The Biagini Family: Natalie: 4-5 months old!

So much has happened these past couple months in Natalie's development, and she continues to get cuter along the way! She already seems far beyond the tiny baby stage and is growing rapidly in her mobility, curiosity, and awareness. The highlights of months 4 and 5 include rolling across the room, sitting up with little support, grabbing things and "playing" with toys, babbling away, and long bouts of giggling!

She still may be the happiest baby known to mankind. It takes very little to elicit a smile, accompanied by flailing of her arms and legs with excitement. She's happiest when she is outside, free to move around, or in the same room as Nico. She has a cheery and easygoing personality, she's sleeping well at night, and just likes to hang out with us. She's perfect, and I can barely remember life before her.

Schedule. It's been fairly consistent for a few months now. Go us! She wakes up just once in the night around 4-5 to snack and goes back to sleep until we all start rumbling around at 7. David and her still have their morning routine with walking and exercise, and before he knows it, it's time to get Nico from school. She naps briefly in the mornings, but her good naps are always in the afternoons. That's when she gets a couple hours in, usually around 2. I usually come home about the time that both kids are sleeping and joke with him about how easy he has it around here. :) Her bedtime has stabilized to a better time compared to the last update and is now between 6:30 and 7:30. She was sleeping on her left side for a while, but she now enjoys rolling over on her tummy to snooze.

She enjoys playing freely on the ground or sitting up in her little chair during her waking hours, and we utilize the swing a lot less now.

She loves baths and seems to have the most fun kicking her legs to splash the water all over the mirror. She doesn't play too much with her rubby ducky and other bath toys yet, since she is too fascinated just watching the little orange cup move around as I pour water on her.

Eating. She's still getting solely breast milk. She's upped her ounces to 6 oz at 4 months and 7 oz at 5 months.

Once she hit the 7 oz mark, it's been a little bit more of a challenge to keep the oversupply going. I always like to have a good 4-5 bottles on hand incase I'm gone for a long day or if I want a few drinks! I've had to pump more often throughout the day, since I am generally not able to pump a full 7 oz except on the first one of the day. I even bought this special drink mix with special herbs in it that is known to increase your supply. I likely won't go to any other "extreme" efforts if this all stops working, but I am determined to make it to the 6 month mark. I'm proud of my efforts in this category, and they are worth documenting!

Natalie eats 5-6 times a day (usually 5, unless she wakes up twice in the night and wants an extra snack.) I feed her myself in the middle of the night, in the mornings between 7:30 and 8:30, and at bedtime. She take her bottles like a champ around 11 and sometime between 2-3. Whoever is feeding her the bottle gets to share a special moment, since she likes to wrap her fingers around your fingers that are on the bottle. It's so precious. As far as solids, we are holding out until closer to the 6 month mark, even though the pediatrician said any time between 4 and 6 months. She just seems too little to start eating! Although, she stares us down every time we eat, so I'm betting that she is going to LOVE starting solids soon!

Size. Outfit sizes have been so varied between 6 month and 12 month sizes. She's bumped up to Size 2 diapers for those chunky thighs. Her stats at her 4 month appointment were 14 lb 4 oz (50%) and 24.75 in (60%).

Speaking of appts, I voiced my concern to the pediatrician at 4 months that the cyst appeared to be growing and affecting her eyelid's ability to fully open, but that I only notice it every now and then in pictures and not necessarily in real life. We were referred to a pediatric neurosurgeon and went to that appt on Oct 31. Fortunately, she said exactly what I was hoping for - that it is a dermoid cyst and that surgery should wait until she is at least one year. Phew! Good news all around. (I can delay my worry until next summer...) When she asked if we knew anything about that diagnosis, I laughed on the inside, as you know I read through the first 68 pages that google would provide me on this topic.

New things/milestones. She's met all of her milestones and particularly has excelled in one area- rolling. She's been rolling for a while now and has increased her distance to across a room. The days of putting her down on the floor or bed and going to quickly do something are gone!

She is getting closer to being able to sit up on her own, and at the 5 month mark, she is able to sit with just a little bit of support needed. She's started to be able to catch herself if she loses her balance forward but stands no chance in the other directions.

It's fun to watch her curiosity grow as she tries to reach for toys that are in her sight. She loves to lay on the play mat and grab the hanging toys above and also interacts toys on the tray of her little chair or on the floor around her. She seems to favor the tiny toys that she can wrap her fingers around to hold and cram into her mouth. She's found her feet and will try to get those in her mouth whenever I'm changing her too.

She reminds us so much of Nico as a baby, and as I look back on his 4 and 5 month updates, I can only find a few main differences. One difference so far is in their mobility at this age. She loves to roll, while he barely did it. On the other hand, she doesn't care much about putting weight through her legs to stand in the jumper, when that was his go-to toy. Another main difference is that she has been a better sleeper, since he was still getting up every 3-4 hours throughout the night. This could be due to the fact that he did get his first tooth at 4 months though?! She also likes to be held and cuddle more and he had a lot of squirmy moments! Their personalities and other abilities are otherwise very similar! (Not like I plan on continuing this game much of comparing my two kids, but it's fun to look back on when they are so little!)

My favorite moments. Without a doubt, it's the interaction between her and that big brother of hers. Second place is hearing David call her "chubbers" and seeing him be so cute with her.

Her babbling and giggling crack us up and melt our hearts. I'll never get sick of those noises. One of my favorite videos...

Because I've gotten so behind in the blog and had to combined two months' worth, it was even more difficult to choose my favorites! I take way too many pictures!