Tuesday, January 22, 2013

four months

Little Em turned 4 months old on Sunday, and it's so crazy to me how fast she's changing!


-We've finally started sleep training.  We wanted to wait until she was in her own room so she wouldn't get confused and have to start over when we made the transition.  With the move and waiting for her crib and all of the projects we had to get done, we're just now moving her to her room.  Sunday was our first night.  I was nervous about it since she was in a new bed and a new room, but we were determined.  We did our nightly routine and put her down while she was still awake.  I was worried there would be lots of tears.  She didn't cry AT ALL.  Not for one second!  I couldn't believe it.  I knew it was probably too good to be true... and I was right.  She was up a little more often during the night than usual and we'll definitely have to get her used to falling back asleep on her own.  Last night, she cried for about 30 minutes before I went in to calm her, but then she fell asleep after that.  She was up again at 11 and had to cry it out a little bit, but after that she was much better.  She was only up for one feeding and then slept until morning.  Hopefully she continues on the right track and it all gets worked out soon.
-Emily can now reach for objects, which makes toys a lot more interesting to her.  She also loves playing with people's hands.  If she can get toys into her mouth, she will.  She's even put her pacifier back in a few times.  She can usually get it to her mouth, but the tricky part is positioning it correctly.  If she can't get it, she'll always chew on her hands.  She LOVES chewing on her fingers!  When we did her photoshoot, it was hard to get any pictures of her without her hands in her mouth.  Because of this, she gets drool everywhere!  There's always slobber all over her face, hands, and clothes.  We've heard this could be a sign of teething, so we'll see.
-Her coos have gotten a lot louder.  She's been experimenting a lot with her voice and she loves the noises she can make.  She tries to communicate with us.  She'll start humming at the end of her feedings, and I think she's trying to signal to me that she's done :)  She can laugh, but not really on demand.  She'll do it randomly, but then if we try to get her to do it again, she won't.  She's getting there, though.
-She's had a big case of stranger danger lately.  Maybe it has something to do with the move and the fact that she's mostly just with me all of the time.  She loves other people as long as they're not holding her.  She'll smile at them and talk to them, but as soon as they pick her up she'll start crying.  It's like the flip of a switch and it flips off immediately once I take her back.  She'll always go to me or Grant, and usually my mom.  But right now most other people scare her.  Occasionally she'll let people hold her for a few minutes, but it doesn't last long.  I'm hoping it's just a phase, but I'm not sure what to do to help her with it.

We wish we could've gotten a better picture of her this month, but like I said before, she had her hands in her mouth pretty much the whole time.  Either that, or she was playing with her onesie sticker.  Here are some of the outtakes of our cute girl: