Four Months of Grace

It’s hard to believe four-plus months have passed since our baby girl’s arrival on April 14. On one hand, I can’t imagine our lives before Grace. On the other, we’ve seen her grow, learn and transform so much since she was born.

For us, four months has been a magical milestone. Grace has become a calm, happy little girl who loves to “talk,” play and cuddle. During her four month check up, the doctor asked if she always has such a good disposition. She was smiling and cooing at him — until he gave her her shots, that is.

Not that she didn’t do those things when she was younger, but she was a bit more of a temperamental newborn.

For example, when she was first born, Grace cried every time we changed her diaper or gave her a bath. Now there are no tears during changes and Grace loves bath time, especially since we bought her an Otteroo.

If you’ve never heard of an Otteroo and have a four month old baby, check out the videos on instagram. The blow up tube goes around a baby’s neck, keeping them afloat so they can move freely in the water. Grace can’t get enough of it.

We use it about once a week — not during every bath. Also, if you’re considering getting it, just note, we don’t take our eyes off of Grace for a second while she’s using it.

IT REALLY DOES GET EASIER

I won’t lie. When Grace was first born, caring for her was hard — a lot harder than I thought it would be. It felt like life was moving non stop. My entire concept of time changed. Suddenly, I had to think about when I was going to go to the bathroom or eat food.

I felt like I was constantly holding, wearing or feeding Grace. I never seemed to know if she was crying because she was hungry or crying because she was sleepy (or both).

Now, at four months old, I feel as if I’ve finally started to figure out our almost 13 pound nugget of cuteness.

Grace has also become so much more independent. She’ll play with toys while I unload the dishwasher or do some laundry, which has been liberating as a mom.

VENTURING OUT WITH BABY

It feels like we are finally getting into a routine. Because of that, I’m finally comfortable with venturing out and about on my own with Grace (well, venturing out a teeny tiny bit).

It was a BIG deal for me a couple of weeks ago when I took my little lady to not one but TWO stores in one day.

I was able to make a return at Home Goods. While we were there, Grace started to fuss, so knowing she was probably getting tired, I kept the trip short and sweet. When she fell asleep in the car afterwards, I figured, why not take advantage and stop at the grocery store?

Admittedly, other than venturing to the grocery store a couple of times with Grace and my husband, or running out quickly while my mom or in-laws watch her, I haven’t gone grocery shopping since she was born. We have been surviving on Pea Pod, Purple Carrot, pre-made meals from our favorite local stores, take out, and groceries and food brought to us by our parents. Sad, I know. But I promise, that is changing!

FINALLY GETTING THE SWING OF BREASTFEEDING

A huge part of what’s made venturing out much easier is that we have FINALLY gotten the swing of breastfeeding and it’s been a long time coming.

I have been exclusively nursing Grace since she was born, but right off the bat things were difficult.

I’m working on a post about my breastfeeding journey, so stay tuned for that, but in a nutshell, Grace had trouble latching at birth so I was given a nipple shield.

When she finally was able to latch without a nipple shield, I tried weaning off of it, but was in so much pain. But I’m happy to say, we have totally weaned off the shield and are now breastfeeding comfortably.

I was told by so many people that breastfeeding gets easier but didn’t believe it. Now I do.

At four months old, feeding Grace has also sped up tremendously. It used to take her sometimes an hour to finish. Now she’s sometimes done in as little as 10 minutes. Despite reading that babies become faster eaters as they get older, I also honestly didn’t think it would happen for us. Thankfully, it did.

The one downside to Grace eating so quickly is now I can’t binge watch so many TV shows. lol. But the upside is I’m not afraid to leave the house for fear that I’ll be feeding her for an hour in the backseat of my car or in public.

Speaking of breastfeeding in public, I’m getting braver, but still find my breastfeeding cover to be cumbersome. The other day I breastfed outside at a brewery and am happy to say there were at least two other nursing mamas sitting nearby.

Now that she’s four months old, one other big change I’ve noticed with Grace in terms of breastfeeding is that she gets easily distracted while eating. If she hears me talking, she’ll stop and stare up at me. If she hears the TV, she’ll crane her neck to see what’s on (we don’t let her watch TV). So I’ve learned that mums the word when she’s nursing.

SLEEPING LIKE A BABY

Grace has been mostly sleeping through the night since she was about six weeks old and I give credit to the Snoo smart bassinet. I wasn’t sleeping much at all before it arrived. I’d get the rare five hour stretch but other than that, it was typically two or three hours, max. I was exhausted.

The Snoo is expensive, but absolutely worth it. Also, it goes on sale just about every other month and there is an option to rent versus buy (although many people who buy resell and recoup much of the cost).

If Grace went through her three to four month sleep regression, we barely noticed (probably also thanks to the Snoo). There were a few nights she woke up in the middle of the night wanting to nurse, but other than that, she has pretty much been staying down anywhere between seven and 10 hours.

I can’t say I’m sleeping all too well though. Every time she stirs or makes a peep I wake up. So, pretty often between the hours of 1:30am to 2am and when she gets up in the morning around 5:30am to 6:30am). I also still obsessively check to make sure she’s breathing after I put her to bed and throughout the night.

We can only use the Snoo up until Grace is six months old. It will be a sad day when we have to transition her out of it. I’m still not sure what she’s going to sleep in next … Maybe move the crib into our bedroom (?) because this mama isn’t ready for her baby to be far away.

RECOGNIZING SLEEPY CUES

At four months old, daytime naps seem to have gotten much easier. I think that’s because I’ve gotten much better at recognizing Grace’s sleepy cues. Blank stare, rubbing her eyes, wanting to suck on her pacifier.

Before, I was probably letting her get too tired before putting her down. That resulted in Grace being a blubbering mess, which resulted in me nursing her to sleep.

Thus, I wouldn’t put her down unless she was already sleeping (a.k.a. what all the sleep experts say not to do).

For the most part, I’ve broken that cycle. I now only nurse Grace before she sleeps if she’s wailing and all else fails. And if I do nurse her for comfort and she nods off, I try to wake her just the slightest before putting her down.

Otherwise, I’ve been putting Grace in her bassinet drowsy but awake so she can learn to put herself to sleep.

That’s a big win for this mom!

PARENTS’ FIRST NIGHT OUT

My husband Tom and I just had our first night out sans baby. We went to Jonathan Edwards Winery in North Stonington to see Donavon Frankenreiter. While we know Grace was in good hands with my in-laws, it was still hard leaving her for so long … And by “so” long, just a few hours.

Grace has basically become an extension of my own body. I’m usually either nursing her, carrying her or watching her. Without her close, it feels as if I’m missing an arm or a leg.

I now know what my husband experiences every day he goes to work. When we got to the vineyard, we saw a couple of other parents had brought their babies along. Naturally, we said to each other, “We should have brought Grace!” But it was honestly good to get a little “us” time, even though the main topic of conversation was our little lady.

We probably didn’t stay as long as we would have pre-baby, and called home numerous times to make sure Grace was okay, but we had a good time nonetheless.

STILL SETTING UP THE NURSERY

We moved into the house we remodeled a little over two months ago, but are still finishing the nursery. Slowly but surely it’s coming together. At some point – maybe before Grace turns a year old – her room will be ready. But since she won’t be sleeping in there for the foreseeable future, why rush things? 😉