Months three and four: A twofer

Dear Susana,

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I kept procrastinating and re-editing your three-month letter until, lo and behold, here we are at four months! Wow.

It’s hard to describe how much growing and changing you’ve done these past two months. (I know this is beginning to sound like a broken record, but still…Girl, you are changing literally right before our eyes.)

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Last month, you discovered your voice. Now, one of your favorite things is for me to hold you facing me while you keep up a running conversation in baby babble: long drawn out words, giggles and shrieks, periodically punctuated with raised eyebrows or your cute little grin. It’s one of my favorite things, too. You talk!

This month, you really discovered your hands and arms, and, just this week, that you can reach out and grab something that interests you. Fortunately, we figured this out with you while you were on your playmat. You reached out for that little hanging lady bug, yanked, and, pop, she came off the little hanging loop right to your mouth. Just like you’d planned it. You were so thrilled. You were even more thrilled when your dad hung it back up (after letting you play with it for awhile) and then you reached out and—after some intense concentration—grabbed it again for a repeat performance. Hands are fun!

And, big milestone here, you can prop yourself up on your elbows when we put you on your tummy! I know that now this doesn’t seem like much, but, trust me, it is. This has opened up a whole new world for you. It happened just this week. I put you down for tummy time in your crib with some toys. You seemed happy enough for a few minutes, so I went in the other room to get something from the kitchen. I heard you start to fuss—a frequent result of being put on your tummy—and then I heard you stop fussing. When I walked in the door to your room, there you were looking right out at me from your crib, head and torso in the air. I was surprised. You were surprised. You stayed that way for a good five minutes, just looking around in astonishment.

Of course, now you don’t just use your new powers for good. You’ve also discovered that they give you more leverage with the parents. As in, when we try to soothe you back to sleep at 5 a.m. and you don’t want to go. Instead of nestling gently on my chest as I lie down with you, you pop up your little head and look me straight in the eye—and smile. “I’m not sleepy, mommy!” You seem to say. OK, I admit, this is cute. But, a few more weeks of this and you will probably be able to tell that mommy things very few things are cute at 5 a.m.

Which brings us to the inevitable baby discussion: sleep. So, I should admit right now that we actually lucked out when it comes to you and sleep. You like sleep. (You don’t really need as much of it as I might like, but you do like it.) Ever since you’ve been about two and a half months old, you’ve gone down to sleep between 7 and 9 p.m. and slept until you needed to eat, usually around midnight. Then, you just wake up to nurse and head right off back into dreamland after a short burp. Your naps during the day are still another story, but you are taking them more often now.

This has totally spoiled your dad and me. Now, we’re used to you going to bed around 7 or 8 (9 on your fussy nights) and then sleeping until about 1 or 2 a.m., then going back to sleep until 5 or, sometimes even, 6 a.m. A few times, you’ve gotten up at 6 to eat and then still gone back to sleep until a really civilized 7:30 or 8, which is really—as most other parents of infants will tell you—too good to be true.

For the past two nights, though, you’ve awakened at four, needing both food and a diaper change, which totally wakes you all the way up, and that has meant a session out in the living room. To be honest, you’ve probably had enough sleep at this point and could be up for the day. But, you have seemed to only want an hour or two of awake time then. (It’s still dark, this does seem to have some affect on you.) Then, you nurse and go back to sleep.

I am thinking, though, that this may mean it’s about time for you to be introduced to real food (in the form of rice cereal or pureed–and watered down—bananas) so that you get enough to eat. You don’t seem to like getting up at night, but you need to in order to eat enough. Also, you are eating like craaazy during the day, so by this time next month, maybe we will have a baby food blog report.

Most of all, I think the neatest thing is that, over the past two months, we’ve really started to feel like a family—more than just two somewhat frazzled and clueless adults and an infant. You are your own person, you have your own likes and dislikes and moods—and you have your own stuff. Favorite toys and blankets that, like our stuff, find their way all over the apartment. I look around this morning at our new Christmas tree, and your dad’s jazz CDs, my books and laptop, and your playmat and bouncy seat and swing all over the living room, and, thought, I really love this. This is our household, noisy, messy, but meaningful. Our new life.