Juliette: 4 Months

Have we talked about Juliette's belly button?

As someone who is not particularly moved by belly buttons (meaning, obviously, that I'm neither a lover nor a hater of them) you can trust me to have a totally unbiased opinion when I tell you that Juliette's belly button is darling. Darling! Just look--it is a spiral!

Have you ever seen a belly button like that?

Gracie often calls me over after she has changed Juliette's diaper just so we can look at her spiral belly button together.

So, that is the kind of activity you are missing by not being at our house all the time.

Squishy baby is continuing to be our little dolly. She is smiley*, happy, hungry (but not too hungry), and sweet, and so far her babyhood is clipping along at just the right pace for me. (*She is seriously smiley, I promise, but you definitely can't tell from these pictures--she was about to take a nap and did NOT want to smile.) I feel like I have gotten to really enjoy each stage, and am content and happy to see her move on to the next one when it comes. :)

At four(!) months, Juliette:

Sleeps well. She loves sleep! She's usually down for the night from whenever her last feeding is (anywhere from 7:30pm to 8:30pm) until 7 or 7:30am. She still naps a lot--one in the morning, one in the early afternoon, one in the late afternoon, and a catnap in the evening--and I am wondering if I should try to stretch her out a little more. I think she could maybe eat at 4:30pm and maybe again at 6:30 and then go down for the night at 7? I have been having to wake her for her final feeding at 7:30 (which is kind of fun since we get one-on-one time with the big sibs in bed) but maybe I feel like I shouldn't be disturbing her once she's in a hard sleep like that.

Eats about the same as she did last month, on the same fairly consistent schedule. She still takes between 3 and 4oz when she gets a bottle feed (probably about once every other day), and has graduated from slow-flow to fast-flow bottle feeding. Otherwise she nurses usually for about 10 minutes, sometimes less.

Wears 6 month sized clothes, and is finally beginning to fit them. I still cuff her sleeves sometimes just to keep them dry and out of her mouth when she is gumming her little hands.

She's getting even chubbier! I love her chubs. Especially her rolly thighs. :)

Dislikes being hungry (obviously) and still isn't down with sleeping anywhere other than her crib/pack-n-play or the car seat. We went back to the gym this month (hurrah!) so she misses a morning nap a few times a week because she is too curious to want to sleep when we're out and about. She will sleep in her car seat in the car (or, if it is covered up, for a catnap at church) or in her crib, but other than that she's content to be awake as long as someone is holding her.

Loves blowing raspberries. She mostly communicates through gurgles rather than coos, and likes to gargle and blow spit bubbles at us (a talent I've had to convince her older siblings not to revisit--gross haha) while she is smiling her big fat grins. She is also still very fond of sucking on her hands and sometimes on the shoulders of the people who love and hold her. We usually have wet shoulders around here. :)

She's also been batting at and grabbing things when we hold them in front of her (though she doesn't seem totally aware of what she's got once something is gripped in her tiny fist), and Charlie loves to choose toys for her and ask me, "Mama will you put it in her hand?"

Her smiles are frequent and wonderful, and she gave us her first laugh about five days ago, when I was tickling and playing with her in the living room after a diaper change. The next day Gracie squirted her belly with a toy in the bath and she gave big sis a good giggle, followed by a chuckle for Daddy. We haven't gotten any more out of her yet, so we're all goofing off for her even more than usual trying to earn another baby laugh.

And clearly she thinks her hands are YUMMY. Nom nom nom.

The big sibs are still big Juliette fans, and frequently remind me not to forget to put her in the car and suggest that I feed/change/hold her when she is fussing. Charlie seems to be taking even more of an interest in her as she is getting older and more interactive, and will show her ("read" her) story books or squeak a toy at her when she cries. ("I'm going to squeak at her, Mama.")