Sixteen Weeks!

Weight: Andy took Lizzie to his work over the weekend while I was gone and found out that she's weighing around 11.25 pounds right now, but we'll get the official stats this week at her four-month appointment.

Sleep: Sleep continues to be very good overall.  This last week she's slept until 5:00 a.m. a couple of nights (mornings?). The strange thing is, some nights she reverts back to waking up twice at 2:00 and 5:00, rather than just the one time. I haven't found a connection between anything in particular and her nights when she wakes twice, but I'm not too worried about it since she just eats and goes right back to sleep when she does wake.

Medical Issues: None! She does seem to have a little bit of a stuffy nose this week, but nothing major.

Clothes: Filling out our 0 to 3 month clothes nicely these days :)

Socialite!: Lizzie's just been hanging out with her daycare buddies these days, though my third graders have already been begging to meet her!

Diet: I've been so blessed to still be nursing Lizzie exclusively, even after returning to work. There is only one feeding each week that I think I'll need to have her take expressed milk in a bottle. Her being across the street has worked out so wonderfully for this purpose so far.  She eats every two to three hours right now (except for at night).

Baby Gear Love: We're LOVING our toys this week. She's got her O-Ball, which she loves, but even more than that, she loves another neat red and white ball with little beads that slide around on it. She's also a huge fan of her Taggies blanket with a puppy on it. She grabs him by the ears and brings him to her mouth and gnaws on him while she jabbers at us :) Still a popular item is the activity bar that we put on her car seat that my parents gave her -- she loves chit-chatting with the tiger on it on the way to daycare in the morning :)

Crying: She's a sweet girl! Only cries when she's hungry or tired basically :)

Mommy News: I'll admit it: daycare and school are getting better. I'm lucky that I have a job I love, because while I'm there, I am enjoying myself and my mind is completely occupied. But it's the nights that are tough -- I just feel like I don't have enough hours in the day to enjoy her. I want to spend as much time as possible with Lizzie girl, so we play and play and play all night and push bedtime back as far as we can until Lizzie is either too tired to play or too fussy to have fun anymore. And once she goes to bed, it's time to make lunches, pack diaper bags, pick out clothes (for mama and baby girl), and then it's time for bed. But I do think we're falling into more of a routine, which helps.

I also went to the Taylor Swift concert in Fargo on Friday night. The original plan was to have Lizzie and Andy come with, but after some discussion, we decided it would be best if Lizzie stayed home and didn't make the four-hour round-trip because it wouldn't be much fun for her. So I might have shed a few tears about hardly getting to see her at all on Friday, aside from seeing her when I fed her during the workday and for a half-hour after school, but it was the right thing for her. Baby girl didn't need to spend time in the car seat just because I wanted to hang out with her. Plus, she got some quality time with Daddy... and it was probably good for me to experience that separation for once (but not again!).

Milestones: Lizzie girl is changing so much these days! She talks and jabbers non-stop... no sound is sweeter! And she's been laughing! Another sound that's so sweet! She's given a few really good belly laughs -- usually once or twice a day for the past few days, which I'm sure will only increase from here. So sweet! Her head control continues to improve, and she's been able to keep her head in-line with her body a few times when I take her hands and slowly bring her up to a seated position from lying on the floor, which she hadn't done before. She's also been grabbing things with both hand and taking them to her mouth more easily lately. I think we're on the brink of rolling over from back to front, as well. She gets her legs up super high and rolls onto her side, which I assume is what starts the roll-over process. Another thing we've noticed is that she is turning very easily during tummy time. If I lay her down on her tummy facing me, it won't be long before she's turned herself a quarter-turn away from me :)