4 Months

Lena is growing so fast. Almost as fast as life is currently moving.

Speaking of moving....

We are now moved into our new home in Enid and trying to settle in.

Lena's fourth house in four months of life.


I know I'm pretty behind on getting this blog up....before I dive into Lena's new accomplishments and cute pictures, I'll explain why.

We moved into our house a little over a week ago, the day after Lena turned 4 months. My husband and I got 24 hours with just the baby to unpack and clean like crazy people. We did too. We got the kitchen and our bedroom completely unpacked and the living room the following day. My husband took off work for two days to help with the rest and then he came down with a horrible stomach bug that left him in bed and throwing up for two days. He had one day then where he went to work and he felt ok. Unfortunately we were thrown for another horrible turn when we got the call that night that a C130 crew from my husband's old squadron had crashed in Afghanistan and they all died. Needless to say, we were crushed to lose our friends and heartbroken for the families they've left behind. I won't go into great detail on this blog. But another one soon....

That was our first week in the new house. It's been hectic and thats why I have put off the blog so long.

Anyway, when I originally began planning what to write in this blog, I thought it would be fun to go back and read Elise's 4 month blog. To my surprise (and dismay a little) it was EXACTLY what I was planning to write.

I say dismay only because Lena's sleep has taken a turn for the worst, unfortunately. She was sleeping a good 4-5 hours and then 2-3 each night. Now we are lucky to get anything more than 2 hours. I know the Wonder Weeks fourth leap is the biggest and I can tell she's been extremely focused on completing tasks and learning things. She can now grab her feet with her hands, roll over both ways, and she's found her voice and uses it often. These are all things that have caused her frustration and probably some major growth in her tiny brain. Her and Ellie both hit the 4 month sleep regression early. Pretty much at exactly the same time. So much for them being polar opposites!

The sleep thing is tough. I didn't forget that part. Luckily, this time around, I have help from my husband. We have a new system where he helps her try to stretch time between feedings at night. I've tried to do this on my own and because Lena can smell breastmilk on me, the longer I go trying to soothe her in ways without my breast, the more upset she becomes. I can't get her to calm down without it. My husband, on the other hand, can and he's really good at it. We've now got Lena only eating every 3 hours at night and sometimes she wakes up in between and sometimes she doesn't. At the very least, he's saving me from having to get up 4-5 times a night. I didn't have that kind of help with Elise, and we wound up co sleeping for four months. I've tried co sleeping with Lena when Josh is away and it's not really a solution. She wants to literally be on my breast ALL night long. I don't get much sleep and it really hurts by the time it's time to get up in the morning.

Besides sleep though, Lena is really starting to show her personality. She smiles SO much. Especially at Ellie. Since she's doing a lot more "talking" now, her and Ellie's conversations are our favorite thing in the whole world to listen to and watch. Ellie also really engages her in playing now. She pretends to cook or feed her food, she hands her toys, and lays down with her on the floor just to watch her babble or play.

Lena is nursing 3-4 times during the day now. About every 4-5 hours. I prefer it this way because by the time she does eat, she is hungry enough to eat without pulling off or getting too distracted. She gets her fill and moves on! Makes it super easy for me. She also recognizes when I sign "milk" and gets pretty excited and impatient. She still makes the sweetest little moans and grunts when she's nursing. It's always been one of my favorite things about babies eating, and I'm always sad when it goes away! I'm trying to enjoy it every single time.

Lena is starting to get really strong physically as well. She is pushing her chest up off the floor during tummy time, really rolling around on her play mat, and that girl LOVES to practice standing and even practice walking. She stands in front of the mirror and gets a look of pride every single time. When Dads home, we practice walking to him, she takes steps with her huge chunky thighs and her teeny tiny feet. We love watching her try new things and celebrating each new thing that comes. We did these things with Ellie too, but when my husband was deployed, it was all bittersweet. We were so proud, but so sad at the same time.

I cannot express my excitement for the coming months with my husband being home. This will be our first holiday season as a family. Not just of four, but with any kids at all. The last Christmas Josh was home for, I was days away from going into labor with Elise. That was almost 3 years ago. Long overdue for our family to be together for Christmas.

My husband sadly mentioned the other day that he doesn't know what its like to have/live with a baby between the ages of 8-14 months old. So much happens in that time too. Crawling, walking, first words, eating real food, etc. For us it also meant weaning, getting sleep back (finally!), and starting to take fun family trips. We are both pretty thrilled that he will be here for all of that this time around. I told my mother in law the other day, that while we are happy he's here now, I don't know if either of us will get over him missing all of that for Elise. I don't care what anyone else says to try to make you feel better about something like that....because regardless, you don't get that time back. Ever. Once it's gone, it's gone. So we intend to soak up and make a big deal out of every event we are lucky enough to spend together from now on. It's worth the effort.