Just a cute little video of Abby being happy. This morning was kind of a hard morning with Abby refusing to take her nap and then crying for 40 minutes straight before finally falling asleep for just 30 minutes. I was expecting the rest of the day to be rough after all that. But she has been the happiest baby since then! And she went down easily for her afternoon nap.
This past month has been a fun one, with you becoming an increasingly happy baby and learning so much! We had so many people tell us along the way that it would get easier after one month, then 6 weeks, then 3 months. But for us, four months seemed to be the magic point where you seemed to be more happy than fussy. Finally, it feels more like we have our 'easy' baby.
When you turned four months, we started sleep training, since up to that point we were still swaddling you and having to rock you completely to sleep every time you went down for a nap or at night. It only took a couple of difficult nights listening to you cry for a little while, and then you got much better! No more swaddling for you! Naps were harder to get going. I had to half-way swaddle you for about a week, and you sure had a harder time soothing yourself at naps. Overall, your sleep has improved so much. You are taking two pretty regular naps a day now and you have bed-time around 6:30-7:00pm, waking up between 6-7am. It is much easier to put you down to sleep than it used to be (though you still throw us off sometimes and cry a lot). However, you do still wake up a few times during the night and I still feed you 2-3 times/night. I guess we will slowly be working on that. But I am very happy with your sleep schedule. Your dad and I love having that time together in the evenings.
You have also gotten much better with being strapped in the carseat. I don't have to completely dread driving you places. You sure do have your limits though. I also haven't figured out how to keep you happy in the jogging stroller long enough for me to get a decent run in. Without having you fall asleep, that is. (which I am trying to avoid).
You have become quite the vocal little girl. Especially in the last week or so. Some days it seems as though you talk nonstop, which is absolutely adorable. Your talking consists mostly of squeals and the cutest babbling noises. Last Sunday at church you were so happy and squealed loudly all through the sacrament (when everyone is supposed to be quiet!). So cute though. For most of this month, it has been quite the effort to get any laughs out of you. You just aren't a giggly baby, I guess. At least you are a very smiley one! In the past couple of weeks we have been able to get some really good laughs out of you, which has been so fun. Keep them coming little girl!
You are so aware of everything around you. You reach for everything in your grasp and promptly stick it in your mouth. I am not sure if you have started teething, but you have started to chew on things and not just want to suck. You have also finally seemed to notice us eating and are sure fascinated by our food. We are in no rush to start feeding you solids though, so you've got to wait another month to get a taste of anything!
In this last week you discovered your feet and now every time I change your diaper, you reach for those toes. I don't know if they are harder for you to reach with your big cloth diaper bum, but so far you haven't reached for them any other time. You are getting so strong too! You can push yourself really high during tummy time, with your whole chest off the ground. And, just twice, we have caught you scooting yourself, using your arms and legs, across your play mat. Hopefully just a fluke!
Just two days ago you rolled yourself completely over for the first time. You've been really good at going from tummy to back (right and left) for a while, and we have seen you go from back to tummy just a few times. But this was the first continuous roll! But unfortunately you did it so quickly and I wasn't expecting it, that you rolled yourself right off the play mat onto our hardwood floor and face-planted. That didn't make you too happy...
You love to meet new people, especially when they think you are cute. And they always think you are cute. :) There are some days where I can't seem to get a smile out of you no matter how hard I try and then we go to the store and you give the strangers there all sorts of cute smiles.
You are still quite the small, petite baby. You fit into your 0-3 month clothes in addition to the 3-6 month (and you even still can fit into a newborn sleeper! - barely though-), so we really haven't had to put many clothes away yet. You seem to be about 14 lb 4 oz, (from me stepping on our bathroom scale with you), so you are definitely growing!
Being a mom is so much fun! I love being with you and getting all your smiles and kisses. I love you!
Abigail was a ladybug for Halloween this year. Quite the adorable ladybug! I made her costume, and thank goodness it wasn't too difficult because I didn't give myself much time to make it. And I didn't realize how hard it would be to find a black onesie, so I also had to throw together a black shirt. Took two tries, but I got it. And it mostly fit her (I made it while she was sleeping so I was pretty much guessing on size using one of her shirts as a guide).
We had a Halloween party with Abby's playgroup baby friends, so we got a chance to show off our cute baby. :)
Hehe. Abby's friend Tobin makes the perfect caveman
Eric and I didn't dress up. Took enough time to think of a costume just for Abby. Too much to even try to come up with something for us.
Caught a smile! Very briefly...
This was how she looked for most of her pumpkin time.
Katie with Riley, Charlene with Sebastian, me, Eleanor with William, and Noel with Brooke
We didn't actually do anything on Halloween itself. Poor Abby just was too cranky to even try to make it to the ward trunk-or-treat (which started right before her bedtime). And Eric and I didn't feel like carving our pumpkin. We watched a horrible movie instead. The 1960 movie The Little Shop of Horrors. Would not recommend it.
We went with some friends to a pumpkin patch a few days ago. Although it wasn't exactly the kind of pumpkin patch I was hoping for (actually being able to pick your own pumpkins), it was a lot of fun. And we got to take lots of pictures of Abby, which is really why we went. The pumpkins were so expensive though and since we didn't even get the 'experience' of picking our own, we ended up getting one from a bin at Wal-Mart.
Abby's friend Tobin. Believe it or not, Abby is actually a couple weeks older than this kid.
The goat eating Abby's dress. Abby didn't like that too much.
Watch out, Abby's behind the wheel!
Our friends Erik, Stacy, and little Tobin
Eating the pumpkins. Yum!
Abby picking out her free pumpkin to take home. Good choice Abby.
Running has not been the easiest since Abby was born. It was either wake up at 5am (after getting up multiple times during the night) or try to squeeze it in once Eric came home from work in the evenings. I have been wanting a jogging stroller since before Abby was born but it kept getting put off. Basically Eric and I take forever making purchases because we have to research all the brands, etc.
And then I met the nicest lady at the park. I had barely met her and she offered me her jogging stroller - for free. She had overheard me talking to my friend about how Eric and I had been looking for one and trying to decide which brand we were going to get. Turns out she has been wanting to get rid of hers. After going to her house and trying (unsucessfully) to pay her for the stroller, I drove away the new owner of a jogging stroller. Although it wasn't one of the brands we had been looking at, the price was sure hard to beat!
And it works great! I was a bit worried that Abby wouldn't like it to much since she has always hated being strapped into her car seat (she hadn't ever even been in a stroller before this, we would just wear her everywhere). She has been so great though! It actually usually puts her to sleep. Which I wish it didn't, but now I just have to plan my runs so it is close to her normal nap times.
These are from right after our very first run together. I am loving this!
