May 17, 2018

arden - four months

Well that month definitely flew by.  Arden Rae is already four months old!

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Arden's four month well check was Monday, and it went, well enough.  She got two vaccines which she hated, but was soothed with just some snuggles, and the rotavirus oral vaccine, which I'm hoping she didn't spit up too much of.  But the main take away from this appointment was that the little miss is dropping on the growth charts.  Arden weighed in at 11lbs 7oz (4th percentile) and was 23.8 in long (21st) percentile.  I can't find her print out from our weight check that was done at like 10 days, but at 4 days old she was in the 29th percentile for weight, so in my head that isn't THAT far of a drop, even though I know it kind of is.

There are so many variables that are contributing to whether or not her slow weight gain is actually an issue.  She spits up.  All the time.  Right after a feeding.  An hour after a feeding.  As soon as she wakes up.  Hell, during a feeding.  But she isn't really upset about it so thus far it hasn't been an issue.  A laundry issue, and a we always smell like sour milk issue, but not seemingly a health issue.  She has also developed some eczema.  It was noticeable shortly after I finished my Whole30 (so reintroduced a variety of foods), but became awful when the weather warmed up and especially when we went to Disney World.  So that could be food sensitivity or intolerance, or simply environmental. But there is also the fact that my sister is only 4 foot 11.  Both Chris and I lean towards the short or average end.  It is possible that she'll just be small, or have a huge growth spurt somewhere along the lines.  So far, overall, she is still gaining weight and growing so we'll just keep on keeping on.

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Right now Arden is in 3-6 month or 6 month clothing and size two diapers.  We did put one 6 month sleeper from Carter's on her, that must be marked wrong or something, because it was almost ridiculously huge.  Still haven't really ventured into her wearing shoes.  And since it went from being winter to summer in a matter of minutes there isn't much of a reason to keep her feet covered, except for maybe sun protection.  But we have a pretty large pile of cute shoes so maybe I should throw some on just for kicks.  I have actually been putting her in real clothes most days (I should use the term real very lightly, I've been doing just one piece rompers.  Two piece outfits happen almost never) so it wouldn't be ridiculous to put on a pair of shoes.

We had a good run of Arden sleeping 10-11 hours at night, but in the last two weeks those nights are few and far between.  She still isn't a terrible sleeper by any means, usually only waking once in an 11-12 hour stretch, but I can tell we're going through some sleep changes.  I won't do any formal sleep training until six months, so I'm hoping we can hang on to decent sleep until that point.  We haven't transitioned out of the rock 'n play or the swaddle, so I'm guessing it is going to take some sleep training to make it happen.  Arden has mostly been taking three naps a day, sometimes four if a couple of them are pretty short.  Really she has no schedule and I just let her do her thing.  For the most part it is working well enough for us.  She is usually up for about max two hours before she is ready to sleep again.

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Arden still has yet to roll in either direction, but she does roll to her sides now.  And naturally she is rather adorable when she lays on her side.  She can get her head and sometimes her chest pretty high while doing tummy time, but for the most part she just gives up and rubs her face all over the floor.  Her head and neck are pretty strong, but overall I don't think she is as sturdy as the other girls were at this age.  She is gaining more and more control over her hands and arms and has been reaching out for toys, and starting to swat the ones on her play mats.  She has also been grabbing her toes which just makes babies seem so much older.

The sound track to my day now includes this really awesome high pitched screeching noise.  It is rather lovely.  Ha.  It can be cute, for sure, and was definitely funny the first day or so.  But occasionally I actually want to hear what the other girls are saying or try to have a conversation with someone and Arden is just LOUD! :)  Another habit she has picked up, is rubbing/scratching her head when she is tired or nursing.  We've been putting the little newborn mitts on her to keep her from completely destroying her face, but she has still managed to get a good slice in her scalp here and there.

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Her smile is so sweet, and she is fairly quick to give it out.  She intently watches her sisters move about the house, I'm sure trying to discern what on Earth they are doing most of the time.  They're crazy.  She likes to be carried facing out so she can see what is going on.  She smiles when I sing to her.  Bottles still aren't her thing.  Really she is just a content little baby, who hangs out and goes along for the ride.

Arden's big adventure this past month was to Disney World!  Go big or go home right?  She had her first airplane ride, first big trip, first time at Disney World, all before turning four months old.  I was worried that the trip would be miserable because she doesn't love being worn, but all things considered she did really well.  There was a fair amount of crying when she'd get tired and not really want to be in the carrier, and we had to stop several times to nurse, but she slept well at night and spent a good deal of time just hanging out.  She got to ride the Teacups, Peter Pan's Flight, Dumbo, the Little Mermaid ride, A Nemo ride, Frozen Ever After, Jungle Cruise, go on a safari, probably a couple more I'm forgetting, and watched a few shows.  We never made it back into the park in the evenings because I always felt bad about strapping her in anymore, but ultimately we were very happy with how she (and the other girls!) handled the trip and the straight up exhaustion.  We'll definitely have to go back when Arden can enjoy it too.

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Best baby, I love you so.  Thanks for putting up with your crazy family, and being so easy going.   

May 10, 2018

arden - three months

Wrote the whole post by April 19th, edited the photos, but apparently never put the two together and posted?  Whoops.  Getting it up before she is four months old in two days!

This month didn't fly by as fast as the first two, but still.  Three months old!  Can someone please slow down time?  All of my girls are growing up so fast, I can't stand it.

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Little Miss Arden is still the petite girl of our bunch.  Obviously my scale methods are never all that accurate, but by my estimation she is 10 pounds 9 ounces.  So she gained maybe half a pound over the last month?  Still growing and changing daily, but I'm hoping her growth curve hasn't flattened out too much.  The older girls were between 12.5 and 14 pounds by this point.  Measuring length on my own just isn't worth it.  She is wearing 0-3 month clothing, occasionally something in the 3-6 month range, and a size one diaper.

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My sweet little magical unicorn baby has still been a relatively fabulous sleeper for me.  For a few weeks she mostly slept 10 to 11 hours straight at night.  There were a handful of days that she napped so well that I was waking her just to make sure we fit 4-5 nursing sessions in a day.  The last couple of days haven't been quite as good, but still I have the opportunity to get a decent amount of sleep myself.  Bed time and wake time still vary quite a bit, adjusting for how well she naps throughout the day.  Arden is usually asleep for the night between 8:45-10pm, and up for the day between 7:30-8:30am.  She has only woken once a night a handful of times over the last month, but that time has been completely sporadic.  One night she was up at 12:45am, we've seen 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00am, and once 5:30am.  Each night it took about 45 minutes to feed her and get her back to sleep, but even the night she woke at 12:45am, she still slept until 7:45am.

We sort of attempted to transition to the crib, and at first it was pretty promising.  I started with naps, and the first day she took nearly a three hour nap in the crib.  I was so impressed.  The rest of the day they were pretty short and I think I let her take a nap in the rock n play, but overall, not bad.  That continued for a few days, and I think we had almost a week straight where she napped only in the crib, but was still in the rock n play at night.  Then for a few days she just stopped napping well in the crib, she got over tired and I got frustrated.  Annnd now shes back to being in the rock n play 90% of the time.  I still try to lay her in the crib for at least a nap or two a day, so the space isn't so foreign.  We also moved the rock n play to her room at night without any issue, so we're making progress towards spending the night in her crib?  Maybe?

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Arden usually nurses about five times a day, with a sixth little top off feed, or really, an I'm tired of standing and bouncing and what not before bed so let's take the easy route to get you to sleep.  But she rarely lasts long during that feed, and totally uses me as a human pacifier.  Whatever, I'm over it.  We have also done a little work on her falling asleep on her own.  She has been successful in both the rock n play and the crib, but definitely not consistent.  She does the best in the morning, and ok mid afternoon.  But by late afternoon or the evening she just screams if I set her down.

Girlfriend has been really finding her voice over the past month.  She spends a lot of time cooing in general, and definitely seems to respond when you are talking to her.  I love it so much, and so do her big sisters.  They get a kick out of having a 'conversation' with Arden.  Elsie uses the funniest highest pitch voice ever when she talks to Arden, but it gets her to smile and coo so I guess she likes it.  :)  But by far the best noise I heard all month was a sweet little giggle!  I didn't believe it at first, as I felt it was too early for her to be doing any form of laughing, but it really is a little giggle.  It is tough to get, and if you try too hard she just spits up.  But man, baby giggles, I love them.

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Gross motor skills wise, Arden's head and neck control continues to get better, but that is about it.  No rolling over yet.  She seems like she might be gaining some control of her arms and hands, but it isn't obvious.  She often spends some time just staring at her hands though, watching her little fingers move.  One afternoon while she was flailing around she scratched her face, so I pulled the little mitts of the sleeper over her hands.  I swear she stared at them like "what the heck?!? where did they go?!?" It was rather cute.

We seem to have made it out of flu season unharmed (granted it is still 40 degrees outside.  Get your act together mother nature).  But Arden seems to have picked up a cold that one of the girls brought home from preschool.  Her poor little stuffy nose.  Really that seems to be her only symptom, but it makes it difficult for her to nurse effectively.  And we now know that Arden strongly dislikes the nose frida.  Sorry girl.  We're also dealing with some eczema.  I'm not sure if it has to do with anything I'm eating, just the weather, her being a baby, what.  But it's a bummer.  We're constantly slathering the kid in cream from head to toe.  Arden also has some pretty bad looking spots on her neck, my best guess is from her spitting up and being in the car seat.  It just looks so raw and sad.  I need to figure out a way to protect her little neck from rubbing on the straps too much.

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Love you Miss Arden.