Happy 4 Months!

Happy 4 months Mila!

4 Month Stats

Weight: 15 pounds,  5 ounces (78%) 

Length: 24 inches (33%) 

Eating: just this week you switched over to a 4 hours schedule so, instead of eating every 3 hours, you are eating every 4 hours; this is to ultimately transition you to the three meals a day once you start eating solids.  You now have five bottles a day, all of formula, and each are between 5-6oz each but we think soon you will be eating more because you are scarfing these bottles down.  You are now eating at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm and 10pm.

Bedtime: your bedtime has moved up and you are in bed almost always by 7:15pm now.  Sometimes you start getting fussy around 6pm and want your bottle and bedtime routine immediately!  But the good news is that you are still sleeping until 7am even if you go to bed early and usually sleep 11-13 hours every night (good girl).  Last Thursday night we started putting you in your crib to sleep through the night and overall you have done well. However, you start semi-waking up every morning around 3am (but you did this in our room too) and want your pacifier, which you proceed to spit out what seems like every 2 minutes and mommy or daddy has to put it back in your mouth so at this time we just move you back in to our room. It's a work in progress.

Awake:  Your awake time has gotten longer now that we have switched to this new schedule and you're finding all kinds of new things to do.  No matter what we do we can't stop you from watching TV; football is your favorite.  If you're on the floor, in your duck chair, in our arms, wherever, you will contort your body so that you can see the TV. It's actually kind of hilarious.  You are slowly getting over your activity mat, you told me it's for babies and such a bore.  You're actually kind of over all of your old toys but too small for all your new ones so you spend a lot of time looking in the mirror and practicing rolling over.  One of mommy's friends gave her the idea to start putting you on your tummy for a little bit during each diaper change and it's working wonders...sometimes you stay on there for 5 minutes at a time.  We can even see your neck when you do this, it's really under there!

really, does it get any cuter than this??

already interested in street gangs, just like mommy

Naps: Mommy thinks MAYBE your naps are getting better but she's probably just delusional.  You are now on 2 naps a day, and each is supposed to be 2 hours at a time. That is definitely not happening.  BUT sometimes you are sleeping more than your standard 25min naps so that's a success....right?

Diapers: Last month mommy said you moved from Size 1 Pampers Swaddlers up to Size 2 Swaddlers but they were waaaay too big so you're back in Size 1s but switching to a Size 2 at night has been a life saver.

Clothes: you are still in 3mo clothes but next week you will be rocking some of your 6mo sleepers. You are getting very long and your little teensy toes are all scrunched in your 3mo footed jammies so up a size you go.

Favorites: blowing bubbles is your absolute favorite thing to do.  You also love looking in the mirror and, when you can tolerate the boringness of sitting in your duck chair or on your activity mat, you smack your sassy bug and other dangles like they are a fly buzzing around your head.  You have started talking more and love smiling and flirting with anyone that will give you a glance. You've only been in your Exersaucer one time so far but I think you love it.

 Here's a video of you "talking" away:

Development: you haven't started rolling over or doing a mini push up yet but you are well on your way to sitting on your own. You can sit on your own with a boppy behind you and stay up for a good minute or two.  You can grab and hold onto even the smallest thing as a charm on mommy's bracelet.  You also have a death grip, most often on mommy's hair, which sometimes makes her scream. You're drooling all the time and chewing thing your fingers and mommy and daddy's fingers so teething may be right around the corner.

Here's a video of you sitting on your own!:

look at me! i'm sitting!

gnawing on a carrot

Dear Mila,

Oh what a month it has been; you had all kinds of new experiences and activities this month and it is so fun watching you take it all in.

On December 31st, at a ripe old age of 12.5 weeks, you took your first flight up to Sacramento to see Uncle Bry and Auntie Shawn and meet your future husband, Johnny Fontana.  While it took me about 3 weeks to start preparing for the flight and the trip up, you acted like an old pro were a perfect angel on the plane.  You took a bottle at takeoff and slept the entire time..both ways!

While up in Sacramento you laughed for me for the first time, right after we got out of the shower. It was the cutest noise ever and I probably almost started crying.  I just wanted to hear it more and you definitely haven't disappointed since.  It's funny to see what will make you giggle and so wonderful for daddy and I to hear.

You have started rubbing your eyes and laying your head on our shoulders when you are tired which is great for us in deciphering when you are getting sleepy and need to be put down to nap or to bed. Not to mention it's the cutest thing to see your little fist rub on your eyes.  You also have found out that you need to stop sucking on your bottle to let the air out and then you can suck more. You're such a little genius.  One thing I do NOT like is the mini temper-tantrums you very rarely through; when you get very upset you have started kicking your legs (mostly on the changing table) to let us know you are not happy. It's not a good thing but also kind of cute...but let's pretend I never said that :)

You are looking so much older now, so much that sometimes it makes me want to cry! I'm now that lame person that says, "oh they grow up so fast, make it stop," but I can't help it.  You are changing right before our eyes and all I want to do is slow down time so much.

I'm no longer breastfeeding you and I am very sad about it, much more than I thought I would be. Sometimes I think I will try to start it back up again but I know that's not good for my mental health. I miss the bonding and special time I had with you but now I just try to make up for it in different ways like playing with you or snuggling with you in bed, it's not the same thing but it helps.

Last Thursday night I put you down in your crib to sleep for the night for the first time. And I am not happy about it one bit! I know you need to grow up and leave the nest someday, but it's a little soon, right?! I miss being able to roll over and stare at you in the middle of the night; it sounds a little creepy but I promise you it's not.  Even when you were in our room you would become restless from about 3am-7am and need your pacifier, you still do that so I get up and soothe you but ultimately end up bringing you in our room because you keep spitting out your paci. I am secretly glad that you still wake up because I love having you so close to me, especially since daddy switched to the night shift and I can put you in bed with me for a few hours. Speaking of sleep, sometimes, mostly when you are sleeping in my arms, I look down and you have a little smile in your sleep. It is absolutely the most precious that I have ever witnessed. I hope you keep this up forever.

Now that you have been sitting in your Bumbo chair more I think Roscoe realized that you are no longer a doll but you're a real live person. When I first set you in your chair in front of the mirror he kept walking around you and whining and sniffing you.  Now you are best friends.

You had your 4 month appointment yesterday and things went well!  The doctor said that she's not that concerned you're not rolling over or pushing up yet because you're still a little young for that to be expected and you're sleeping on your back so it may come even later.  She did say, though, that you're not doing near enough tummy time and you need to be doing it three times a day for 20 minutes each time!  We are going to have to work on that.  Also, she said that your head is fairly flat in the back so we need to keep you off your back as much as possible so lots of holding you (doctor's orders! she said now is the time to spoil you to correct this!) and tummy time.

She also said that we can start solids whenever we want to but ease into it and save the thicker foods for closer to 6 months. We went and bought you some organic rice cereal and tried it this morning. It was pretty funny, you weren't sure what to do with it!  Here are some videos:

Unfortunately you got the short end of the stick on shots today; last time you had 3 shots (5 vaccinations) and 1 oral because one shot can contain multiple vaccinations (dTap, Hib, polio).  Well apparently there's a shortage of that power vaccine that contains all three and the doctor's office ran out of it the baby before you! So you were the first baby that had to have all four vaccinations in four separate shots.  It's so hard watching you go through that pain but at least you bounced back rather quickly and were a smiley baby again in no time.

No new nicknames for you this month, other than I can't stop calling you Mimi; daddy still calls you pretty girl.  Love you much baby.

Love,
Mommy

hellerrrr.

wearing a hat my great tia maria got me in Mexico!

hangin with Grandpa Rodriguez

just a couple of goofballs sitting in a chair :)

real ladies cross their legs

these boots are made for walkin'

Here's a video of Mila and her walkin' boots:

future beauty queen

rock chalk.

baby bum!

true dat.

sleeping beauties.

sitting in the Bumbo, supporting your head yourself!

no more laying on your back so we got you this play tray!

Baby Libra

While having dinner with a friend the other night, and gushing about how great of a baby Mila is, I realized that she is a lot like Robert personality wise: mellow, laid back, calm.  And then I realized that they both have the same horoscope sign, Libra, and thought that must have something to do with it so, of course, I had to look it up.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Plump with sweet expressions, it's hard not to notice the beauty of these babies (yay!)
• They don't like to make decisions.  Just don't give them too many choices at once and you'll be fine.
• Venus rules Libra and as such, demands beauty. They need soft music and mellow homes.
• Libra children are intelligent and love to debate.  So expect arguments about anything and everything. (oh great...)
• Libra will happily follow rules, as long as she's decided those rules are not crazy (phew)
• Libra doesn't like hearing gossip or hasty judgments of character, so if you don't like her friends, you'd better have valid reasons to back it up.
• Naps are common as are weeks of burning the midnight oil, followed by weeks of rising at noon.  This pattern is how Libra functions best, so don't chastise them for waiting until the last-minute to do their term papers (I'm going to have a hard time with this one!)
• Be careful not to over-indulge your Libra child.  They don't need discipline as much as they need less coddling.  Make meals pleasant and balanced and watch out for a sweet tooth.
• Expect lots of puppy love and dramatic best friendships.  Girls will love fine clothes and jewels (uh oh daddy!) and both sexes love to be surrounded by creature comforts.

Of course, I know it's all to be taken with a grain of salt, but I find this stuff interesting and I like how the sites offer "parenting advice" based on each sign; I'm definitely not above any type of help I can get!

On another topic, if you do any kind of shopping, you really need the Red Laser app.  You can put any item in it that you are shopping for and it will show you the cheapest price, both online and locally.  That's super helpful if you want to find the cheapest deal or if you want to use the "price match" option at your favorite store; sometimes the online price is cheaper than the store price even if it's the same company.  For example, I was at Babies R Us yesterday buying a gift for a friend, I knew Babies R Us price matched so I put the item in the Red Laser to see what I could find. At the Babies R Us store the product was $47.99; online it was $35.99...the same store had a $12 price difference! So I took my phone to the register, showed it to them and they price matched for me.  What a deal! And it's not just on baby stuff, it's on EVERYTHING. Try it out; I seriously use it every day.

(really, I knew this is what you were waiting for)

Mila's First Vacation

For New Year's Eve this year Robert, Mila and I went up to Granite Bay (near Sacramento) to see our best friends Bryan and Shawna and their brand new baby, Johnny.  In the past we had driven the 6-7 hours but that was NOT going to work with a new baby so we decided to try flying, especially since we are traveling to Kansas City in March and this could be our trial run.

I started thinking about what I would need to pack like two weeks before we left; babies have a lot of stuff.  Let me say that again, BABIES HAVE A LOT OF STUFF!  Thank goodness that Shawna had practically everything I needed because of Johnny so I didn't have to pack much besides clothes and items to get us up and back on the plane.  Shawna was a life saver with her bottles, diapers, formula (that she bought specifically for Mila, what a friend!), numerous toys/cribs/playmats/sleepers, towels, etc. that we honestly didn't need to bring much, yet somehow I still managed to pack a bag full.  I'm pretty much need to limit my trips for these first two years to only people that have babies.

I did a little research before flying and knew that I needed to give Mila a bottle on takeoff and landing to help reduce the pressure in her ears; therefore, I scheduled our flight times around when she would normally eat so she would take the bottle.

I had read on Southwest's website that you needed to take a copy of the baby's birth certificate with you to the airport to prove that she was under two; I didn't think this was necessary as you can look at Mila and clearly see she's under two. However, just to be safe I took a picture of her birth certificate with my iPad just in case. It's a good thing I did because they needed it to print her Boarding Verification Document (like a boarding pass) at the check in counter. Score a point for my excessive worrying and over planning.

On our way home I asked if they could print me an extra copy to keep for her baby book

We had no problem getting through security and I "wore" Mila in my Moby wrap right through security so that way I had my hands free. There was no extra scanning, other than they had to swab my hands and test it in a machine (perhaps there's a problem with mom's having explosives on their palms?!).  After we got through security we went straight to the gate and she stayed in the wrap checking everything out around her.

One of the weird things about having her in the Moby was that you have to take them out on take off and landing, which doesn't really make any sense to me because they are safest right there, nestled on your chest.  It didn't matter much to me, though, because I had to take her out anyways to feed her and then just ended up holding her the rest of the flight.  She took the bottle both times when we were leaving and then fell right asleep, sucking on her pacifier the whole way and only waking once we had landed and I needed to put her back in the wrap.  She didn't make a peep either way, talk about an expert traveler!

Bryan picked us up from the airport while Shawna stayed home with Johnny because we didn't know if all of our luggage would fit.  This way Mila could use Johnny's carrier so we didn't have to sit at the airport and take the time to install our carseat right away.

Johnny and Mila were BEYOND EXCITED to see each other.  I'm pretty sure they have been waiting for this moment for weeks.

Johnny is already trying to put his arm around her

This New Year's Eve was much different than year's past.  It was touch and go there for awhile if we were actually going to make it up until midnight, but we did and toasted a bottle of champagne and then were in bed by 12:30am.  Actually, I was in Shawna and Bryan's bed with Mila while Shawna was in their rocker with Johnny from about 10pm until we went to sleep!

Mila gave me the best New Year's present of them all...she laughed for me!!!!!  And not only that, but she's been doing it much more since then. It's the cutest sound ever (although it kind of sounds like a cough!)

Happy New Year!

love.

Uncle Rob and Johnny

When I was pregnant Robert heard a song by Dashboard Confessional called Belle of the Boulevard and he said that, for some reason, it reminded him of Mila.  Here's a video of the two of them watching the music video.  **heart explosion**

Johnny flexing to impress Mila but she is more interested in her hands apparently

While we were there Shawna's sister, Nellie, brought over an Exersaucer that her son was too big for. Mila's still a little small for it but she was having fun in it for about five minutes. Guess it's almost time to get ours set up at home!

Auntie Shawn and Mila

Uncle Bry and Mila

before the flight going home, all tuckered out 

Sadly we didn't do much while we were up there, it was just too hard with the babies.  We left the house on Wednesday night and went to dinner at an Italian restaurant down the street from their house. We figured Wednesday night around 7pm would be safe as the place probably wouldn't be that busy. It was pretty successful except that Johnny cried for about 10min when we first got there and the table behind us got up and left (losers) and Mila thought it would be a perfect time to take a massive dump since we weren't home in an easy place to clean it up. Other than that everyone was really nice and understanding that the babies fussed a little and we had a great time. Then on Friday we got out and went to lunch and shopping at the Folsom Outlets to get some fresh air and exercise. Saturday we went to Shawna's sister's son's baptism and then over to her parents house before we flew back to Orange County.

Mila did really good overall. Unfortunately after the first night she had some trouble sleeping; I'm not sure why, it could've been a variety of factors such as her sleeping arrangement (up there she slept in a bassinet but she's never slept overnight flat on her back before as her cradle here is at an incline), a late growth spurt (she ate so much while we were up there!), a 4mo sleep regression (I read online this will be happening soon...), or who knows what else.  After the first night she was up at least 3-4 times every night, sometimes up every hour. I am not used to that anymore! We ended up co-sleeping with her (in our bed) for part of the night every night because that's the only way she would sleep (but then I didn't sleep much because I was scared I would roll over on her!).  Other than her sleep problems, Mila was a little doll and loved all the attention she received up there. She "talked" and laugh/coughed more than she ever has and I'm pretty sure she fell in actual love with Johnny.

It made me a little sad to see Johnny because, what a difference six weeks makes! When you're older 6 weeks is nothing but for these babies it makes all the difference.  Johnny still makes faces that Mila no longer makes and he's still looking a little like a newborn, while Mila reminds me more of an actual baby.  Seeing the two of them together makes you stop and appreciate all the little things that are happening because it changes SO fast.  

Megan's Tips for Traveling

• Definitely need recovery day before going back to work - we came back on Saturday, rather than Sunday, and that was the best decision I have ever made
• Take all liquids out of bag when going thru security - normally I don't do this (even though they tell you to) because I "forget" but they never have to rescan my bag. This does not work when you have formula, they find all those little bottles in your bag and make you re-scan a million times.
• Take infant carrier not carseat - I bought a convertible carseat to travel with because I didn't want to risk the airline breaking my travel system carrier.  However, this was not a smart decision.  With the carseat there are no handles so you can't carry it in places (like restaurants) so I would have to hold Mila if we went anywhere.  Going forward we will just check our carrier at the gate (hoping to get to take it on the plane for free) and keep our fingers crossed they don't break it
• Give bottle during takeoff - this definitely worked for us and it put her right to sleep 
• Leggings and onesie for travel for easy diaper changes - I also read online that it's great to dress babies in a onesie and leggings when traveling because then you don't have to worry about getting their pants on and off during a diaper change. This was a great piece of advice and made changing Mila a piece of cake
• Consider no carry on or purse just backpack - I carried on a bag with all of Mila's items and then had my purse that acted as a diaper bag with her bottle, diapers, etc.  I think on our next flight it would be easier to have a backpack (dork city) instead of a purse and even her packed bag because the less things to worry about the better.

And don't you worry, Roscoe was in great hands while we were gone and probably was a little sad when we got back.  Uncle Garret came over and hung out with him for hours every day, took him on walks and gave him 100% of his attention.

just watching a bowl game

I know the boys were chomping at the bit and were going a bit stir crazy from being inside all week but (as lame as this may sound to some of you!) this is probably one of my most favorite vacations yet: all I did was snuggle my baby all day and hang out with two of our best friends and my husband, it really doesn't get any better than that.  We are already looking forward to the next time and I can't even imagine how much bigger our little babies will be then.

Week 13 & Week 14

I am a little behind on my blog posts so here's a little catch up with lots of pictures.  This year for Christmas my parents and sister and brother in law all made the trek out to California to celebrate the holiday out here.  My sister and Bret stayed at our house and watched Mila on Thursday and Friday when Robert and I were at work. I don't know who had more fun, Bret and Erin, Mila, or Roscoe!!!  Erin and Bret were SO good with Mila and it made me so happy seeing them with her.

(yes that's my pumpkin from Halloween. At this point I'm seeing how long it can stay there before it starts molding...)

Erin and Mila did a craft that Erin had previously done with her third graders at school.  That white part is Mila's hand (upside down) and her thumb is Santa Claus' hat. Pretty crafty sissy!

this pictures cracks me up!

still grabbing at things!

love.

Thanks for all of the help while you were out here sissy and Bret, I don't think I've got that much accomplished since before I was pregnant! When are you moving in to help full time?!