4 months old!

As I say every time I write about Lauren's well baby check ups, time is flying! Just the other day she was this tiny little thing that slept, ate and pooped. Now she's doing an amazing array of things!

First, her stats from her well baby check up:

Length: 25 inches (75th percentile)

Weight: 14 pounds 10 ounces (75th percentile)

Head: 16 1/2 inches (75th percentile)

You may notice that her head seems to have stayed the same size. The nurse that measured her today said she didn't trust the last measurement. She was probably a lot smaller, closer to something that would put her around the 75th percentile, which seems to be where she wants to stay. She's perfectly rounded! The doctor was very happy with how she is doing with her growth and the milestones she is hitting. She recommended starting her on solids since she is now a supported sitter and has great head control. So that's just what we did!

Yummy!

I started out with the really soupy rice cereal. She was not a big fan of that, so we moved on to some applesauce. Much better! She was already chewing and really enjoyed it! She did make some funny faces, but when you are used to formula I'm sure the texture and taste of apples will throw you for a loop.

She has started doing all sorts of new things, most of them within the last week or so. She is laughing out loud, which is one of my favorite sounds! To get a big old laugh all you have to do is talk back to her when she gets to babbling. She is also much happier about tummy time and will hang out on her tummy, smiling away, for at least a few minutes. She has rolled once or twice from both her tummy to her back and her back to her tummy, but she would rather just lay on her side. She'll lay there and push with her feet, turning herself in a complete circle, which is why we've started calling her Curly.

She has definitely turned into a "grabber" and of course, like all babies, anything within reach makes it to her mouth. Just today we went to Walmart and a plastic sack was right next to her carseat in the cart. She reached out and grabbed it before I even realized that it was close enough! Most of the things that make it into her fists are no where near as scary as plastic bags. It's usually a toy or blanket, sometimes one of our fingers, and once she got a good hold on my nose and pulled. She has quite a grip!

There are only a few things that she does that are no fun. One of them is screeching, which usually signifies she's hungry or tired, wants her diaper changed (very particular about that!), or her teeth are hurting her, Which leads me to the next unhappy thing...teething. Brenden was drooling at this point, but he wasn't screaming bloody murder. Poor Lauren will have moments where she is inconsolable. We've had to break out the Baby Orajel and the teething tablets, both of which have saved my sanity.

She's also started sucking her thumb in the middle of the night, which is both good and bad. It's bad because you can't really take her thumb away when you're ready for her to quit sucking it. It hasn't become an all day thing yet so I'm not super worried. The good thing about it is she can self soothe herself at night when she wakes up, which is how I found her a few nights ago.

Very content, sucking on her thumb.

The best part of my day is going to pick her up in the morning and seeing the huge smile spread across her face. She is the sweetest baby and an absolute joy. Happy 4 month birthday, Lauren! We love you!

4 months old!