kind of capable of sitting up. As you can see from the pictures, she sits quite well in her new bathtub. She was getting frustrated in the infant one where she has to lay down. The entire time we bathed her in it she would just struggle to sit up.
Alyssa's bald spot is growing more and more, poor baby. I looked in her crib the other day and found a bunch of hair where she lays her head at night. oh well, it will grow back. At least the hair on top is still growing longer making it easier and easier for her bows to stay in :). I can't wait until her 4 month doctor's appointment on the 23rd to see her percentiles!