Carrying a Pearl: Dear Cora: Four Months

Sweet Cora,

You turned 4 months old November 3, darling girl! I remember reading a friend's 4 month blog post about her little boy when you were probably 5 or 6 weeks old and thinking how much easier life would be once you hit the 4 month mark, and how far away that seemed. As it turns out, I was correct on the one hand, and utterly wrong on the other. Life is so much easier - for both of us - at this stage in your infancy, but 4 months was not far away. It has come so quickly. I was just telling your Daddy the other night that I wish I could freeze time for just a little bit right now. You and your brother are both at such fun ages, and I'm sad to know how fleeting the moments are.

So, lest I forget, let me tell you about some of the fun that you are up to lately ...
In the eating department, you are still completely breastfed, except for the 3-5 ounces of formula that you drink from a bottle after you nurse a bit at bedtime. You still eat 6-7 times a day. You're on a comfortable 3 hour eating routine, and our days are seeming as predictable as days with an infant and toddler could be. I guess the only thing that has really changed about your eating in the past month is that you eat much quicker now - it usually takes you about 10-12 minutes - and you have started getting really distracted during your daytime feedings. During your nighttime and early morning feeds you diligently fill your belly, but your daytime feeds are a different story. You'll eat for a minute or two, and then stop to either grin and coo at me, or to crane your neck to try to see what your brother or dad are up to. I am still staying away from dairy, but I'm slowly attempting to phase it back in. I've had butter in a few things in the past week and it hasn't seemed to affect you (although I've gotten a tummy-ache from it!), so we'll see how it goes. I am really looking forward to a week or two from now, when I see how you do with me eating greek yogurt ... drool.

As far as sleep goes, you are still doing great. You are usually asleep by 7:30-7:45, get up for a dreamfeed between 10:00-10:30, and then you wake sometime between 1:00am-5:30am to eat again. You are absolutely unpredictable about when you'll get up during the night. You still take about a two hour morning nap, a brief nap around lunchtime, and then another nap that lasts around an hour and a half in the afternoon. About once a week or so you'll rest in the evening, but not generally. The biggest sleep-related development this month is that you no longer sleep in your Napnanny. The day before you turned 4 months, I removed it from your bed and you've done great with the transition. You're back in it for a few days, because you have your first cold and you sleep more comfortably when you're elevated.

Developmentally, you are at such a fun stage! You grab everything in reach and put it in your mouth. You absolutely love being in your exersaucer. By the second time you sat in it, you had already figured out how to turn yourself around to get to the toys that interested you. I think you like being in it partly so you can play with the toys on it, and largely because your view of the world is so much better ... particularly your view of your brother. You love watching him run around, and honestly, I like having you in the exersaucer because I feel like you're a little safer than you are on the ground. He can't fall or step on you when you're sitting up in your plastic shell, although you're still not totally protected from the wayward balls that are so often flying through our home. I may need to get you a helmet :) Four days after you turned four months, you rolled over for the first time, from your back to your tummy! You still don't care for being on your tummy for more than a couple of minutes, but as I mentioned, you don't get tons of time on the floor. You have also started all sorts of new vocalizations this month. You tell long, cooing/squeal-y stories when you're not distracted by your brother; and when you are getting discontent you get a little whiny instead of crying right off the bat. Most of the time your laughter is still a giggle/grunt, but a couple of times you have had a real belly laugh ... both times at something goofy your brother was doing. I have a feeling we have years of you laughing at his antics ahead of us.

It is so sweet to watch your relationship with each other forming. He completely captures your attention and you just light up when he slows down long enough to smile at you or talk to you. Since you have started interacting more, he has become more interested in telling you or showing you things. He also thanks Jesus for you almost every time he prays before meals or bedtime. I know there are going to be rough times as the two of you struggle to learn about sharing attention, toys, etc. ahead of us; but I love that you are the siblings Jesus has chosen for one another. I pray that He uses your relationship to not only teach each of you some of those harder lessons, but sweet ones, like how to encourage and nuture and demonstrate compassion, as well. It has also been fun to watch your growing relationship with your Daddy. You light up for him and love his snuggles.

Here's a look at what we were up to in October!

We celebrated Daddy's 30th birthday with a lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings!

You and your brother got to go to your first Razorback game! The weather was horrible, but gratefully we were in the box with Grammie, Papa, Uncle Kyle & Aunt Millie, so we were dry and happy. You did great and were SO cute!

You got to meet your little friend, Kennedy! Her Mommy & Daddy were in our community group a couple of years ago, but they live in Memphis now. I wish we lived closer so you two could have playdates ... you're only a week apart in age.

You celebrated Mommy's 30th birthday!

For your first Halloween you were a little duckie & your brother was a cowboy on a horse!

And we all went to the Streetfest that our church hosted for the community in Springdale. Your silly Daddy was "Flobin" - Flabby Robin ... Fat Batman's sidekick.