Four Months

Esther is now four months old.  She was a champ at her four month check up earlier this week and weighed in at 14 lb 11 oz (1 lb bigger than Charlotte and 2 lbs bigger than Trey!) and 24 1/2 inches long.  She was just over the 50th percentile for weight and just under the 50th percentile for height.  Thus giving her "the healthy, chubby baby look" said lovingly by her pediatrician.

She spent a lot of time playing at church while I got ready for VBS this summer!

Holding her head up so well!

Esther in the nursery on her first day of VBS.

She is still an extremely happy and go with the flow baby.  She has travelled the state this past month and dragged along to swim lessons, Bible school, and park play dates with her older brother and sister.  She handles it all like a champ and has become very adept at sleeping in her car seat, swing, stroller, crib, or being rocked in a chair.  At church they have learned not to let her get overly tired, because then she is very hard to settle down.  Once she starts to rub her eyes if you give her the paci, wrap the muslin blanket over her (including her head) and rock her tightly she will go right to sleep.  At night she does great putting herself to sleep in the crib around 8 pm.  She usually sleeps till about 3:30 and wakes up to eat, then is back to sleep until 6:30 or 7.  Some nights she sleeps through the night, but usually she will eat about one time a night.  She was sleeping through the night great at 3 months of age, but all of our traveling has thrown her off a bit. 

She is a pro at snoozing in the car.

She is growing great just on breastmilk and her pediatrician said we could start introducing solids sometime before six months.  I am in no hurry to start that, but I will definitely be making her baby food like I did for Charlotte.  She eats every three hours during the day.  She is still on a three hour schedule where she is up for two hours, then sleeps for an hour, wakes up and eats and starts all over again.  This means she has about 4 naps a day with the longest nap usually in the afternoon and her last nap is a quick catnap during dinner time.

Charlotte loves to match her sister.  Esther is not so sure...

She loves toys and everything is going in her mouth right now.  Once she gets a hold of a blanket, her rattle or burp cloth it goes straight into her mouth.  She has started to do this with the other kids' hair or Charlotte's blankie if it gets to close.  The big kids had to come to her check up with me and the pediatrician talked to them about keeping their toys off the floor so Esther didn't choke on anything.

Lounging at her older sibling's swim lessons. 

Esther has rolled over from belly to back one time.  On her back she rolls over 3/4 of the way, then is stopped by her elbow because her hand is ALWAYS in her mouth.  If she could take her hand out of her mouth I think she would finish the roll easily.  She has learned to cross rooms by scooting on her back.  She will dig her heels into the ground and lift up her bottom and scoot around.  She has moved from one end of the room to the other and we have to watch because she will get stuck against furniture or walls and get mad because she can't go the other way.

That bottom arm gets in the way every time! 

Evening snuggles with Daddy