SIX months!

Dear Alle,
Happy 1/2 birthday my little one! Well, you really aren't all that little any more. Just a few weeks ago on July 22 when you were 5 months, 2 weeks old ACTUAL and 3 months, 1 week old ADJUSTED, you weighed in at 13 pounds, 4 ounces. You are growing like a weed flower and continue to change with each passing day. There seems to be new milestones met each week. Here are a few of my favorites:

7/14...For the past few days you have been feeding one last time before 9:00pm and sleeping until 7:30-8:00am. Um, are you really my child? Not only are you sleeping WELL through the night, but you just might possibly be the easiest of babies when it comes to putting you down for bedtime. Our nighttime routine is still flexible, but that will change when the girls start school in August and I will have time with you after they are asleep to bathe you, read to you, sing to you, and just plain snuggle you. Right now our nights are so late with summer time fun, late swims, late movies, late desserts...you get the picture, right? Right now, after your last feed and actually sometime toward the end of it, you become rather sleepy. You rub your eyes and your blinks become long and heavy. At this point I can lay you down in your cosleeper, give you your paci, lovie, and burp cloth and walk away, leaving you drifting off to sleep completely on your own. Really? Could it be any easier?

7/30 You have discovered your voice! Remember all that you would do with your lips and mouth only to say something so tiny, so short, and so soft? Well, those days are LONG gone. You have completey discoverd your voice and you sure do love hearing yourself talk...all. the. time.

8/1...While I'm not quite sure exactly when you started doing this, I know it was somewhere between 5-6 months actual and 3-4 months adjusted. When you are nursing, once you are somewhat satisfied you like to take an intermission, lay back, and chat with mama. I usually can't get a word in edge-wise and you take this prime opportunity when you have my undivided attention, to just plain smile, coo, and BABBLE. When you are finished talking, you simply roll back to your side and let me know our "chat" is over.

8/1...Tummy time has become fairly easy for you. You hold your hold at a beautiful 90 degree angle and prop yourself so sweetly up on your forearms, clasping your hands together.

8/5...Hhhhmmm, wait a minute? Who are YOU? You seem to be starting to show some hesitation and uncertainty towards people you have never met or don't see regularly.

Your official well-check is on 8/19 at almost 6.5 months. I can't wait to get the new stats and hear from your doctor just how fabulous you are doing!

All my love little one...

4 Month Well-Check

Stats

Weight: 11 pounds, 9 ounces @ 5th percentile

Length: 23 3/4 inches @ 18th percentile

Head Circumference: 38 centimeters/15 inches @ 3rd percentile

We are so excited and happy to report that you are ON all three charts for your ACTUAL age! In other words, you are growing just beautifully. Right up until the end of May you were gaining 1+ ounce per day, which was amazing, but in the last two weeks your growth rate has started to ease up a bit, which is completely normal. I guess you can't gain an ounce a day forever!

Development and Milestones

Today you are 4 months, 12 days old...so closer to 4.5 months actual and 2 months, 1 week adjusted. Of course you are a little behind in overall development, but that is to be expected since you were 9 weeks early. At the end of August you will have your first appointment at the High Risk Infant Clinic to be assessed for Early Intervention services. At that point in time you will be almost 4.5 months adjusted. The girls were assessed at 3 months adjusted, so in my mind it's a tad bit late, but we are hoping that your delays won't be as significant and that you may not even need therapy...fingers crossed my little one. Fingers crossed. 

You are completely socializing and vocalizing with smiles, ahboos, coos, gurgles, and giggles. Right now your favorite "word" is ah-bbbbbooooo and the correct pronunciation of that involves blowing a soft raspberry on the bbbbbooooo part. I say it. You say it. Too.Stinkin'.Cute. Most of the time you study our mouths so intensely, then move and contort your own tongue and mouth in every way possible only to eek out a teeny tiny little sound. But on occasion, you just about talk Mommy's ears off and I have yet to capture one of those perfect moments on video. I'm trying, but when I'm ready...you just smile and stick out your tongue. (Which by the way, you are a tongue-roller my dear. Just like Mommy and Mia).

Physically, you are doing so many great things. First off, you are trying to purposely bat at your hanging toys. How do we know? Well, when we hang Mr. Bumble Bee above your right arm, you fix your gaze on him, both arms somewhat quiver, and then slowly we see your right arm raise up to bat him. When we move Mr. Bumble Bee to the other side, you follow him intently with your eyes and once again, both arms somewhat hover until the left arm raises up to repeatedly hit the toy. It's so incredible to watch your little brain working overtime on what seem to be such simple tasks.

I'm also fairly certain you would happily eat your entire fist if you could. You've been working on getting fingers, a thumb, or the whole darn right hand in your mouth for the last two weeks. I do have to laugh though because in many of your attempts, you end up hitting yourself in head/face as you bring your hand to your mouth. 

You are starting to discover your legs and like to bounce up and down putting weight on them when we hold you and your feet are on our laps. Your head control is pretty much perfect and your doctor always comments on how great it is. Still, you do get the bobbles and Grandpa's nickname continues to be apropo ("Grandpa's Little Bobblehead).

Tummy time is becoming easier as you can pretty much prop your upper body up on your forearms, hold your head at an almost 90 degree angle and look left, right, and center. You aren't getting as frustrated either, which means you are getting used to torture tummy time. Phew.

Emotionally, you are a very securely attached baby and that's a for sure thing. You know who "Mama" is and look for me, follow me, and even whimper when I walk away or if you hear my voice. Still, you find complete comfort in the arms of most anybody, but especially Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, and your sisters, who you adore, more than life itself.

Overall, you are such the happy, easy-going baby...so much so that when you are taking your morning nap for a few hours and Mommy is attending to the household duties and your sisters, I have actually at times forgotten you were even in the house. Your sisters weren't difficult babies by any means. In fact, they were very much like you, except for the tiny fact there were TWO of them which made it difficult by default no matter how easy each child was on her own. 

Really, your only fussing/whimpering/complaining comes when you are hungry and/or tired. And hey, who is NOT grumpy when they are hungry or tired? Just look at your mommy as a prime example of THAT. However, being held and walked around (in a state of constant motion while nosily peering over a shoulder at the world going by) is probably one of your favorite things to do and something that will typically make you happy no matter what you are fussing about...at least for long enough for someone to do something about it! 

On the sleep front, I truly cannot complain. You have been sleeping well and going 5+ hours between feeds since you were a little over 3 months old or 1 month adjusted. Now you will typically feed between 8:30 and 9:30pm, fall asleep immediately following, and sleep until about 4:00am. It's a really nice stretch of sleep for us all. Sometimes you will actually wake at 11:30pm to feed one more time and then go until about 6:00am before your next feed. And while I like that stretch of sleep a little more than the 10:00pm-4:00am stretch, really, I canNOT complain about your sleep habits.

Your morning nap is really the only consistent nap that has materialized in the last couple weeks. Every day you feed between 6:00-7:30am and then nap until late morning. This is your Boppy nap (and yes, I know that babies aren't supposed to sleep on, in, or between Boppy pillows, but you are not unsupervised at all...in fact, I am folding clothes, paying bills, or surfing the net right next to you). I lay you on your tummy with your arms over the top of the pillow and your little feet tucked under your body in the fetal position and you are happy as a clam. In fact, it's some of your best sleep. Yes, you are a tummy sleeper through and through, but we only allow that for naps (again, in complete supervision). At night you are swaddled as tight as possible and laid on your back. Although, it appears that your swaddling days are numbered since most times I find you like this:

You sleep right next to me, so I hear when you are starting to struggle and try to break loose. When that happens I just sit and watch and when you are finished releasing your inner Houdini, I move the blanket down to a safe position. What I don't like is that you spend hours on end trying to break free and while you never FULLY awake, it seems to me like that is a lot of restless sleep. It just might be time to start swaddling you with arms out and see how you do.

I could go on and on and ON about you and all of your amazingness (is that a word?), but I really do need to be ready for you when you wake up.

Lots of love and hugs and kisses and snuggles,

Mommy

FOUR months!

Dear sweet Allessandra,

It's so hard to believe that you have graced this earth for four whole months already. Yet in the same breath, the whole hospital-NICU experience seems a world away. Funny how the heart forgives and forgets sooo easily...oh wait, that's how we took that leap of faith to have you in the first place!

Now while you are actually 4 months old, you are only 8 weeks old corrected. We're gonna' have to do that whole actual/adjusted/corrected thing for a little while sweetie until you catch up completely. But not to worry, your big sisters caught up across the board developmentally just shy of their 3rd birthday. And today at almost 5 years old? You'd never even know their tiny beginnings.

You are absolutely in love with your play mat and thoroughly enjoy flirting with talking to and smiling at the animals hanging above you. You love all of your toys, but I think you are quite partial to Mr. Bumble Bee.

Your other favorite places to hang out are in the bouncy seat while Mommy pumps and loungin' in the Boppy.

You absolutely adore your sisters and love when they talk to you and give you snuggles. Grandma is your buddy and Grandpa is already giving you a bad time. Daddy tells me that you have late night chats and giggles after your mid-morning feed. And as for me? Well, it's pretty clear that you know who I am. We have LOTs of talks and cuddles throughout the day and honestly, I'm just trying so very hard to remember every little moment because I know how quickly it passes. I have no doubt if I blink too long I just might miss the rest of your first year.

Your other favorite place is Mommy's shoulder. You just love to be there, able to see the world while we walk around the house, the backyard, and the front yard. You are absolutely in awe of all that is around you and I can almost see those little neural connections being made when I look in your eyes.

I am also happy to share that you are nursing! While you are not an exclusively nursed baby, you are exclusively breastfed...only Mommy's milk for you! It just makes my heart beam knowing we are so very blessed to share this nursing relationship for however long it lasts. Already it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced and I am so grateful that we worked so hard to get to this point.

On the flip side of that, I simply make too much milk for you and still have to pump 5 times a day right now, which has left our deep freezer filled to capactiy. Thankfully, it looks like Mommy will be a human milk donor soon enough and sick/premature babies will be able to benefit from all of the extra milk we have stored.

Your 4 month well-check isn't until the 20th and I'm not looking forward to the shots. I think we will spread them out again, giving you 1/2 of the shots this month and the other 1/2 next month. Our usual doctor is out of town, but you will see Dr. Sethi, who also happens to be our lactation consultant and she will be so happy to see how much you have grown, not to mention hear how great you are nursing!

And more than anything, I want you to know how completely loved you are. Daddy and I can't seem to get enough of you and your snuggles, sweet smiles, giggles, and coos. So many people thought we were crazy to try this again, but when I look at you I have no doubt in my mind you were absolutely meant to be the perfect addition to our family.

Love you soooooooooo much lil miss,
Mommy