Friday, February 19, 2010

Lydia is 4 months old

Four months. Wow. That's about all I have to say about that.

At her check up yesterday she was given a completely clean bill of health.

If you can't read that (taken with my iPhone) it says Lydia is 13 # 6 oz (50th percentile) and 25 3/4 " (95th percentile). She is long, lean and totally adorable! Both the Dr. and the nurse say so, and they are the professionals.

She's been cleared to start solid foods, but I don't know how I feel about that one yet. Why? I am still exclusively breast feeding Lydia. Although I look forward to others being able to share the responsibility of feeding her it is just so easy to sit down with her for 15 minutes and have her be fed. There is no prep work, no mess, no clean up.

Which leads to a nursing update. It is obviously going really really well. I was happy to nurse Madeline for her first year of life and although I never addressed it here on the blog she self weened by her first birthday. Her last nursing was May 5th. It was bittersweet, because I wasn't sure I was ready to loose that connection, but since I had pretty much been requiring her to nurse for the last month or so, until she could drink cow's milk, I knew it was time. Lydia is a champion nurser, like her sister was early on. I have been very lucky that both girls took to nursing very quickly and it has been a very positive experience for me. I know that isn't the case for many mothers and I know I am lucky.


Lydia is our little social butterfly. She loves to be a part of the action. More and more she doesn't like to be put down... which means she hasn't mastered rolling in either direction... on January 25th she rolled from her tummy to her back five times in a matter of minutes. She hasn't done that since. She's much more content in the sling or sitting on a lap.


Sleep? I hate to compare her to Madeline, but I am going to do it anyway. Madeline was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks, only getting up to nurse once. By 12 weeks she was sleeping 12+ hours at night. It was glorious.

Our social butterfly likes to see mommy and daddy in the middle of the night. Lydia is still getting up twice a night to nurse. That being said, she has slept 11 hours in a row the last two nights (dropping the 12:30 am nursing). So let's hope that this is a turning point and she will continue to drop this feeding on her own.

She is currently sleeping 12+ hours at night and wakes up between 7:30 and 8am. Then she is back down for about an hour at about 9:30-10am. She's awake for another 2 hours, then back down around 1:30p for about 40 minutes and then a little cat nap at about 4 or 5pm. Her final bedtime is 7pm. Which is drastically better than her previous night owl schedule of 11p or 12a.


I mentioned before that Lydia is not rolling over, but she is sitting up. As long as she has a little support for her lower back, she can sit up without too much help.


And do you see that smile? Kevin and I were talking about it tonight, we really think she is ridiculously cute. She smiles with all of her face and is always so expressive. If we thought Madeline was a little drama queen, we might have our hands full. Lydia is already starting to give Madeline a run for her money.

Which brings me to the sisters. Boy do they love each other. Yesterday Lydia was crying in her bed after nap and Kevin was upstairs with her. So I kept cleaning up the kitchen and Madeline walked up to me, very concerned and said, "Mom?!? Go get my sister!" She hates to hear her cry. And the love goes both ways. All Madeline has to do is walk into the room and Lydia lights up. She waves her arms and shrieks each time her sister talks to her. I hope they know how lucky they are to have one another. I know they won't always get along but I hope they will always love each other as much as they do right now.

Life with two is crazy. We are getting used to it... and the stress that comes with it. A few months ago a friend announced her second pregnancy to the world. I held my tongue, but I wanted to scream... DON'T DO IT!!! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!? But that was when I wasn't sleeping more than and hour and a half at a time and Madeline's attention getting behaviors made me want to rip my hair out. I am feeling much more balanced now although I still haven't mastered the art of errands with two on my own.

Happy four months Bitter-Boo.

mg

4 comments:

Gina said...

What a cute post! She is a doll. Logan was super expressive as a baby too, and that hasn't stopped. If this baby is a girl, can I borrow the outfit that Lydia is wearing on the princess couch? :)

Molly said...

How could she possibly be 4 mos. old already? Didn't she just get here? I gotta say, though, I love the smiley baby thing she's got going on right now. Her face lights up and you feel it in your soul.

I love Lydia!

Bridget said...

OK, you're going to have to explain the "Bitter-Boo" thing. Is she a bitter child? A scary child...BOO!? What's behind that nickname?

mGk said...

Gina, of course! It's from Children's Place (a christmas gift from my very stylish SIL) and I love it too!

Molly, she loves you back.

B, that is what I started calling her in the hospital. (usually I say it quickly so it sounds more like bitta-boo...) I don't know where it came from because she is neither bitter nor scary. But it fits her very well, I think.