Four months old

Dear Annika,

Today you are four months old. Four!

You are the most delightful little baby. You smile and laugh all the time, and squeal and shriek with delight when you see us. We introduced you to your jumperoo this month, and you will happily spend ages in there, bouncing and chatting. You remain mostly calm and mellow, and you love to be around people, though you definitely need your space to recharge.

Your fine motor skills have really developed this month. You're able to manipulate toys surprisingly well for your age--you can grasp toys, pass them from one hand to the other, reliably get them into your mouth, and now we've also discovered that if we set a toy on a surface in front of you, you can reach out and pick it up. You also seem very tactile, and like to scratch your fingers on your clothes and other surfaces. During tummy time, if you don't roll over (which you still do, but not every time) you will often reach out and rub your fingers against the fabric of your activity mat. You're also really into waving your arms and especially kicking, and you like to lift your legs in the air so you can stare at your feet, though I haven't yet seen you actually grab them. You love to use your leg muscles in general, and are delighted when we hold you in a standing position on our laps so you can bear your weight on your legs.

You are extremely interested in the world around you. Feeding you gets more challenging every day, as you are increasingly distracted and interested in looking all around. You also like to grab your bottle and try to hold it, often accidentally pushing it out of your mouth in the process, so the combination means that it can be very tough to keep the bottle in your mouth long enough for you to eat a full meal. You especially adore your brother, and stare at him intently whenever he's nearby.

You went on your first plane trip this month, and while you were great during the weekend away, the plane rides themselves didn't go so smoothly. You did well for about 1.5 hours each time, and then you were done, but the flight wasn't. This was where I learned that you really need to be left alone to sleep. The second flight especially was rather amazing--you wanted to sleep but couldn't do it in my arms and so you screamed for about 20 minutes straight, until we landed. When our seatmates exited the row, I set you down on the empty seats to collect our stuff, and the second I put you down you calmed down completely. As soon as I picked you up again the screaming began anew, and continued all the way through the terminal and baggage claim and parking garage until I got to the car and set you in your car seat, at which point you were instantly fine again. Lesson learned: sometimes, especially if you're overtired, you just do not want to be held.

Thankfully most of the time you are happy to snuggle and interact on our laps, and once recently I even got you to sleep on me for about an hour (the trick to this is to pick you up after you've already fallen asleep), and it was so delightful to cuddle you peacefully for so long. It's amazing to think that you're already growing away from that stage. But you are very surely four months old, complete with opinions, noise, interaction, and drool.

You're still sleeping great, about 11 hours in a row most nights and one long nap during the day, usually supplemented by another nap of varying length for a total of about 14-15 hours per day. You're also still growing along the same high curve--my home measurements have you at 16 pounds 6 ounces (88th percentile) and 26 inches (97th percentile). This month you fully weaned yourself from breastfeeding, and you eat about 28-30 ounces of formula most days. You're still in 3-6 month clothing, but I suspect you'll be moving into 6-12 in the near future.

I went back to work this month, and while it helps that I work from home and can pop in to see you a couple times during the day, it's definitely been an adjustment. I've had a few irrational pangs of worrying that you'll forget who your mother is after spending so much time with someone else, but when I finish work in the evenings and pick you up and you respond with a giant smile and delighted cooing and arm-waving, I know that you are my baby and I'm your mother and we're going to be just fine.

Love,
Mama