Emma Grace: 4 Months

Our little Emma is 4 months old today (17.5 weeks)! She goes for her 4-month checkup next Monday, so I don’t have any stats yet. But I can definitely tell that she’s growing!

She has started wearing some 3-6 months clothes, and has started growing out of her smaller 3 month clothes. We still swaddle her for all of her naps and sleeping at night. Sometimes we swaddle her with one arm out because she LOVES sucking on her hands. In the next month or so, I think we’re going to start transitioning her to sleeping in her crib and being unswaddled. I’ve already started putting her down for naps in her crib sometimes. It has gone decently well. She seems to wake up a little bit sooner than when she’s in her Rock N Play but not too bad.

Speaking of naps, Emma still regularly sleeps for only 45 minutes when she’s put down – though she has taken longer naps at daycare, which is good! I think maybe we’re putting her down before she’s really tired and that’s why she doesn’t sleep longer? Every once in a while, though, she surprises us with a 1.5-2 hour nap on her own. I still hold her for at least one nap every day, just so she’ll sleep (and because now that I’m back to work, I want that time with her!). But I know she benefits from taking naps on her own too, so I put her down for naps too.

Night sleep continues to be great. Bedtime is between 8:30 and 9:30 every night and she sleeps until between 5:00 and 6:30 every morning. If she wakes up around 5, she’ll go back to sleep for a few hours. If she wakes up closer to 6:30, she’s up for the day (I mean, for 1.5 hours until she needs to take a nap). Emma can now stay awake for 1.5 – 2 hours between naps and be in a good mood almost the whole time.

She drools almost constantly and in just the past week and a half, she has started talking a LOT – and very loud! Here’s a video of her squealing. How cute is she?!?

She’s also started making motions like she wants to roll over, both when she’s on her belly and on her back. She hasn’t quite figured it out yet but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time. Here’s a video of her squirming and making her attempts at rolling over.

She seems to like her playmat less at this age, and hasn’t been a huge fan of walks lately, but she does enjoy tolerate her carseat better and still LOVES her Bumbo seat. I’m going to start looking around for a used jumperoo, because I think she’d like the extra stimulation.

When Emma is on her back and we hold a toy close to her chest, she can put her hands together and grab the toy. She can also hold on to a toy and bring it up to her mouth. She follows voices and objects with her eyes.

She’s still not a huge fan of tummy time but it’s slowly getting better. She has really good neck strength though, and can keep her head in line with her body when pulled up to sitting.

The big milestone for Month 4 was that Emma took her first camping trip! We went up to Jefferson Lake with our care group for our annual camping trip and stayed 2 nights in a tent. I was really dreading it before we went, having visions of Emma waking up really early and needing to be bounced outside the tent to get back to sleep. But she actually slept really well! She woke up a few times, but we got her back to sleep fairly easily. And we didn’t have to get up early at all – the first morning she slept until 7:30 and the second, until 8:15!

If you’re wondering how you go camping with a 4-month-old, we brought her Rock N Play along to sleep in, and at night, we bundled her up in a long-sleeve sleeper, a fleece sleepsack swaddler, and then put a doubled-up fleece blanket on top of her. I know – GAH loose blanket! But she can’t move around in her Rock N Play so it wasn’t a big deal. We also put a hat on her. She seemed to stay warm!  Happy 4 Months Emma Elf!

P.S. I went back to work on July 30 (3 days a week) and so far everything is going really well! Emma is doing well at daycare and I’ve been able to pump enough milk every day for 3 full meals for Emma. Work is CRAZY busy, so it’s been a little stressful, but overall, I’m happy with my decision to return to work part-time. I would definitely have a hard time leaving Emma 5 days in a row though!

Tags: 4 months, baby, Emma