Perry Frances is 4 months old!

Perry Frances is 4 months old today!!! 

Official stats:
Weight:  15 lbs, 13.5 oz. (82%)
Height:  26.5 in. (99%)
Head:  16.5 in. (98%)

Perry has become SO smiley the last few days!  We are eating it up!!!  For a while, she had this sound that we called her laugh, but tonight she started giggling for real. :)  A few days ago, she started rolling over from back to tummy regularly!  She looks so proud of herself when she does it.  It is opening up a whole new world for her.  She rolled from tummy to back a couple of random times, but not consistently yet. 

She has started using a few new and exciting toys this month, like the step 'n play piano, the jumperoo, and the bumbo.  She is learning how to really "play".  Instead of just staring at things, she grabs at them and holds them.  We have said this from day one, but she is really alert and gets really focused on whatever she is looking at with a wide-eyed stare.  Sometimes I wonder if she ever blinks! She has so much more control of her body this month.  I can hold her on my hip and not worry so much about making sure her head is supported.  That was an exciting thing for me!  She still loves her hands and feet!  She is constantly chewing on her hands.  She loves when we sing and talk to her in a baby voice.

She is still eating every 3-3.5 hours.  We have moved towards doing more bottles and we all seem to do better with that.  She has been going through a bit of a sleep regression this last week, waking up a lot more often at night.  Before this week, she would only wake up once to eat in the middle of the night around 2:30, then go right back to bed.  She also likes to wake up at 5:30 for the day and not go back to sleep.  We want to start her day around 6:30-7, but we don't know what to do to get her to sleep that extra hour!  We stopped swaddling her last week.  It just seemed like time.  And the fact that she now rolls from back to tummy was the nail in the coffin for the swaddle.  She sleeps in Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit for nighttime sleep and naps and seems to love it!

She has been sleeping in her own room for 2 nights now.  She had been in our room in her pack-n-play up to that point.  We just couldn't part with her!  It is so convenient to have her close for middle of the night wakings, and we liked having her close so we could hear her.  However, we were all starting to realize that we would sleep more soundly in our own spaces.  And it is nice to have our room and bathroom back. :)  So far, so good!  She is still waking up multiple times, but it doesn't seem to have made anything worse.  I think she likes it in there!  She has become a great napper!  Days I am at home with her, she takes 3 naps that are typically anywhere from 1-1.5 hours.  Naps at school are all over the place, but I'm trying to let go of that because it doesn't seem to affect her at home.

We have had so much fun with our girl this last month!  She is growing so fast.  We are really looking forward to our first holiday season with her coming up! :)

Pumpkins!

'Tis the season for photo shoots at the pumpkin patch!  It has become a tradition for my sister and her kids to take pictures at the pumpkin patch with our dear friend Ashlee and her kids.  The moms always go, too.  Well, this is my first time to participate in that tradition since we now have a little pumpkin of our own!  Unfortunately, I realized our memory card was not in the camera AFTER we took all of these adorable pictures of Perry by herself in the pumpkin patch. :(  But we still managed to get some other cute pictures.

I just think this picture of John and Perry is the sweetest.  Look at her little face! :)

My sister and I bought matching outfits for the kids!

Blessed by these dear friends!

The next day, we have a mini photo shoot on our front porch since we didn't get pictures of Perry by herself at the pumpkin patch the day before.

We love our little Perry Pumpkin so very much!! :)

Perry is 3 months!

Three months is my favorite age so far. :)  Perry has grown and changed so much this month!  She seems like a baby and not a newborn anymore.  It is bittersweet how quickly the time goes, but we are loving this stage so far!

wearing mommy's day gown

Perry likes looking in the mirror, car rides, and baths.  She really likes getting her diaper changed.  It always calms her down if she's been fussy even if she doesn't have a dirty diaper.  She just likes laying there on the changing table.  She loves when we sing and talk to her.  Some favorite songs are You Are My Sunshine, If You're Happy and You Know It, and Jesus Loves Me.  She has started cooing a lot!  She chews on her right hand non-stop and prefers it to her "bappies" (pacifier) a lot of the time.  She just recently found her feet, and it's so cute!  She will grab her left foot with her left hand all the time, often at the same time she's chewing on her right hand.  She holds her head up so well and is so proud of herself when we practice pulling her up. She hates tummy time, but we've been trying to make her do it more often.

Perry's eating has always been a roller coaster - the girl just doesn't really like to eat that much!  She never cries when she's hungry, only when she is tired.  So I have to watch the clock and feed her when I think it's "time" because she will never let me know when she's hungry.  She was diagnosed with reflux this month.  She would skip meals, fuss, and just act generally uninterested in eating.  We struggled a lot.  We started her on a reflux medicine, and I think it made a big difference.  We also moved from 6 feedings a day to 5 feedings a day (plus a middle of the night feed).  I think dropping a feeding made a big difference for her, too, because she's more hungry.  She decided she will tolerate bottles again!  Woo hoo!

I started back to work this month.  I am working 3 days a week, and we are taking her to the daycare in my office complex.  I was absolutely dreading going back, but the transition has been surprisingly easier than I thought!!  We are all adjusting well.  It has been nice for mommy to have more adult interaction and have a reason to get dressed in the mornings, and Perry has done SO well at school (I prefer that term over "daycare").  Her teachers, Miss Keke and Miss Angela, love her!  She naps in her Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suit in her crib at school, and they say she falls asleep on her own.  She eats 3 bottles with 5 ounces each while at school, and she has been taking her bottles like a champ!  Her class has 5 babies total right now.  They sing and listen to music, play, do tummy time, circle time, and read books.  The best part is, I can go see her whenever I want throughout the day!

A typical day for us starts anywhere between 6 and 7, depending on whether it's a work day or not.  We give Perry her reflux medicine, then feed her.  If it's a work day, we will get ready and leave the house at 7. If it's a non-work day, we will have breakfast and play for a while.  She usually eats around 6:45, 10, 1:15, 4:30, and 7:30.  Naps are still kind of random, but we try to follow the eat, wake, sleep cycle.  I still hold her for most of her naps during the day, but we are starting to work on her napping in her pack-n-play or crib during the day.  Her bedtime routine usually starts between 7-7:30.  She gets a bath, gets jammied up, eats, and goes straight to sleep.  She is still sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room, and she usually only wakes up once to eat in the middle of the night.

Noteworthy moment: She slept through the night for the first time this month!!!  8pm to 6am at 10 weeks and 5 days old!  It only happened once, but still.  :)

Perry Frances, we love you more than you will ever know!