Four month letter

My dearest Leigha.

So much has happened in this last month.  You have started doing SO. MANY. THINGS now, and in just a short time frame of just a couple of weeks!!!

You are now 15 pounds and 26 inches long.  In the 4 short months that you have been in our lives, you have doubled your birth weight and grown 5 inches!  You are growing like a weed!!!  You are still 75% in weight, but you are now 95% for height.

Doc says that you are definitely teething that he can feel that your gums have gotten much harder and they should be working their way out.  Its only a matter of time, the days of the gummy sweet smiles are numbered.

Last month, you wouldn't roll over, you had just found your hands, but you didn't really seem to interested in them.  You just laid there and didn't do much of anything really.

Now in the past month, you constantly have your hands in your mouth.  You love to suck on your thumb and first and second fingers.  You have them in your mouth so much they are in a constant state of red wrinkly-ness from being wet all the time.  You have begun to talk to me when we are in the car, and speaking of cars, you used to fall asleep in them, any time we went ANYWHERE, and not just long trips, but you used to fall asleep even when we went just to Walmart.

Also in the last month you have found your tongue and your lips.  If you don't have your hands in your mouth you are playing with your tongue, or sucking on your bottom lip, which of course makes you look like the sweetest little cabbage patch doll...someday I am going to catch it on video (you will love that when you are older).

You can now roll from back to front and back again both from either side.  You will do it pretty much any time I put you on the ground.  When you are on your stomach, I also notice that you can hold your head up at a 90 degree angle now and you are really really trying to get your feet to move.  You are constantly trying to kick them to get you to scoot across your play mat. 

You have also started to grab at your toys quite frequently.  You are now never just content to sit and have things near you.  If I am eating or drinking or reading or changing the channel on the TV, you will always grab my hand to try to get what I am holding, into your mouth.

You think that 'horsey rides' are the best thing in the world, the one where the lady, gentleman, and cowboy goes for rides in the morning and the bouncing gets progressively faster.  All I have to do is put you on my knees and sing the song and you break out into the biggest grin which only gets bigger if I actually bounce my legs. 

We have moved you into your own bed at night.  It was really really hard on me at first.  I didn't want to let you go, so we made a bed up on the floor of pillows and blankets and I slept in there for the first few nights.  I didn't want you to be scared because you are never in that room at night with the lights off, and I wanted to show you that when you cried I would still be right there to get you even if I wasn't very close.  It took me several days to finally get up the nerve to leave you in your room all night by yourself.  But it took even longer to clean up the bed.  I still slept in there every once in a while just because I like being close to you.  Its so nice to just cuddle up with you, or go to sleep knowing that I just have to sit up and look in your crib and I can see your cute little self all comfy in your bed.  But now the palate is picked up, even if it is just folded up and stacked at the foot of your bed.

You are now consistently waking up at 3:30 wanting to be fed, and lately after that time you haven't wanted to go back to sleep.  I told your doctor that at your 4 month checkup and he said that we need to start prolonging the amount of time that it takes me to go get you and cutting back on the night feedings because you need to start sleeping through the night.  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this.  Sure this is one of my worst times of the night because I am so tired, but I like it being us.  I may be wrong, but I think that when you are ready to cut out the night feeding, you will let us know.

We are also starting to really be able to tell that you are very ticklish.  You are ticklish on your feet, stomach, neck, and underarms...the usual spots.  You smile and shriek whenever I tickle you there.  You really like to be upside down as well and will throw yourself backwards to look at things upside down, so of course this allows me to tickle your tummy, or zerbert it.  Come to think of it, I'm not sure if you like looking at things upside down, or if you like me tickling your stomach LOL.

You are becoming such a little person, its crazy.  You can really see your personality come out.  You like to be around people (which you get from your Daddy), but at times you like to be by yourself (which you get from me.)  You are in general a very serious baby, but you like to have fun.

I hate that you are growing so fast sweetheart, please slow down and let me enjoy your cuddly littleness just for a while longer.

We love you Beautiful!!!
Mommy