Sarah - 4 Months

Sarah is now 4 months old. It's been a great month this past month. Lots of growing and development. Sarah is loosing some of the hair she was born with and it's growing in lighter-- more like a light brown. She's moving more in her crib and is able to roll over, although she doesn't do it a lot. She is able to hold on to rattles and understands she is getting it to make the noise. She can hold her head up pretty well, but still gets tired doing it...

Sarah's also getting better and better at sleeping, she's started going down around 8pm and still wakes up for a feedings around 11pm and 4/5am, but sleeps regularly till 7:45am.

We took these pictures on Saturday morning (the 29th) before we drove down to Virginia Beach to visit with some of my college friends. (more on that later!) It's pretty early, so the lighting isn't great, but here are Sarah's 4 month pictures!

Sarah - 3 Months

We're now a week into Sarah's 4th month... She turned 3 Months last Thursday... Boy am I glad to be out of that stage! I think 3 months might be my favorite age. She's cooing and smiling most of the awake times. She's rarely fussy these days and if she is, it's resolved pretty quickly by feeding her or when she poops.

I started working last week. I started with a planned 3 day\week schedule. My mom would watch her Mondays and Kristine (our neighbor with a day care program) would get her on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Kristine also has 2 other kids -- a 2 year old boy and a girl 1 week older than Sarah.

Last Thursday was her first day all together with all 3 kids and apparently, it was a little too much to bear. She called me on Monday night, realizing that having all 3, even just 2 days a week, she would not be able to provide the kind of care she wants to give. She didn't want to leave me "in the lurch" but since my schedule and my mom's schedule are relatively flexible, it worked out to have my mom watch her the rest of the week as well, just through May. By the end of May, Kristine will have some help from some college students home from the summer and once school is out, the other 2 kids will stay at home since both their mothers are teachers.

We're so grateful for Kristine, because she knows her limits and was honest with us. We're glad she's able to watch Sarah just part time, which is quite hard to find! And she's so close (walking distance!) and I can tell she has a heart for child care. She's actually being trained for foster care and will be able to provide a home for some kids in our community when there is a need.

Sarah has really grown a lot this month. Even I can see it! She's been getting some soy formula during the day, since I'm not able to pump the full amount that she wants to eat. She's doing well at going back and forth from the bottle to the boob, so we're able to continue breast feeding. I'm hoping to be able to continue for at least another 3 months, maybe longer.

She's sleeping for about 6 hours at night most nights... but she does sometimes wake up sooner than that. She's very good at just nursing and getting back to sleep, so I don't mind getting up that much. It's actually nice to get rid of the milk I am soaked in...

Her favorite toys these days are mirrors and mobiles. Part of our morning routine involves me getting her all ready, then I put her in her crib to play with her crib mirror for about 20 minutes while I get ready. She's thoroughly amused by it. Many thanks to Lauren for the suggestion of the crib mirror! She also still loves the mobiles above her crib and her swing. Her face lights up and she even puts her hands up, signaling them to rotate. We call them her "friends". as in, "Do you want to play with your friends?" "Whatcha doin' friends? Just hangin.."

Here are her pics! These were taken on April 29th before I went to work (at 6:45 am!) She's a little sleepy...