Leah 4 Months Old

My dearest beautiful Leah, you are amazing and perfectly adorable in every way! I absolutely love being your mom! We just had your 4 month well visit. Right now, you weigh 15 lbs 1 oz (67%) and you are 26 inches long (96%). The nurse measured you a second time because you were WAY off the charts. She kind of scrunched you in a little the second time. :) You are still in six month clothes and size two diapers.

If I needed to describe you with just one word, it would be MOVER!  You are constantly in motion. The nurse was going crazy over you at your well visit. You never stopped moving! She had quite the time getting your heart rate and oxygen level from the sensor because your kicking messed up the readings. The paper on the exam table was crinkled and torn after you laid on it a little while. At church, you are a big squirmer. You usually jump up and down on my lap all through the meetings. Whoever sits on the pew behind us usually gets quite the show! 

You continue to love your Jenny Jump Up, but I think I LOVE it even more. It is really the only reason that I get to shower, prepare food, eat, go to the bathroom, etc... You just love bouncing around and thinking that you can just walk off. A friend in the neighborhood let us borrow their exersaucer, but you only lasted about 5 minutes because you couldn't move from your position, you could only turn around.

This month you've started a few funny habits. You love to suck on your hands and many times you actually gag yourself with your fingers! Don't worry! I asked my Facebook peeps and apparently you're normal. Every once in a while, you get your thumb in there and start sucking on it, but I just stick in the pacifier and you usually take it.

You have gotten even more smiley as you've gotten older. Your happiest part of the day is when you first wake up. We haven't figured out why, but you always smile and giggle whenever we do a "MOOOoooooo" cow sound. You don't react to recordings, so I must assume that you think we look pretty silly scrunching up our faces all funny when we do it. It's nice though because it's an easy way to get you to smile for pictures.

This month started out tough. Your daddy had to go to Thailand for work and has been there this entire month! :( As soon as we got back from the reunion, you started nap striking... Exactly what it sounds like - you REFUSED to nap! You went from taking around FOUR 2-3 hour long naps to snoozing for only about 30 minutes after nursing. You would wake up ANY time I tried to move you. The only time you would take a longer nap was if I would nurse you to sleep on my bed and stay cuddled up next to you. I got NOTHING done. Luckily all that nap striking ended about a week ago, (Whew!) You're only taking 1-2 naps a day now, but they are starting to be longer and you will sleep on your own. Here's a picture from a day where I got NOOOOTHING done. Even Darwin was bored!

We stayed very busy this month with daddy being gone. I have a hard time keeping you happy unless you are moving or eating. We go on lots of walks around the neighborhood. We've even met friends for play dates just so we can go walking in a new place. We went to Cunningham Falls State Park and Greenbrier State Park with the local mom's group. We stayed out for over 4 hours both days and you were SO good. We only went in the water a little bit and you didn't like it much. You really liked watching all of the kids play around in the sand and water though and took some great naps while we were there under the shade of your play gym.

Your biggest developmental milestone this month has been developing the ability to reach out and grasp onto things. You grab at the rings on your play gym (on purpose!) and you like to grab the rubber ducky during bath time. You even have a favorite toy at this point. It's a blue soft elephant that makes a crinkly sound whenever you squeeze it.

You continue to flip like a champ and you've got all the motions down for crawling - you just haven't put them together. (Thank goodness!) When you roll over, you always roll to the left. You seem to have forgotten how to roll from front to back, but you've got the difficult one (rolling back to front) down. Being on your tummy used to upset you, but now I can get you to smile even when you're on your tummy. We even read your favorite book (Dr. Suess's ABC's) now during tummy time!

In an attempt to develop daily routines (and meet other neighborhood parents), we started going to the baby swings at the playground in the middle of the neighborhood. You really enjoy swinging in the swings outside. If we stay there too long, you always fall asleep. One time I was talking with two other parents at the neighborhood playground when I felt something dripping on my foot. There was a trail of liquid baby poop running down your leg and dripping onto my sandals!!! Oh the joys of motherhood! ;)

Right before you turned 4 months, we took a trip down to Virginia Beach to see your Aunt Heather and all your cousins. They loved playing with you and holding you! We went to the local recreation center. You didn't really care for the cold water in the pool. We took the opportunity the next day to go to the beach. You love being outside, but once again you found the water too cold and you SCREAMED when I put you in the water. You got really sandy, so we stripped you down and cleaned the sand off of you with baby powder (works wonders!). You really liked being out of your diaper, even if it only was for a limited amount of time!

On your 4 month birthday, we went with your mommy's family to Cunningham Falls. We tried the water again (unsuccessfully) and we hiked to a waterfall! You fell asleep in your carrier on the way there, but you woke up once we were at the falls. You were pretty unimpressed. I guess I have to take you to some waterfalls in Hawaii! 

Leah, you are becoming more and more fun each day. I feel so incredibly thankful that I get to be the mom of such an amazing and spirited little person. I am so happy being your mommy!

Perspective

Doug has been traveling for work since the family reunion and he won't be back until the12th. Taking care of an almost four month old is pretty time consuming. Leah is a mover and basically isn't content unless she is physically moving, nursing, or sleeping. The only reason I get a shower most days is because of an amazing contraption called the Jenny Jump Up. I get about 5-10 minutes with that. Who knew that being able to brush your hair would become a luxury?!

I'm not writing this post to complain about my current situation... although I guess I'm getting to do that too. :) I wanted to write down some of what I've been thinking about these few weeks because a 4 month old isn't much of a conversationalist.

A little over a week ago, I almost threw in the towel on being a stay at home mom. I guess there were probably several factors involved, but the one that was on the forefront of my mind was my complete inability to get ANYTHING done.

Leah was nap striking. She would sleep in my lap and next to me on my bed. I would try to sneak away, but she would wake up within a few seconds of me leaving her side. About the only time I had to myself was when I needed to use the bathroom and she was usually screaming about 10 feet away.

I happened to know about a first grade position at the elementary school less than a mile from my house. I was about to unresign my position and try to apply.

You see, I've been a stay at home mom now a little over 4 months and my kitchen is still HALF painted. It's been that way for OVER a year and it makes me feel like a complete failure. It's a dumb thing to stress about, but whatever. When you're home A LOT, you start to see a bunch of things that you'd like to get done (and Pinterest only exacerbates the problem).

So when was my turning point? When did I gain my perspective? Well, I guess there have been a few things...

First, a grandbaby of someone in my ward died of SIDS. (Worst freaking nightmare of any new mom) She was just a few days older than Leah and we actually met. I was nursing Leah in the mother's room at church and this mom came in. We talked for a while and I just remember the mom snuggling her little girl and whispering to her, "I love you. I love you. I love you." I remember thinking that Leah was huge compared to this baby that was a similar age.

The day I found out, I was bouncing Leah in a little bouncer in front of me and browsing Facebook. I immediately put my phone down and just hugged and squeezed my little girl. I've always snuggled my little Leah, but I started doing it even more. I treasure our time together (even though we do get A LOT of it).

Another thing that changed things for me was joining a Facebook group for moms in the small town that I live in. I've met lots of my neighbors and made new friends. I've learned about all the neat little events that go on in my itty bitty town. I've even started going on play dates.. haha.

Up until this point, I've always felt like my house was a temporary place... a stepping stone to my next house that would be bigger, better decorated, have a bigger yard, more garage space, etc. etc... My next house would be my HOME. Well, I've decided that I actually LIKE where I am. It's a great place to raise Leah. It's not perfect, but I'm going to make it my home.

So this weird feeling that I've been getting lately I guess is contentment.

I'm OKAY with the small town where I'm living. My house with it's postage stamp sized lawn, nonexistant driveway, and small bedrooms is just FINE. It's NOT A BIG DEAL that my kitchen is half painted. I will get to it eventually. I'm HAPPY where I am.

Right now, I'm just going to enjoy my time with Leah. She's does something new and amazing just about every day (even if amazing at this point is batting at a toy on purpose). It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's also pretty dang rewarding to wake up to her smiling face each morning.