A few people have asked me recently, “What is Lillian doing these days?” And I have admitted that I’m doing a terrible job of documenting her growth and her milestones and her sweet, wide-eyed personality. I’m keeping up with her baby book, but not so much with the Interwebs.
So here are a few specifics:
-She’s a big girl. I took her to the doc earlier this week for her four-month well visit. She weighs 16 pounds, 13.5 ounces, and measures 26.5 inches long (both are in the 90-something percentile). It looks like she’s got her mommy’s thighs and her daddy’s height.
-She’s a really great night sleeper. She’ll usually wake up once, eat, and go right back to sleep. If I remain conscious for the feeding, I’ll usually be back in bed within 15 or 20 minutes. I often fall asleep in the Poang, however, which means I’ll leave her room a good hour or two after the initial wake-up call. It’s so sad to be that tired.
-She’s still an unpredictable, not-so-great day sleeper. A couple weeks ago, she took a two-hour afternoon nap for four days in a row, and I was elated. By now she’s back to 30- or 45-minute snoozes, and there’s just no chance of getting her back to sleep. This is infuriating.
-She loves to roll. Lay her down on the floor on her back, and she’s on her tummy before you can stand up. And she’ll remain there, swimming contentedly on her belly for a while. Sometimes she’ll return to her back; sometimes she’ll scoot along the floor a few paces. But whatever happens, there will definitely be squeals and jabbers and grunts and spit-up involved.
-Her hand coordination is really impressive. She’s quite skilled now with reaching for and grabbing her toys, and of course, immediately pulling them into her mouth. She gets frantic if there’s nothing in her mouth. She can pull a bottle toward her and even sometimes hold it up by herself while she drinks. She loves to touch faces and grab hair and reach for Charlie. Oh! And she can grab her toes!
-For a while I was convinced that Lillian would be our serious child. She didn’t laugh easily, and her expression was often intense and uncertain. But these days, she can catch a serious case of the giggles, and oh how I love that sound! She’s flirty and amused. She grins with her whole face, and she has a wide-open-mouth smile that melts us all.
-She spends a lot of her time in either the bouncy seat or the exersaucer. She seems to favor the saucer, where, as long as the top is littered with loose toys, she can entertain herself for long stretches of time.
-Quick kidney update: After a couple ultrasounds and a few specialized tests, the urologist in Chicago recommended that we have the upper portion of Lillian’s left kidney removed (which is causing major problems in our application for health insurance, but that’s another story). However, I talked to her new pediatrician about this, and he winced at the mention of surgery. He highly recommended that we get a second opinion. So we’ll see.
And that’s Lillian in a nutshell, at 4 months & 3 weeks. She’s pretty fantastic.
