Rosalie’s Four Month Update

I’m very late with this one. Rosalie turned 4 months old on 22nd December 2014. What with christmas and all the family shenanigans I haven’t had a chance to sit down and write this post until now.

 

Weight: Rosalie was last weighed on the 10th December. She was 15 weeks and 5 days old and she weighed 15lb 5oz.  This meant she dropped into the more average mid 75th percentile. Goodness knows what she weighs now especially as she has started eating proper food! – I had Rosalie weighed today on 7th January 2015 and she weighed 16lbs and 4 oz. She was bang on the 75th percentile line 🙂

Daily: Rosalie now goes to bed at around 7pm every night and so far is still sleeping through. Yey! She has been doing this for the last few weeks. She also now sleeps in her own room. I was anxious to do this at first as I had planned on having her in with us until she reached six months. However, it no longer worked for us to be in the same room together. Nick works shifts and so it meant they were forever waking each other up. Now Rosalie is settled in her own room we all sleep much better.

She is waking a little earlier than she was, usually around 5.30am. I feed her and put her back down in her cot in her nursery. She then sleeps till about 7.30am. She then starts to chat, she doesn’t cry she just jabbers away to herself and gets progressively louder and louder until you have no option but to go and get her. No lie ins these days! I change her and then usually bring her into our bed for an hour if Nick hasn’t been on nights and needs to sleep. She never sleeps in our bed though. I just lie there with my eyes closed until she makes so much noise it’s impossible to even feint sleep at which point we go downstairs to play. Rosalie will play on her playmat whilst I make my breakfast. By about 9/10am she is ready for another feed so I feed her and then try and put her down for a nap afterwards. She only ever sleeps for about 30 minutes. I try to get ready in this time. When she wakes up, I change her and get her dressed.

If we have swimming lessons or plans for the day I usually get Rosalie dressed before her nap straight after her feed. She will then usually nap in the car to wherever we are going.

I then feed her whenever she is ready. It is normally around 12/1pm. We have started weaning Rosalie so after that feed I will put Rosalie in her high chair and feed her some real food as lunch.

If we are out she sometimes won’t need feeding till later so I can leave her till we get home. Other times she will be hungry so I breast feed when we are out and then still feed her again with the boob once home followed by real food in her highchair if she hasn’t had it yet.

We will then have some more play time after her lunch and I then try and do some bits around the house and start to prep for dinner. She will also have another feed around 3/4pm.

We usually have dinner around 5pm. Rosalie sits in her bouncy chair on the island while I make dinner. We have started to put Rosalie in her highchair next to us while we eat. At the moment we are not feeding her at dinner and are trying to keep her occupied with toys. I don’t think it will be long until she’ll be eating dinner with us too.

After dinner, we start the bedtime routine. We give Rosalie a bath and then I will feed Rosalie. This can take up to an hour as I like to make sure she has had a really good feed before bed. She feeds on one side and then I wind her (if she’ll let me) and then I put her in her sleeping bag and feed her on the other side. Rosalie normally falls asleep on me, I then carry her into her nursery and put her down.

Sometimes if she is not fully asleep when I put her down she will wake. I don’t get her back out of her cot, I just put her dummy in, and start Ewan the sheep or her tomy dream show. This will normally send her off.

 

Playtime: Rosalie smiles and laughs all the time now. Her play gym is still her most loved toy and is still being used everyday.

Rosalie got a door bouncer for christmas and this is also something she loves. She happily bounces around in there on an evening. Its excellent for keeping her happy during witching hour! It’s good as it supports her and holds her upright so she can look around and see everything. The tigger on the front of the door bouncer is scrunchy so she has learnt to play with his ears and make a noise.

We are still using the jumperoo but I don’t think Rosalie is quite big enough to make the most of it yet. It will keep her occupied for a while and she has learnt to move round in a circle and to play with the different toys around the edge. Not much bouncing going on yet though.

Bedtime: Rosalie goes to bed at about 7pm each evening. We have dinner together then Rosalie has a bath. We then have a bit of playtime while we dry her and then I feed her until she takes herself off, normally once she has fallen asleep. I then try and lay her down in her cot, like a stealth, so I don’t wake her! She occasionally wakes up and I have to go and put her dummy in but more often than not that’s her for the night and we don’t hear a peep out of her until morning.

The last feed of the day I do sat on my bed. I just find this position most comfortable. I put Rosalie in her sleeping bag, mid feed. I still tuck Rosalie’s arms in her sleeping bag so she doesn’t get chilly. She is currently sleeping in a 2.5 tog sleeping bag.

 

Feeding: I am still breast feeding Rosalie and I am really happy doing so. We have also started weaning. We are spoon feeding Rosalie purées. It’s going well and I am yet to find a food she doesn’t like. I will do a separate post on the start of our weaning journey.

Rosalie still has about 5 feeds a day with around 4 hours between each feed but l tend to just feed her when she wants it. If I have tried all other ways to settle her and nothing else works I will feed her.

She normally has a feed at around 5.30am. I feed her and put her back down. She will then wake at around 7.30am. We get up then but I don’t usually feed her till about 9/10am. She will have another feed at around 12pm followed by some real food. I am currently feeding her two table spoons of purée at each sitting. The next feed will be about 2/3pm and usually another around 4/5pm. Sometimes we only have one feed in the afternoon depending on what we are doing. I then feed her at around 6pm before bed.

My boobs have now worked out how much milk to make and I am now able to sleep through the night. Yey! I still occasionally have a leakage but I think that is the price to pay for a baby that sleeps through.

Sizes: Rosalie is still in size 3-6 clothes… at the moment. Some sleepsuits and leggings are already getting too small. She has been bought lots of 6-9 month clothes for Christmas and already some of these fit her!!

She is still in size 3 nappies but the next pack of nappies I buy will be size 4.

Milestones:

Laughing – Rosalie really laughs and giggles now.

Gurgling – Rosalie makes so much noise these days!

Recognising her name – She definitely recognises her name now and turns to look at you when you call her.

Grabbing and picking up things – She can now pick up heavier toys and play with them. When she is on her play mat she grabs hold of the hanging toys and really looks at them and plays with them in her hands.

Sitting up – She can sit up on her own for small periods before she loses her balance and flops to the side.

Standing up – Rosalie stands up when you support her and when you hold her up she likes to bounce.

Rolling – Rosalie can roll from front to back and as of the last two days from back to front. She has really mastered her roll and keeps rolling all over the place. Dare I say it she looks like she is trying to crawl! Argh! (cry face emoji!)

Rosalie seems so so old all of a sudden. I walked into the kitchen the other day and she was sat in her highchair whilst my mum was feeding her pear (which she was lapping up) And I could have cried! Where’s my baby gone?! She seems to be learning new things every day and hitting new milestones every week. It’s crazy. She seems so clever. I’m amazed by her.