Four Months

Cecily turned four months old last week. It's all going so fast!

We celebrated the day after because Levi was at work on the 20th. Our celebration included a trip to the pediatrician for Cecily's 4-month well baby visit (yay! ha!) followed by a visit to Fashion Island where we picked up a new dress for Momma at Anthropologie (I only have two outfits that fit at this point - I'm gonna have to actually try if I want to lose the last 22 pounds of baby weight). Cecily didn't do much celebrating because her shots made her sleepy.

This past month has been SO much fun. Cecily is such a happy, social girl and has changed so much. First of all, she's HUGE. At her last doctor's appointment, she weighed 15 pounds 5 ounces (75th percentile) and was 26 inches tall (95th percentile). Her head left the 50th percentile and is now in the 65th. It's because she's so smart. ;)

It looks like we've hit the 4-month sleep regression phase. Unfortunately. Instead of sleeping nine hours straight at night, Cecily only sleeps 6-8 hours now (usually from 12:00-7:00). Eight is if we're lucky. :( But she goes back to bed for her morning nap right after eating and usually sleeps another three hours. I always go back to sleep too. It's really not too bad. Her daytime naps are still pretty short (30-60 minutes), but she's really good at falling asleep for them. I lay her down in her rocker seat in the living room, turn on her Tangled lullaby, and pop her didi in her mouth (she only takes it during the day for a few minutes for naps). We tried weaning her from her swaddle, but she stayed awake in her crib for an hour just talking, kicking, and playing. She definitely wasn't ready. Cecily genuinely loves her swaddle. She smiles and coos when I lay her down to wrap her up. I'm not going to try weaning her again until she starts showing me that she's over it.

At four months, Cecily:

• wants to talk ALL THE TIME. She's happiest when she's having a chat with Momma.

• still hasn't rolled over, but she's getting close!

• is starting to like toys. Pippa the flamingo and Remy the rabbit are her favorites. She doesn't really give a hoot about rattles or balls. She'd rather cuddle and eat her stuffed animals.

• can grab things! She's a very gentle grabber though... for now. She reaches for Pippa, Remy, and Sybil (her musical seahorse). And she just started reaching for her green rattle ball! (I know I said she didn't like balls, but I'm adding this after posting - she just started reaching for her ball the day I posted this.) The sweetest is when she grabs my hand and face.

• isn't as interested in her activity mat as she used to be. She'd rather socialize.

• is starting to really laugh. I act like a crazy person every day trying to get her to laugh. We can usually get her to give a really good laugh once, and then she just squeals for our performances after that.

• loves singing at church. It's the sweetest thing I've ever seen in my life. She uses a different voice from her "talking" voice. She makes it all soft and pretty. It's the sweetest sound I've ever heard. We have a video that I need to upload.

• gets really distracted while eating. She likes to (frequently) stop to look at me, give me a huge smile, say hello. It's pretty annoying... but soooo adorable.

• is very social. She's really great with people, and she has started noticing people across rooms now. She's learning to flirt. ;)

• wakes up really happy.

• straightens her legs and flexes her feet in a pose that I like to call her "Peter Pan legs."

• is very good at holding her head up.

• reaches out for my face and pets it.

• has violet colored eyes. Her eyes have taken awhile to start changing from the newborn grey/blue. Right now, they're a dark blue, purple-y color. Sometimes they look like grape soda. I'd love it if they kept their violet tint!

• likes to gently grab whatever's in my hand (usually while she's nursing). She's especially drawn to my water glass and likes when I let her put the bottom of it in her mouth.

• coos like a dove. Oh, be still, my heart.

New nicknames:

• peanut

08/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Cecily: 18 weeks. This was taken on Tuesday the 26th, the anniversary of the day we found out we were expecting Cecily. We went to Laguna Beach for lunch to celebrate because that's what we did the day we found out. She was there that day in 2012 too. We just didn't know her yet.



My post on finding out can be found here.

07/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Cecily: 17 weeks. Even when she's exhausted, you can almost always get a smile out of Cecily Jo. She got her first pair of skinny jeans this week, and I can't get over how grown up (yet tiny) she looks in them. This girl has my heart.


Photo practice notes: I'm not a huge fan of this photo. I took it on manual, but I didn't get the settings right. It's too yellow-y and dark. And Cecily was way too tired. I need to sit down for a good 30 minutes and figure out how to work this camera. Up until this point, I've just been sort of trying things at random... I don't even know how to adjust the aperture on my camera! Haha! Even though I'm just fiddling around with the settings, I'm still learning.

06/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Cecily: 16 weeks. She always has her hands in her mouth. Either her thumb with all her fingers stretched out and pointing up or her knuckle with her little fingers clasped together like this.


I'm late on posting this week! I usually take Cecily's portrait with my Nikon on Saturdays, but this past Saturday was nuts - lots of visiting with friends and family then church in the evening followed by a late dinner out with more friends. So I just used this iPhone photo I took of Cecily laying on a couch at one of our favorite coffee shops, Kean, on Monday.

Cecily sang in church tonight.

Our church is rather large. Like thousands of people large. So they offer a Saturday night service, and that's the one we attend. I always wear Cecily in my baby carrier. She usually sleeps with her little face against my chest, and I usually stand in the back, bouncing and rocking to keep her sleeping peacefully and quietly.

Tonight, while we sang after the message, I looked down at Cecily's sweet little face, and she was looking up at me with her big eyes wide open. She was watching me as I worshipped our God. She was listening as I sang. It struck me that she's already learning so much from me. She's already watching. Already listening. And already mimicking.

Tonight, as I sang, she was observing something very private and intimate from a very intimate position. She was as close to me as she can be (now that she's no longer living in my belly). She could observe my face and hear my voice. Even though the music was very loud, she would have been able to tell if I was just mouthing the words instead of singing, something no one else standing nearby would have noticed.

So when I looked down at her and saw her looking up at me, I realized that I was already teaching her how to praise God and what it looks like to love Him. This thought, and her big, beautiful eyes, made me smile. And it made tears spring to my eyes and my voice crack. So I closed my eyes and sang in a cracking voice to God, feeling so much gratitude for my daughter and the opportunity I've been given to teach her. And even though my voice was faltering, I knew it sounded beautiful to my God and to my little baby girl.

And then later in the evening (worship went on for an extra-long time tonight - it was cool), Cecily was sitting on my lap, facing me. She had just finished eating, Levi was out in the hallway, there were only about 40 people left in the room, and we were singing Amazing Grace. I was looking down at Cecily, smiling as I sang. And she joined in. With her loud, deep, little squawks and her high-pitched squeals. She sang with her mouth open in a wide smile and her sweet eyes sparkling. She was seriously very pleased with herself. She was so loud that everyone in the room could hear her even though the room is huge and we were in the very back and there was a full band playing music. I could feel lots of people looking back our way, but I just kept looking down at Cecily as I sang and smiled and laughed. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard.

Levi came back while she was still squawking away, and he laughed with me. He said he could hear her all the way on the other side of the room. After we all finished, several women came over and stood around my chair, saying hello to Cecily and talking about how cute she is. A woman a few rows up gave me a big smile and said something about her singing. Cecily's little offering was such a perfect way to end our praise and such a good example of how I want to praise my God - loudly and joyfully and not caring what I look or sound like.

That's how I want to teach my daughter to love her God.

Cecily is the happiest person I know.

And it's totally infectious. :)

P.S. For better video quality, click settings on the bottom of the video and choose 1080p HD.

Tonight

Tonight we went out to diner with friends. We went to our usual Monday-night pizzeria near our house. We always walk, and Cecily falls asleep on the way and stays asleep through dinner.

We got her dressed up all cute.

And then we headed out.

Our two friends were there when we arrived, but Cecily wasn't quite asleep. There was a 40-minute wait though, so the five us decided to walk down to a coffee shop to kill time and help Cecily fall asleep (she likes to sleep on the go).

She fell asleep about 15 minutes into the walk, but when we got back to the restaurant, guess who was up again??! Our table was ready so we all sat down, and Cecily entertained herself by staring at stuff and chewing on her thumb for awhile.

I wanted to get her out of the stroller before she lost it so I laid out her changing pad on the bench and pulled her out. She will happily lay on a bench while we're out at restaurants so everything was great... until I smelled something.

She no longer poops every day so when she does - IT IS SERIOUS. This restaurant is tiny, and only has one bathroom with no changing table. So I laid out a bunch of paper towels on the bathroom floor and put her changing pad on top of it. I laid her down (on top of even more paper towels... I'm telling you - her dirty diapers are serious) and got to work.

Once I was done I looked at the back of her (brand-new, adorable, oh-so-cute) onesie and saw that there was a lovely blob of poo right in the middle of the back. Off that came! I scrubbed it in the sink with water and hand soap as well as I could. Then I dressed her in her tights, shoes, and headband because I didn't take her diaper bag with me to the restroom. I really should have taken a picture. It was hilarious. Everyone was looking at me funny on my way back to our table. We ended up having a clean onesie in the diaper bag so she didn't have to spend dinner naked. I got pizza sauce on that onesie.

By this point, she had been at the restaurant for about 40 minutes, and she was no longer into laying on the bench. So I let her sit in my lap as I somehow managed to eat all of my dinner (with a fork and knife) in about six minutes flat.

Then she decided that it was her turn to eat. So I nursed her in public, which I don't totally love doing. It's fine, but my nursing cover is cumbersome, and we had never been out to dinner with this couple before (they're church friends), so I didn't want to weird them out. Also, Cecily likes to struggle and scream when I nurse her in public. She doesn't like being covered. Dessert came out while I was still feeding her, and that tiramisu was calling my name so I ate while she ate. I don't usually like to do this because food makes me feel sick while I'm nursing.

After eating, she spit up all over both of us.

It was an eventful evening.

But she was a trooper.

She only cried for a total of maybe two minutes, and we were out for about three and a half hours.

And I was a trooper too. I did all of that and managed to have grown-up conversation with our friends (while bouncing a baby on my knee). I felt like Supermom by the end of the night. A very tired Supermom.

05/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Cecily: 15 weeks. Watching the game with Daddy. Her first Super Bowl. She's a niners fan.

Lately

I went to the grocery store tonight without Cecily. I'm not used to being separated from her, and it makes me a little spacey. I knocked over an entire display of crackers. I also told the cashier that I wasn't used to being apart from my daughter. Then my cheeks got all hot, and I swear I felt my eyes pricking with tears. WHAT is wrong with me??

I was sick for the past week even though I wash my hands like a crazy person and regularly avoid sick people. I think I'm better now? Maybe? Hopefully? I've been downing raw honey and cinnamon, and whatever this bug is, it hasn't completely knocked me down yet. I've just been feeling semi-blah. (Btw, I learned that most cinnamon you can buy at grocery stores isn't "real" cinnamon. "Real" cinnamon is called ceylon cinnamon. It's sweeter and is better for you if you're taking it for medicinal purposes. Who knew??)

(Sick Momma means lots of snuggle time.)

Cecily hasn't caught it yet (KNOCK ON WOOD), but Levi has had a fever since last night. Poor guy. He couldn't go to work today. It's a bummer.

I've been watching Parks and Recreation non-stop for the past few days. I never thought it was funny until now. I started on season one and am all caught up now... I told you it was non-stop. Leslie Knope 2016!!

Before getting into bed tonight, I leaned over Cecily's crib to check on her. She was sleeping very peacefully. I put my hand on her chest to say good night, and she gave the sweetest little smile in her sleep. And then my heart exploded into 10,000 tiny pieces.

We've been eating at the same Neopolitan pizza restaurant every Monday for the past few weeks. They have a special every Monday night (buy any pizza, get a margherita pizza for free). Their pizza is sooooo good, and their tiramisu is amazing too. It's a mile or two from our house, so we put Cecily in her stroller and walk to the restaurant. It's a beautiful walk near the water, and Cecily usually falls asleep on the way. I don't see myself getting sick of this Monday night tradition any time soon.

Cecily has been holding her arm up with her wrist bent backwards when she eats lately. I thinks it's completely endearing and adorable. I love watching her eat. No one enjoys their food as much as a baby enjoys her milk.



On Wednesday, Cecily projectile vomited about two feet in the air. It looked like a fountain and scared the life out of me. the bed was soaked, and I was covered in spit up. She projectile vomits pretty frequently because of her acid reflux, but it had never been like this before. I was terrified so I called Levi, who was just getting to work, and told him we had to take Cecily to the doctor and to come home right away (yep, I'm a total first-time mom, and I don't even feel a little bad about it). We were able to get an appointment at noon. Cecily was totally fine. Her doctor (who I LOVE, by the way) said she probably just gagged on her spitup so it came shooting out. I felt SO much better knowing that everything was okay, and we ended up having a nice little day as a family down in Newport Beach.


(the puddle of spitup is on the white sheets too - it soaked down through two down comforters to the mattress; sorry for the spitup photo, but it's just milk. ;)

For being such a good girl at the doctor and for working so hard on getting strong neck muscles, we rewarded Cecily with a bumbo. She loves it. Seeing her sit in it is the cutest thing ever.



I'm totally over losing all of my hair. I didn't have that much to start with!! It started at two months post-partum. Please stop soon, hair! Pleeeease. I'm also breaking out like crazy. But I've decided to stop freaking out over these things and just take good care of my skin and hair. Even if it doesn't look the way I want it to.

I found a baby picture of myself the other day, and I couldn't believe how much it looked like Cecily! She makes this face all the time! I think I was around seven/eight months here:



We tried out Cecily's regular stroller seat this week (we've been using her carseat and bassinet so far), and she LOVES it. She doesn't fuss when we strap her in it at all!

I've been following along with She Reads Truth in my daily Bible studies. We're going through a plan called Soul Detox right now, and it's incredible. It's really challenging me in the ways I think and speak.

Today, Cecily and I went to the park to meet up with one of my friends and her 7-month old little girl. Aren't they cute?? They're both wearing headbands from my shop.



Cecily can hardly open her eyes outside. Even in the shade. It's pretty funny. I'm the exact same way. I need sunglasses when it's dark and rainy outside. My eyes are so sensitive to light.

I found a video of myself dancing this week, and it made me kinda sad. I miss dancing a lot. I watched it in bed about a million times and cried that night when I should have been sleeping.

Cecily slept a very peaceful nine and a half hours last night, woke up, ate, stayed up for about 45 minutes, and then we all went back to sleep for another three hours. It was glorious. She's such a great sleeper. And a happy girl.





And that's lately! I love my people. And my life. :)