The Last Few Months

Maddy is 4 1/2 months old. I love her to pieces. It has been a struggle still, but I can't believe every day how much more that I love her. She has such big smiles as well as big cries. Her colick continued and the only way I thought to get around it was what everyone told me...just hold her all the time. I'm not built for that, I need my freedom and its becoming clear that she's figured it out that mommy will hold her to help her sleep...

Maddy was sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and then we moved mid-February and she started waking up again. We changed her formula trying to get away with something cheaper thinking that her now 3 months system could handle it. We had her on it for over a month and she became increasingly crabbier. She started screaming all day and one week for 4 days straight. Denny & I broke down and decided the Good Start just wasn't working. She has mommy's digestive system it seems and has a sensitivity to something. So we switched her back. Its been over a week and my little happy girl is back...I want to squeeze her and play with her all day instead of running from her now!

She has developed stranger anxiety and I'm trying to figure out how to cure her of that now. Sometimes when she's really tired she won't even let daddy hold her. I've let people (Auntie Charlie was the first willing soul) hold her to let her scream it out, or just let strangers hold her for a bit to get her used to it. I guess she'll grow out of it.

This weekend we also started letting her cry it out to wean her from the dreaded soother. Maddy wakes up every hour and just needs the soother popped in her mouth to go back to sleep. Its disrupting our sleep and feels like we never get a full night's rest...so we decided its time she figure out a different way to sleep. She did very well, didn't cry for more than 20 minutes at a time and last night she went to bed without the soother or crying and slept all night. I even put her down for a nap this morning without her soother. I'm not "counting my chickens" yet, but we've noticed a huge improvement already. She's gone 3 days without needing the soother for more than 20 minutes tops the whole 3 days.

We moved mid February to a 2 bedroom basement suite. Its more money, but its so nice to have space!! Its huge compared to where we were and Madison has her own bedroom now - it has been wonderful!

Maddy loves her baths and kicks so hard in the water. We only have a shower in this place so we bath her in a big red Christmas storage tub. It works great! We took her swimming once and she loved that too! I taught her at 2 months to stick out her tongue when I stick it out at her...cause the books said to...and now she does it to strangers that aren't even looking at her to try to get them to do it back...its so cute, but I suppose its rude...eh!?

Madison like to talk and growl in her little baby babbling talk and she learned how to screech and loves to scream at the top of her lungs. She was 14 lb at her 4 month appointment.