Audrey turned 4 months old on March 18th. There were a lot of changes this month. She's no longer a newborn at all and we're getting to see more and more personality. For the most part, she is the happiest baby, full of huge smiles that can win over anybody. Just like before, she will search for eye contact and then give you the biggest reward - a huge smile and gurgle. It's something I bet I'll always be able to picture in my mind, because I try to memorize it every time she does it.
Audrey is wearing 0-3 month clothing and a few 3-6 month things. The hand-me-downs from Josie fit the best since they have been washed and shrunk. The new things are still huge on her. I'm not used to this since Jo was always right on with the recommended sizes, so I still try to dress her in clothes that end up being too big right now. Oh well, at least I know she'll get to wear them soon.
I also bought more clothes thinking there weren't many from Jo's old collection and then found a whole other bag full of clothes that would work. So Audrey has plenty of options this spring. When summer comes we'll be back to nothing. I've been keeping my eyes open at thrift stores for nicer summer clothes since Josie's clothes are all for the coldest part of winter when she was 6-9 months old.
We've had a somewhat difficult month with breast feeding. She gets impatient and thrashes around when she's awake while eating (during the day, night time is just fine because she's drowsy) and it takes quite a while and a lot of switching back and forth before she'll settle in and actually eat. It took me a while to figure out that I just had to wait out her impatience before she'd eat, so she wasn't eating all of what was there, causing my production to drop. That's my theory, anyway. Now I'm in the process of trying to catch up again which is so frustrating. I also think that she went through a growth spurt of the last two weeks because suddenly she can eat and eat and eat. I still don't feel like I've caught up, but she still has wet diapers and isn't acting hungry all of the time. Hopefully this will even out soon, because I'm nowhere near done with this breastfeeding journey. We've had it so good, I think it just seems worse in comparison.
With difficulty eating comes difficulty sleeping. Whether it's just the growth spurt or she's not as full during the day, she's gone from waking up once a night to waking up two to three times at least. There was even a while there where she was waking up five to six times. That was rough. This mama isn't used to that! When Jo was this age, we worked on sleep training her, but she was also a lot bigger and was already eating rice cereal so she was much fuller before bedtime. I don't feel like Audrey is ready for food yet, but I'm going to check with the doctor this week (Thursday) and see what she thinks. I'm in no hurry to introduce solids but if it means she'll sleep better, I'm all for it.
I did start being intentional with nap times during the day. I used to just go by her cues, but now I'm trying to see what time it is and at least get the first two in at around 8:30-9:00 and then 12:30-1:30. After that, it really depends on what our day looks like (whether or not I have lessons, small group, staying home, etc).
Just this past week (technically right at four months), she started intentionally using her hands to grab at toys and things in front of her when on her tummy. She also likes being on her tummy sometimes, something I've been waiting for eagerly, and will be content on the floor for much longer periods of time without me in her face the whole time. Again, this is so different than Josie who would impatiently look around me when I tried to interact with her. I love how different my girls are.
Audrey is all about rolling over and is never where I left her when I go to pick her up. Thankfully everything is still baby proofed and I can trust that she won't hurt herself. The biggest danger she has is her big sister who loves to "help" when mommy's not looking. Many a times I've turned around to see Josie trying to help her "stretch" or "read a story" or "play with her toy" as Josie tells me. It's hilarious, but I can't really let it go on for too long because we haven't quite learned what being gentle is like. Most of the time, Audrey is a great sport and will laugh and laugh at her sister, but sometimes it's just too intense and I need to rescue her. I'm glad she is learning to laugh and play with Jo though because it's only going to be more rough as she gets bigger!
While Audrey can turn on the smiles and interact with the best of them, she also knows how to be heard when she's upset. There's a lot more drama in this little one than we had originally thought and it took us by surprise. Hubby and I looked at each other in shock during our Florida trip when she threw a fit and screamed in our face over and over again, because it seemed completely unlike her. We quickly learned how to troubleshoot and solve the problems, but we scrambled a bit and felt like first time parents all over again. I guess the honeymoon stage that comes with a sleepy newborn is done and we have to adjust with it. She's still a happy baby and of course we adore her, but she's not low maintenance like we had thought she'd be. In fact, sometimes she's the more difficult one of the two of them, which just goes to show how much each girl changes while growing up.
She still loves to be swaddled while she sleeps. We bought her more swaddle blankets in the bigger size (that we never used with Josie because she outgrew them and then stopped being swaddled to sleep) and will do it as long as we can. She sleeps amazing when she's swaddled tight. She still sleeps great in public although she hasn't learned to love sleeping in her car seat.
And here's the comparison of the two. We've been hearing more and more that she looks so much like her sister, although I feel like she's looking less and less like her. Their personalities are so different, and it doesn't show through in pictures as much. What do you think?
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