4 months old!

So, I'm a day late, but Alli Ru turned 4 months old yesterday! I wanted to wait to do this post until we had gone to her 4 month check up so we could include her new stats of height & weight.. and give an update on how things are going! So, she is now weighing in at 12 lbs 4 oz (20th percentile), and still around the same length of 25 inches (60th percentile). Alli still wears size 1 diapers, still wears 0-3 month clothing, and is SUCH a happy girl. She is constantly smiling, cooing/talking (a LOT).. I mean, never shuts up... haha, and just seems so content, especially around us. When we go to pick her up from a nap, most times she's on her stomach, up on her elbows just checking things out. We will get up close to her and say, good morning or hello Alli girl! And a huge gummy grin comes across her face. It truly beats the wailing and crying we were previously greeted with.

Speaking of naps and sleeping, we've been on a very consistent schedule for several days now. Alli has always been a great napper (must get that from her mommy, I love naps!!), she goes down from about 9am-11am, again from about 1pm-3pm, may take a quick snoozer from 4:30pm-5:30pm... then bath around 7:15 and bed by 8. This weekend was our trial into letting her "cry it out" through her times she wakes up in the middle of the night. Usually, she only does this once or twice, so we figured it wouldn't be too awful to get through, just to let her realize that she isn't hungry and she doesn't need anything, and she can put herself back to sleep. She has always been great about sleeping in her crib (since day 1), and we don't put her down totally passed out, usually just a little sleepy so she has learned to self sooth and put herself to sleep. Friday night was just.plain.awful. She woke up around 3am (her usual... which isn't bad, but it's not "all night"/10 hrs like the books say she could be doing!), but we just let her cry. I think she cried for about 20 minutes, which seemed like 2 hrs, and then finally passed out. Eric and I thought, wow! That wasn't too bad. Then, she woke up at 4. And 4:30. And 5. And 5:30. And 6. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, I'm not sure if she really woke up that many times, but she did wake up a few more times and cried then too. But each time, she did eventually go back to sleep. Saturday night was a million times better. She only woke up once around 4am, cried for about 15 minutes, then back to sleep until about 6:30am, which I woke and fed her then... seeing as it had been almost 12 hrs since she'd eaten. Last night was very similar... so we hope we're onto something! Now we just need to go to bed at 8pm too so we can get a full 10 hrs of sleep like she does!

happy gummy smile, I'm 4 months old!!