If I could use one word to describe Adriana over the past couple weeks it would be – changing! She is going through what appears to be many developmental milestones. This girl is always in motion. Her arms and legs are always flailing about. I call her squirmy girl multiple times per day. If her feet press up against anything her first instinct is to push off it with all her force. She has tried to spring off my belly a few times when I pick her up. The energy. Baby talk is also going on all the time, unless she is in the company of new people then she tends to be quiet and observant.
Adriana has also started grasping everything in sight – including my hair (ouch) and my necklaces. I see a lot of ponytails in my future. Or a hair cut! In addition to the grasping, she is scratching everything in sight. Textures are so interesting to her right now. She likes to scratch the top of my breast with her nails when she feeds sometimes. I am trying to gently correct this behaviour. ;) Her favourite book is her fabric book that makes the crinkle noises – she looooves scratching it all the live long day. It’s hard to keep up with filing her nails…they grow so fast.
Also, her hands and feet are suddenly very interesting. The other day I noticed that she spotted her feet and she had the funniest, most confused look on her face…like wtf are those???
I would be lying if I said that these recent developmental changes didn’t bring about some challenging times over the past couple weeks. I swear I was just saying “The 3 month mark is my FAVOURITE so far” a few weeks ago, and then everything changed, almost overnight. Lately, she has been quick to cry, often refuses to nap, wakes up multiple times in the night (like the newborn days), and mostly just wants to be held lately. It hasn’t been easy. I feel like that awesome grove we got into simply vanished into thin air. I’ve been feeling so run down.
And at this age, there are so many explanations for these changes in behaviour…
The dreaded 4 Month sleep regression (I’ve been reading a lot about this at 2am, lol)
Teething (she seems to be in so much discomfort lately)
A Wonder Weeks developmental “leap” (sure enough, I checked my app and weeks 14.5-19 are storm clouds!)
Growth spurt
Travel or disturbance of environment/routine (which we did a lot of over the holidays)
Transitioning from co-sleeper to bassinet (we just did this last week)
or umm…how about just being a baby? They tend to do that sometimes. ;)
So lots and lots of changes going on. I guess it’s to be expected. We’re just trying to give her a lot of love and consistency. Consistency is hard because some days she refuses to nap (yesterday she napped maybe three 15 minute sessions) which only creates an overtired baby who is less likely to sleep well at night. If you have been through this before you know exactly what I’m talking about! We are going to continue experimenting with an earlier bedtime to see if that helps.
We’re still working on getting her to take a pumped bottle. I bought some faster flow nipples last week and they seemed to help a bit, but she is still not latching on. She just gums the nipple and lets the milk flow into her mouth (half of which ends up coming out). I’m still EBF (exclusively breastfeeding) on demand, and aside from the challenges I continue to love it.
Current fav nickname: monkey-doodle
Teething: Nothing really new to report except for a lot of fist chewing, cheek rubbing, mega drool (hello bibs!), and extra fussiness. We also went through a couple days where she seemed to be using my nipples as teethers – she was rough on them. I even got a few tiny sucking blisters again and it reminded me how painful the early weeks of BF’ing were. Luckily, they healed up very quickly and it hasn’t been an issue since. Overall, she seems to be quite fussy/distracted at the boob lately and sometimes she will completely refuse to nurse and cry.
Exercise: As I mentioned, I’ve felt really run down lately so I’ve worked out maybe twice in the past 2 weeks. Oye. I think I’m the only person who stopped working out at the start of a New Year! Oh well. I just haven’t felt that motivated about working out lately and my eating hasn’t been great either (craving lots of sugar from lack of sleep). It’s a vicious cycle! I know activity usually helps me feel better, so I’m going to make it my goal to get in a bit of exercise each day this week, even if it’s only a 20 minute walk. Warm weather please hurry!
Weight: We are quickly approaching the doubling of her birth weight. She clocked in at 13.4 pounds on Monday (birth weight was 7 lbs).
Height: Approx. 24.5 inches – 4.5 inches up from birth
Current clothing sizes: She is mostly in 3-6 months now, although some brands are still a bit big. I’m in total denial and will occasionally try to put the 3 months clothes on her with bare-legged results, hah.
Well, that’s all for this week. We’re in a bit of a challenging time, but I know we’ll get through it. Feel free to let me know in the comments how things are going for you! Any new phases or developmental milestones to report? Sleep regressions? Maybe we can be zombies together. ;)
I hope 2015 is off to a great start for you all!