Lillian - 4 Months

Below: Lillian in the grass at her Nana and Papa's in College Station Memorial Day weekend.

Below: Cousin Jackson and Lillian enjoy the shade.
Below: A spectator at Daddy's triathlon this month - not her first race to watch, but her first tri!

Below: Michael before starting the race and me with Lillian in the Moby.

Lillian is now 4 months old. I look at her newborn pictures and the Lillian that couldn't hold toys or laugh or find her hands feels miles away. The development that is happening at this stage is remarkable. Every day it seems that Lillian is acquiring or perfecting a new skill that Michael and I wonder at!

Click on the images below to enjoy some videos of L from this past month.

"Screetch"

This is what I call "grumpin'" where L just sort of pouts it out, but isn't crying.

In the last month Lillian...

• Found her feet. She started watching as her feet flexed in her car seat; then, intentionally kicking things; then putting her feet together to 'grab' things. Now she brings those little feet up to her hands and holds onto her toes or heels.
• Rolled from back to tummy! Last month she'd done some good tummy to back rollovers, but this month we go both ways.
• Began her 'baby crunches' where she lifts her head when you pick her up to 'help you' or when she's laying down and doesn't want to be.
• Puts everything into her mouth. She's getting toys there more often, a good portion of her fingers are in there these days (though she does favor her thumb and pointer finger with one on each side of her mouth) and she's especially drooly.
• ...She still has love for her paci though. She likes it as her 'cue' for bedtime though we can take it out before we lay her down, but we also use it during the day she gets fussy or starts yelling at inappropriate times. Communion anyone?
• Loves 'standing' and putting weight on her legs. She will tolerate sitting if she's in a good mood, but certainly doesn't like it as much.
• Still looooves some talking whether you're listening or not and she's certainly letting out some high pitched noises these days.
• Giggles! It's still short and more like a series of a couple fast "ha" "ha" cough type noises, but it sure is cute!

Below: Lillian with her Ninny giving her the biggest grins! LOVE!!!

• Tries to get her knees up under her and scoot - this has only happened a few times so far and happened the week before she turned 4 months, so we'll see what this coming month holds in that regard.
• Still loves baths which have become one of my favorite times of day. She smiles and smiles as we prep the water, she LOVES the squeaky little rubber ducky and she doesn't even cry as we pull her out of the water into the air to dry her off. She's great until we start to put her clothes on.... haha
• Started smiling if you raise her up in the air above your head, but she likes to do it slowly still. Fast seems to freak her out.

From the battleground of sleep (or not sleeping as the case may be), this month has been a challenging one.

• We tried to begin moving Lillian's bedtime from 10:30 ish, toward 8:30, but no matter how gradually we did this we usually spent around 2 hours of fussing and fighting before any sleep was had. She would wake up about an hour after going to sleep and want her paci put back in (at the least).
• Lillian left the days of sleeping 4 to 5 hours the first part of the night like she was doing between 2 and 3 months and returned to nights of eating every 2 and 3 hours. Thinking this might be tied to the two weeks I returned to the office and a change in her schedule, we tried to ride it out, but as we neared 4 months we had a series of nights where she was up literally once every hour and I slept on the floor in her room. Desperate, we visited the pediatrician who suggested we try feeding her every 2 to 2 1/2 hours throughout the day to see if that improved things. As Lillian turns four months we are still experimenting with this to see what happens!
• Some tears were shed by both of us over naps this month, but she is finally napping in her crib - occasionally on her side, occassionally propped up on the Boppy under close supervison, but always listening to music, swaddled with her blanket/bear.

At her 4 month appointment Lillian weighed 12.7 (in the 25th percentile), was a little over 26 inches long (in the 90th percentile) and was still wearing a lot of her 3 month sized clothes with the real challenge being the length... everything is big in the waist! :) People most comment on her pretty blue eyes and her CHEEKS! They are pretty squishably delicious!