4 Months

Dear Emma,

Today you are 4 months old! I know, right? I can’t believe it either. Yesterday we took you to the pediatrician and you measured a whopping 16 pounds 4 ounces and 26 inches long. That’s 90th percentile for weight and 95th for height — you are my little BIG girl! You also got your second round of shots and though you cried briefly because of the needle pricks, you actually cried MORE when the doctor scooped wax out of your ears. You’re already keeping us on our toes by doing the unexpected…

This has been a month full of changes and new experiences for our whole family. I’ve been back at work for 5 weeks now and you, Dad and I are working hard to find our groove. We have a note taped to the front door reminding us not to forget your bottles. And one morning after I dropped you off at daycare and was driving to work, I realized that I had forgotten to sign you in AND I was still wearing my blue shoe cover booties. (The booties, which we have to wear when we walk into your classroom to keep the floor from getting too dirty, are oh-so-stylish as you can imagine. I’m sure several other parents got a good chuckle seeing me walk out to the car wearing them.)

This week has been a little rough — the combination of early morning meetings and four straight nights of you waking up in the wee hours have left me feeling pretty exhausted. When you were a newborn, I adjusted to operating on short chunks of sleep and could function pretty well. But after enjoying a solid month of you sleeping from your 11 pm “dream feed” straight through to 7 am with nary a peep, having to get up at 1:30 to rock you back to sleep wears me out! Still, fatigue and daycare dropoff absent-mindedness aside, I’m happy to report that I think we’re settling into a comfortable daily routine.

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You’ve also made some pretty cool developmental leaps this month. This past Sunday, you woke up and decided it was time to talk. Just like that! As if someone had turned a switch inside your head! You had “talked” a bit before, but since Sunday you’ve been babbling like crazy. Dad and I sit around with big goofy grins on our faces and laugh together as we listen to you. For now you’re limited to vowels — ooooh, ehhhh — but I’m already working on “mama.” Promise me that’ll be your first real word, ok?

Baby 411 has a long list of other milestones and we occasionally flip it open to find what you’re doing now and see what you might be doing next. Holds head steady? Check. Pushes chest up while lying on stomach? Check. Bears weight on legs when held in standing position? Double check — you LOVE to “stand” on our laps and check out your surroundings. You don’t cry too much these days, and when you do, it’s nearly always because you’re either tired or hungry. It’s such a relief to finally be able to figure out what your cries are telling us. Overall, you smile more, laugh more, and are a totally delightful baby girl.

Two weeks ago, you went on your first road trip to visit Dad’s side of the family in Corpus Christi for Thanksgiving. Grandma R and Uncle Alex were of course excited to see you again, and the rest of the family was thrilled to meet you for the first time. You got passed from person to person, covered in kisses, and smothered with hugs for the entire afternoon. We left one house to go to another though, and that’s when you decided you’d had enough. For a little girl used to just hanging out with the two of us, I can see how meeting 30 of your relatives was a little overstimulating. But for the most part you were utterly charming, and everyone can’t wait to see you again!

Unfortunately, since Thanksgiving you’ve been congested. Tonight it reached new heights and you were pretty fussy, but I don’t blame you one bit. I could hear the snot clogging your nose and running down your throat. You kept trying to suck your thumb for comfort, but you can’t really breathe through your nose, so sucking your thumb means you can’t breathe at all, but you don’t realize that yet — so not being able to suck your thumb makes you upset, and the cycle starts all over again!

As I listen to your sniffles and coughs, I am sadly starting understand the true meaning of “heartbreaking.” I’m your mom! I’m supposed to be able to fix things for you! Oh, my sweet little girl, I would rather battle a thousand colds than watch you suffer through this one. But I can’t. Instead, I dry your tears, wipe your nose, snuggle you extra close and do everything I can to let you know that I’m here.

And I will always, always be here.

Love,
Mama