Eisley Update: 4 Months

My baby girl turned 4 months old on February 14, 2012 (Valentine's Day!!). She has gotten so big! She all ready doubled her birth weight, and I can definitely tell because it's almost impossible to cradle her in one arm. She is a chunky monkey, weighing in at almost 16 pounds! So far, 4 months has really been the most fun month. She smiles all the time! She gets so excited when she sees Craig or I. My favorite time of day is first thing in the morning. When I walk into her room, she looks over at me and gets the biggest grin on her face and starts kicking her legs and screaming! Oh my gosh, my heart melts every morning.

She is such a strong little girl too! She loves to sit up on her own, all though she can't support herself yet. She's recently started standing up on her own as well. Once we pull her up into a sitting position she pushes down on her feet and pulls herself up to stand. She's got strong, chubby little legs. lol

Her sleeping schedule has been all sorts of messed up. She was consistently sleeping 7 or 8 hours straight at night with only one feeding. But there have been several nights where she's up every 4 hours (or less sometimes). Also naps have become a daily battle. Each day I try something new to get her to sleep. It seems as though she wants to get herself to sleep. Maybe since she's bigger than she used to be, it's more comfortable for her to just stretch out and relax on her own. Plus, she's becoming less and less dependent on her pacifier. She can fall asleep easily without it most of the time, which is such a relief. I was worried we had started a horrible habit.

A big milestone for Eisley this month was trying solids!! We are really just testing out a few solids here and there to see how she reacts. She showed some signs of being ready, so we are experimenting. So far, she has just tried carrots. It was so fun to watch her eat something besides just drinking from a bottle. I don't think we will be replacing solids for meals anytime soon. I was surprised her pediatrician recommended starting solids at 4 months. I had planned on waiting until 6 months, but again I felt like she may be ready to at least try a few things.

She is so much more aware of the world around her. She loves to people watch if we are out and loves to just take in everything. She loves to play with toys and EVERYTHING goes into her mouth. Which leads me to the next big milestone... teething! I think she's starting to have a little bit of teething pain from time to time. We're doing what we can to help her with the occasional discomfort. So far we've tried Gentle Naturals Homeopathic Teething Drops and it really does seem to calm her and she doesn't get so panicky if she isn't chewing on something. Also, I've ordered her an amber teething necklace so we'll see if that helps as well.

Overall, my baby girl is doing so well! I can't believe how much she is growing up and each day brings something new and exciting. Here are some recent pictures of our sweet pea... Enjoy!

 

Turning a NEW leaf!

It's been a while since I've posted. I really have no reason, other than I've been lazy lol.

 

I've been spending my time taking care of my sweet baby (who is 4 MONTHS OLD NOW! Where is time going!?), organzing/decorating our home, and just trying to be the best homemaker I can be! (I hate the term "homemaker" by the way, but for now that's what I'll call myself until I think of a more modern term). I feel like our life is FINALLY moving forward. In a way I feel like we were living in limbo for a while. Always saying, "Soon, we'll do this..." or "Once we get this done, then we can start making plans..." etc. We recently payed off an outstanding loan to a college my husband went to 4 years ago, which means we can finally transfer those credits to another school. It's so nice to have that debt lingering over us anymore. Craig got accepted to another school recently and should be starting classes in April! It will be hard for him to balance working full time, going to school full time, and being a husband and father... but I know he can do it! We support him 100% and I will give him as much space as he needs so he can succeed in school. Plus, only living an hour away from family, makes it easier to get out of the house and visit our hometown which we LOVE! Ahhh... I just feel like I can breathe easier. I know it may not seem like a big deal but when you're a new mom and you're husband works full time and you have no friends or family within a reasonable distance, it can get depressing. No, I wasn't depressed when we lived 4 hours away in Missouri but it was just hard. Things are a lot easier now.

We are also trying to live a healthier, more natural  lifestyle. We are both going to start exercising more, eating healthy, really watching what we put on our (and Eisley's) body, and what I am most excited about...

 

CLOTH DIAPERING!!

 

You don't even know how excited I am. Like it's become an obsession of mine. :) I thought about it some before I had our daughter, but thought it would be way too time consuming  and not really worth it. Craig really wasn't a fan of it when I first mentioned it either. But recently, I've been doing sooo much research and realized we would save a TON of money!! Like over $2,000 in the next year and a half! Plus, if we cloth diaper future babies... we'll save even more! I've basically ordered everything but the diapers. Well, I've ordered one. A Fuzzibunz One Size diaper. I think I want to stick with one brand and one style. I know cloth dipaer users say it's best to get a variety of different kinds to start out with. But, with all the research I've been doing Fuzzibunz seems like the brand for us. But it may be too premature to tell... I'll keep updating on that :) I'd like to eventually use cloth wipes as well but at the moments I think I have over a thousand wipes to use up. I bought a large box of wipes a couple months ago and then my mom bought me an economy size of wipes as well... so I'm set for awhile!