Joanna, how are you four months old?

My beautiful baby girl is 4 months old today. While I'm glad she's getting old enough for things to start getting easier, I'm also a little wistful that she's growing up.

Joanna is still smiley and easy-going. She likes to be held a lot but doesn't protest too much when I put her down to go use the washroom or prepare dinner. She loves watching people and smiles at everyone. Oliver is her favorite person to watch. She also is very responsive verbally when people talk to her. I love whispering to her just to hear all of her cute coos in response.

She's still not very good at holding objects. This is quite the change from when Oliver was a baby, as he never really had a time when he didn't hold things. Jo will hold an object if I put it in her hand. She still has her grasping reflex. She understands how her arms work, though, and will bat at dangling items. A couple times, she's managed to grasp the rings in the bouncy chair, but I think those occasions have been mostly accidental.

She also doesn't show much interest in looking at things. I remember how Oliver wanted to explore everything at her age. He wanted to see the vacuum cleaner and coats and kitchen utensils and hairbrushes. Jo likes some things--the mirror and the toys on her exer-saucer--but she is not driven to explore all of the objects in the world around her. At least, not yet.

As far as rolling over goes, she's reached that milestone twice! Twice, she's rolled from back to front. It's not a regular thing yet, though. She found her feet earlier this month and enjoys grabbing them. Jo's also discovered thumb sucking. I read back on Oliver's 4 month update and noticed he did this, too. He outgrew it quickly, and so I'm kind of hoping Jo's the same way. It was nice not having to worry about pacifiers and thumb-sucking habits!

Joanna hasn't tried solids yet, but I made baked sweet potatoes the other night. I decided to make one for her, too. I pureed it with a lot of my milk and froze it in cubes for her to try soon--maybe this weekend. Speaking of milk, she nurses about every 2-3 hours during the day, and usually in much longer stretches at night.

Night. Wow. Jo decided to wake up every hour, all night long this month. I wanted to die. That's not true, but I really did fantasize about me getting injured and hospitalized so that I could finally get some rest. Sleep deprivation does crazy things. Well, we've been working on her sleep, mostly using the Ferber Method. For the past four nights, she's slept in her Pack 'N Play with her arms unswaddled, and she's been sleeping in a good 6 hour stretch. Ahhh, much better.

Here are Joanna's current likes and dislikes:

Likes
*Oliver
*Seeing Daddy when he gets home from work
*Being held by Mommy, especially facing outwards
*People smiling and talking to her
*Looking at the camera
*Baths
*Nursing
*The Bumbo
*The toys on her exer-saucer
*White noise

Dislikes
*Bottles
*Being put in the car seat
*Stopping in the check-out lane at the grocery store