Month Four - Four Bottles and a Tooth

I couldn't find a Star Trek theme that fit well with this month, and it was just too exciting of a month to try and jam it into a theme that didn't fit. I'm blown away by how much Alexa has grown over the past month, and I don't just mean in height and weight. Her motor skills and emotional development have been so astounding that when I look at her I see glimpses of her toddler years.

At the beginning of every month, I read the developmental chapter for that month and the following month in my baby books. It helps me to know what to expect developmentally and gives me insight into what I should be doing to help Alexa hit the mark each month. This month focused on schedule setting and more active play.

I attacked the feeding schedule first, thinking it would take the wee awhile to adjust to scheduled feedings. First, we set her on a five bottles a day feeding schedule where she ate at 6 a.m., 9 a.m., 1 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Alexa took to the idea of scheduling like a plant leaning towards light. It was like she was just waiting for us to quit being so random. Then, after two weeks of the new schedule, she started throwing up almost full bottles in the morning. At first I thought she was sick. But, when it continued I realized that she had grown and was eating too many times a day. The hardest part of this realization is that I knew that the cherished morning feeding with Daddy Picard was the one that needed to be eliminated. Daddy Picard had been waking Alexa up in the morning to feed her early breakfast. So, I gently told Picard, "You can't wake her up in the morning any more. She needs to sleep until 7 a.m. and then we'll feed her at 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m." Within three days she slept until 7 a.m. I say this every month, but how did I end up with a kid just like me? The girl loves her schedules!



Efforts to help Alexa play more actively resulted in equally quick development. Alexa hadn't yet rolled over, so I started rolling her from side to side while playing on her bedroom floor. A few days later while playing on her tummy, she dropped to her side and rolled like she'd been doing it all her life. We play a new game with her legs that I like to call Martial Arts Legs and all of a sudden she's lifting her legs in the air to shift her weight and change directions. I put her on her play mat in one direction and when I come back she's rotated 180 degrees! Her enthusiasm for toys has grown tremendously and she easily picks up her favorites, shakes them around and puts them in her mouth to see how tasty they are. Her hands now play together and she loves to watch all the different ways her fingers can intertwine.



I was also convinced at the beginning of the month that Alexa had started teething. I knew it was a bit early, but saw the telltale signs that she was irritable, pulling on her gums, having diarrhea and gnawing much more aggressively on everything in sight. Lo and behold just last week we could feel the edge of a tooth starting to poke through. She also now has white spots on her gums, another clear sign.

Ok, I'm starting to feel a bit like I'm bragging at this point, but I don't care. I'm a Momma and that's my job! I also want to share that Alexa's babbling has hit new levels this month too. She shows a larger range of emotion and sounds. She has learned to cough to get my attention. I always check on her if she's coughing to make sure she's not choking on something, but will keep doing what I'm doing if she's only babbling, even if it gets louder. She's learned that she can make different sounds by talking with her fingers in her mouth. I don't know why, but when you say AhGoo to her it never fails to make her smile.

I feel like I'm still missing some of her accomplishments, but you get the idea. I have to say, seeing this all in writing just surprises me all over again. I started the month with a squishy, huggable newborn and ended the month with a scheduled, engaging, playful and nearly mobile baby who eats only four times a day, sleeps 12 hours a night and has a tooth breaking through. Will I wake up tomorrow and she'll be starting kindergarten?