Malia is 4 months

Dearest Malia Belle,

I am so lucky to have such a sweet and beautiful baby girl. You are such a good baby, I can't even believe it. Your smile lights up the room and makes all of us laugh. You love it when I sing to you and this just makes you laugh and smile. Your laugh is the best sound, music to my ears. Since you are super ticklish, I can usually get you to giggle quite a bit. Your ge ge is so excited to say good morning to you and to show you all of his toys. He absolutely adores you and you just laugh and laugh at him. Of course, when he gets a little too in your face, you have started to express your annoyance with a grunt or cry.

You have truly "come alive"...no more newborn baby. You are grabbing everything, including your feet. I love it when you grab your chunky little feet. You have become even more attached to your binky and blankey...if that is even possible. You love putting your blankey over your face when you are sleeping, then you scream because you can't see. You love to grab my hand when I am reaching into the moses basket at night, to put the binky back in your mouth..you don't want to let go. You are really coordinated with your hands and can hold onto the handle of your binky and get it back in your mouth.

I love watching you play on your jungle mat and you love your jungle mat. It is so cute to watch your chubby little legs kick as you reach out and grab the toys. The bee is your favorite but you are also now playing with the toucan and anything else we have dangling.

You are a little chatterbox. There have been a few nights, when you wake up at 3:00 am and just want to chat with mama! I've even had to put you in your swing in the middle of the night once because you couldn't settle yourself down. We love listening to your baby babbles, just not when we are so tired! You have even said, "ma ma ma" as your baby babble...which of course melted my heart, even if you didn't know what you were saying. I love it when you are nursing and you will look up at me, with complete awe, give me a huge smile, and then go back to nursing. It is like you are checking, making sure I'm still there.

You have become a drool monster. I think I'm going to have to bust out the bibs. You are also putting everything into your mouth and gnawing on it...your hands, your burp clothes, toys, your binky, your blankey...

Overall, you are a great sleeper so far and I really can't complain. You are able to put yourself to sleep completely awake, we just have to get you in that sleepy window. You are still unpredictable as far as when you will wake up at night. It is usually around midnight, then 3:00 am, then around 5:30. You do go back to sleep after each feeding which is very nice. You are up for the day between 7:00 and 8:00. Some nights you want to nurse more often (I think those are growth spurt times) and then some nights you stretch it. I always try the binky first, before I wake up to feed you. There are many times that is enough and you'll fall back to sleep for an hour or more.

For naps, there still really isn't a schedule. You are usually awake, anywhere between 1-2 hours before you get sleep again. You take 3 to 4 naps a day. The last nap is if you wake up before 3:00 pm, you'll get a little cat nap in before bed.

During the day you are nursing about every 3 hours. You are champion nurser and will grab my tank top to bring yourself in closer. Right before bedtime you really like to load up and will cluster feed, nursing around 5:00ish and then at 6:00ish and then again at 7:00ish.

Your big accomplishment, besides finding your feet, is rolling over! You've rolled from you stomach to your back. You are almost there with rolling from your back to your stomach. It's pretty funny to watch because you are completely on your side, back arched and I just keep waiting for you to flop over onto your belly, but it hasn't happened. You are still a scooter and I often find you in a completely different spot then the one I put you in.

My favorite thing we have done this past month is gone to mom and baby yoga. You absolutely loved all the one on one attention and couldn't get enough of all the other babies. You are so observant and loved checking out what they were doing. It is really nice to have that little bit of special time with just you.

We all love you so much Malia Belle. You are such a cutie pie and I am looking forward to all your new milestones in this up coming month!!

love,
your mama